Environmental social work

Abstract

Purpose -Environmental social work (ESW) is an approach and a perspective in social work focusing on ecological and environmental sustainability and justice within the context of sustainable development (SD). This study aims to analyse students' reflective tasks on challenges for ESW education and practice from a critical theory perspective. The purpose of this study is to discuss the implications of the findings for accelerating the implementation of SD in social work curricula.Design/methodology/approach -The research participants comprised 49 master level students from four different cohorts studying the course "Social Work and Sustainable Development" at the University of Gävle, Sweden. The sample comprised only those students who had completed at least one of the three nonmandatory reflective tasks that were set within the course. The reflective tasks of the research participants were gathered as data for this study. A qualitative methodological approach with the help of ATLAS-ti V8.4 was used to analyse the gathered data.Findings -This study discusses three primary results, which are categorised as "Being Boxed", "Safe and Saviour Sweden" and "Politics and Power". Based on the results, this study argues for a transformative and emancipatory pedagogy (TEP) in the teaching and learning of ESW to accelerate the implementation of holistic SD within the social work curriculum.Research limitations/implications -This study is mainly based on the analysis of "problematic" discourses of some of the students. The majority of the students and their respective discourses are not considered. Moreover, it would have been interesting, and probably enlightening to explore the background of the students (such as gender, ethnicity and religion) and any concomitant beliefs or prejudices (whether consciously held or otherwise) that would need to be addressed for an effective social work outcome. For ethical reasons, the background of the students was not recorded and analysed in this study.Practical implications -Based on the results, this study argues for TEP in catalysing environmentalism within the social work curricula.Social implications -Social workers have a political mandate from their professional ethics to work for the protection of the planet and for the well-being of allincluding non-humans. This study therefore argues for ESW education within social work curricula in promoting SD through social work practice.Originality/value -Within the context of SD, there is a global call for social work education to shift from an anthropocentric to an eco-centric paradigm. However, ESW education is still in its infancy stage and very © Komalsingh Rambaree. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen...

The Differences across Future Teachers Regarding Attitudes on Social Responsibility for Sustainable Development

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