Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Abstract

For the last several years, the Boston College School of Social Work (BCSSW) has worked to deconstruct the hidden nature of whiteness rooted in theories, methods, and practices of education. To that end, the BCSSW created two strategies designed to foster systemic change: the Latinx Leadership Initiative and the Equity, Justice, and Inclusion Initiative. This study uses narrative analysis to examine these initiatives as catalysts of sustainable change. We dive deep into: (1) strategies designed to disrupt a White supremacy approach to the explicit and implicit curriculums; (2) activities to engage stakeholders on dismantling institutional racism. Our ultimate goal is to draw lessons that may be useful to the profession. To that end, we discuss knowledge gained concerning academic innovation, shared governance, and alternatives to an Eurocentric epistemological approach to social work. We also include implications for the profession concerning the incorporation and validation of non-White ways to understand human development, health, disease, diagnostics, and interventions; and present some of the strategies we developed to de-center whiteness and support BIPOC students in a White-majority institution of higher education.

Back to the (not so) Basics of Anti-Racist Education and Practice

“…Cultural competence focuses more on knowledge acquisition while cultural humility focuses on a need for accountability on an individual and structural level. Cultural humility can help social work educators ask difficult questions about organizational structure, curriculum content, and pedagogical practices (Fisher-Borne et al, 2015) that can teach white students how to build relationships and trust while also holding them accountable in institutions that have centered the experiences of white bodies, histories, cultures, and language (Calvo & Bradley, 2021) throughout their entire lives. Schools of social work often struggle to build infrastructure and genuine partnerships with communities, particularly communities of color, due to historical neglect and systemic mistrust.…”