Contribution on Decolonizing Social Work Practice Knowledge 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 is due this semester and Part 2 is due in the spring. In conjunction with other students or as an individual, you will author a contribution (this term is being used in lieu of “article” as a way of modeling what decolonizing strategies might look like) that offers new knowledge using indigenous/folkways of knowing to shift settler colonial thinking in social work practice. You can select from a variety of issues, including but not limited to: • Housing and homelessness• Food insecurity and food deserts• Education• Health care/health disparities• Incarceration/Abolition• Child welfare• Immigration• Environmental racism• LGBTQ• Aging• Anti-Black racism• Anti-Semitism• Poverty• Oppression of other racial groups and identities• Policing 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 working title for your contribution (you can change the title in the spring)• A literature review identifying the sources you are using to contextualize and support the new theories, practices and policies you are presenting (sources can include articles, artwork, poetry, photographs, music, and other indigenous/folkways of knowing)
