Progressive until graduation? Helping BSW students hold onto anti-oppressive and critical social work practices

Abstract

Former BSW student: I’m really worried about this job interview. I know they are going to think I am too critical, too passionate, too much. How can I dumb myself down Jennifer? How do I get in the door so I can do the work I want to do? Maybe staying quiet will get me the job I need…maybe I should shut up about AOP?
 This was part of a conversation I had last week, with a passionate, anti-oppressive and critical former undergraduate student who had been told, on more than one occasion, that she was just “too much” for the ‘mainstream’ social work organizations to which she had been applying for employment. It was not the first time one of my graduates had shared such worries, for many had reported negative workplace reactions to their critical and anti-oppressive stance, nor would it be the last. As the literature reminds us, social workers are now labouring in a post-welfare context where critiques of power, racism, ageism, sexism, heterosexism and ableism will not make ‘best practice’ lists unless they also save money and increase productivity (Baines, 2007; Hugman, 2001). As Donna Baines writes,

Applying anti-oppressive approach to social work practice in Africa: reflections of Nigerian BSW students

“…The findings of the interviews in relation to how the students conceptualized anti-oppressive practice are consistent with the existing literature (Bronstein and Gibson, 1998; Chand et al , 2002; Garcia and Van Soest, 2006; Poole, 2010; Heenan, 2005; Hancock et al , 2012; Dustin and Montgomery, 2010; Collins and Wilkie, 2010; Coleman et al , 1999). Baines (2011) cogently describes the anti-oppressive practice as a social justice-oriented practice whose wholehearted commitment to social justice and human dignity emanates from its compassionate embrace of humanity in all its adversity and diversity so that those under structural stranglehold could experience both immediate and long-term freedom.…”

Field Education in Social Work

“…In this way, they minimize the critical activist content from their classroom learning. Similar to what can occur after graduation (Poole, 2010), such students suggest critical approaches are irrelevant or not realistic in practice, and begin erring on the side of neoliberalism. Dismissing the critical stance and instead accepting the status quo is their response to the tensions between the classroom and the field setting.…”

“…Meanwhile, we recognize that once in practice, graduates also may become constrained by managerialism and other aspects of neoliberalism. Poole (2010) argues that while students may be progressive throughout their education, they may become mainstream or depoliticized after graduation. Students often do this to satisfy the expectations within social work practice settings where they seek employment.…”

A Study of the Information Literacy Needs of Social Work Graduate Students at a mid-sized Canadian university

“…Not everyone is a proponent of evidence-based practice. Poole (2010) advocates for antioppressive and critical social work practices and worries about "…interests that welcome evidence-based and other modernist inventions meant to limit, control and prescribe" (p. 8). Herz and Johansson (2011) are concerned that the move towards evidence-based programs "…might be at the cost of losing social-psychological thinking about complex, liquid, and changing social and cultural conditions" (p. 41).…”