ASSIGNMENT #1:
Decolonizing Social Work Practice Knowledge – Contribution
This year we are examining the United States as a settler colonial society. The ideologies, beliefs, values and norms established in this society many centuries ago continue to inform the ways in which our institutions function, including the social work profession. Our aim this year is to think critically and practically about how to dismantle some of these practices to ensure that we are responding to all individuals, groups and communities in a holistic and liberatory manner.
In our current environment of a pandemic, social unrest, immigration issues, violence against the LGBTQ community, anti-Black racism and anti-Semitism, oppression of elder populations and of those with other abilities (to name a few), the legacy of the original settler policies continues to live on today. New theories, frameworks, concepts and practices are needed to help shift the profession of social work from a colonial project to one of liberation. Who better to provide this new way of thinking and working than you—who will be entering this new world of social work?
This assignment is a year-long assignment. Part 1 was completed in the first semester. Part 2 is due in the spring. In conjunction with other students or as an individual, you were asked to (co)create knowledge to decolonize social work practice. We intentionally used “contribution” in lieu of “article” as a way of modeling what decolonizing strategies might look like. Your contribution is something that offers new knowledge using indigenous/folkways of knowing to shift settler colonial thinking in social work practice.
Remember, you are asked to consider the ways in which the history of settler colonialist society, its ideologies, beliefs, values, language and ways of knowing, shape the manner in which social work is currently practiced.
- How do they contribute to the experiences of service users as they interface within the system you have chosen to write about?
- How might they have shaped the meaning that service users place on their own circumstances, identities, etc.?
- How do they inform how you, as the practitioner, utilize your power and positionality in the processes of assessment, engagement and intervention?
- What are some of the strategies for dismantling these types of thoughts, policies and practices?
- What are some alternative, decolonized thoughts, policies and practices and the possibilities that might emerge from these shifts?
This semester, you are responsible for submitting:
- A fuller description or outline of what the contribution will be by Week Six of the semester. Be specific and make the case for how what you offer addresses an aspect of settler colonial society in social work practice. For example, your contribution is a way to involve Black, Queer disabled people in creating approaches to heal their community during this time of COVID.
- Share at least five of the sources that will shape your contribution. Sources might include articles, artwork, poetry, photographs, music, and ways of knowing from the area of focus for your contribution.
- After your mid-semester update is reviewed by you and your professor, agreement will be reached on what the final submission will be. This agreement identifies what the final submission will be.
Final Submission: The completed contribution is due Week 12 of the semester.
It is hoped that your contribution will be published in Voices: The Silberman Student Journal of Social Work
Suggested rubric:
Final Assignment:
We’ve all experienced the power of place: those moments when we’re immersed deeply in experiencing the world around us and what’s happening there is real and meaningful. Learning in these moments is organic and visceral.
You have spent two semesters in Practice Lab. For the final you are to select exemplars of your work over the semester that you think presents your trajectory over the semester. Exemplars might be papers, examples of how you have used what you have learned in Lab in your own life, in the way you relate to people in your life, examples of how the content has impacted how your social work practice is taking shape.
What were some of your ‘aha’ moments? What has been transformed for you? What possibilities do you see that you did not see before Lab and this amazing opportunity you have had to be in relationship with you Lab peers? What will you carry forth?
You might ask some of your peers, your professor to grant you an opportunity to check-in with you to explore how they experienced you over the semesters. This way you gather other perspectives as you work to create this composite of your time in Lab.
You choose how you want to present the final product. Please send an email to your professor by Week 10 of the semester indicating what your final will be.
Please use references as appropriate.
Due Date: Week 14 of the Semester
GRADING
The final grade for the course is calculated as follows:
30% Decolonizing Contribution
40% Final Assignment
30% In-class participation
Honors (97.5>). Indicates consistently outstanding achievement equivalent to an A+ or better. It reflects work that meets all of the requirements for a grade of Credit but that, in addition demonstrates exceptional capacity for critical thinking which includes the contextualization, synthesis of main issues, integration of ideas from several readings, recognition of debated points, and creative application of material to practice and contemporary policy issues.
Credit (82.5+). Indicates an acceptable graduate-level work equivalent to a B or better. It reflects a combination of satisfactory completion of all course work, the qualityof written and oral communication, adequate class participation, and regular and on-time class attendance. This includes ability to accurately report on the content of the readings, to identify main ideas, to draw relevant conclusions, to self- reflect on the material, to apply material to practice and contemporary policy issues and to reference assigned readings, Grades of Credit are given for work within the A to B Range.
No Credit (<82.5). A grade of no-credit indicates a combination of poor quality of work on assignments; insufficient mastery of reading and lecture materials, weak descriptive and conceptual skills, minimal class participation; and excessive absences or lateness. No Credit grades are given to work that is determined to be below a grade of B.
Incomplete. Grades of Incomplete may be given at the discretion of the instructor. Instructor and student must agree to a date for completion of the work. Failure to meet the agreed upon date will result in an automatic No Credit. Students who do not achieve Credit level work at the end of a course may not receive an incomplete grade.
Requests for a letter grade must be submitted via email to your professor by the end of the second week of class.
REQUIRED TEXTS
Wilkerson, Isabel (2020). Caste: The origins of our discontents. New York: Random House
RECOMMENDED TEXTS
Burghardt, S., DeSuze, K., Bryant, L.L., & Vingamuri, M. (2018). A guide for sustaining conversations on racism. San Diego, CA: Cognella Academic Publishers.
Martinez, Dawn and Ann Fleck-Henderson (2014). Social justice in clinical practice: A liberation health framework for social work. New York: Routledge Press.
Suggested Books:
Structural and Historical Conditions that bring issues of oppression into Social Work Practice
- The Columbia source book of Muslims in the United States, Edward E. Curtis (2009); Religious Oppression
- Trans bodies, trans selves, Laura Erickson-Schroth (2014); Trans* Oppression
- The making of Asian Americans, Erika Lee (2015); Racism
- A disability history of the United States by Kim E. Nielsen (2012); and, Ableism
