Decolonise and Rehumanise Social Work Field Education

Hi, I'm Tina Odu.

And I'm Eleanor Hogan. We are social work apprentices studying for our bachelors and social work here in the United Kingdom.

You're listening to the second episode of the Decolonising social work Field Education Podcast series. If you're just joining us, this series is all about digging deep into what decolonising social work really means in the spaces where it's taught and practised.

In our last episode, we got to meet the brilliant team and the work that went behind the scoping review of decolonising social work field education or placements as it is known here in the UK. In this episode.

We will dig.

Deep into how we are social work, students, apprentices, learners.

Practitioners can adapt the approach of decolonising and rehumanising our practise.

As social workers we are taught to be reflected.

So I wonder, what if the things were reflecting on like the frameworks, the language, the goals are all rooted in one dominant world view. I've experienced this in my placement and I'm realising that our placements can be powerful and uncomfortable too.

Yeah, like, imagine being in a room where you're told to follow a care plan that doesn't reflect the reality of the person you work with, for example. And let's not even get started with how some of us feel when our own lived experiences might be misunderstood or even dismissed. What do you do in these kinds of situations?

I know that there's been so many times where I felt unable to speak up or that my lived experiences wouldn't be valued in a conversation.

So if you've ever been in a placement or classroom where you feel like you couldn't speak up, or where your cultural understanding wasn't taken seriously, you are not alone.

So today we're joined by our guest, Wayne Reid, a social worker with over 20 years experience of working in health and social care and is a professional officer at the British Association of Social Workers and our host for today is Cat Ellis, a Social work lecturer at the University of East Anglia.

With social work.

Experience with children and families, eating disorders, adult mental health and homelessness.

So let's get into it. Decolonising and rehumanise Social work field education.

Hello everyone. Welcome to our second episode, which is called Decolonise and Rehumanise. I'm Cat Ellis. I am a social work lecturer at UEA with varied practise experience and I have an interest in decolonisation, I believe that it's fundamental to good social work, practise and education.

And I'm really interested in how teaching and practise environments can best foster transformative learning, which I know is something Wayne that you have done lots of thinking and work about. I'm really pleased to welcome Wayne Reid to be our guest for this second episode.

So are you happy just to introduce yourself?

Of course. Yeah. Thank you, Cat, and to the team for the invitation to be on your podcast.

My name is Wayne Reid. I'm a professional officer and social worker at BASW, the British Association of Social Workers. My background in social work is quite varied, having undertaken different frontline roles in youth justice, criminal justice with adults, mental health, child protection and working with their foster.

Children and young people and their families. I have been at BASW for roughly 8 years now. So in terms of decolonisation that you were talking about, some of my work at BASW where really has looked at that explored and examined that more so than at any other time in my career. So yeah.

Thank you.

I'm just gonna start off asking you a few questions around this topic. So can I start off with what does the colonisation mean to you?

As decolonisation to me is about the dismantling of the inherited colonial mindsets, really that are still prevalent today. I think it's still visible and felt and operates inside and outside of social work, and so it's incumbent upon us really I think.

To recognise that and to do something about it.

Mm-hmm.

It means critically examining what is taught, who benefits, whose voices are centred and who's are excluded.

In some of my work, I'd like to sort of deconstruct how Eurocentric standards and assumptions continue to dominate our definitions of acceptable normal and professional, often marginalising or pathologising black and global majority social workers and communities.

I think decolonisation is not just a process, it's a an attempt or a an endeavour to consciously unlearn a philosophical act of resistance against the normalised violence inherited through colonial rule, which might seem like it was from decades or centuries ago, but actually still very, very prevalent today, just less visible.

Maybe.

One of the ways that I tried to inject some of that into my work, that kind of real life modern day experiences through a concept called Woolly Racism.

Which explores from a satirical point of view, the experience of a black sheep called Shanice and her experiences within the field with the white sheep who are the dominant population of sheep within the field. And it might seem like it sort of downplays or minimises that experience.

The black experience, but.

Actually, it's quite a subversive way, I guess, of actually censoring the black experience and showing from shanice's perspective of how decololo or how colonialism affects the mindset of those around the things that they say the way they behave, and how some of those systems operate.

Can you give us an example of?

A time that woolly racism has been used or have you? Have you heard from people that abused woolly racism and how they've experienced it?

Yeah, I've had different feedback over the years. It was originally distributed or circulated in roughly 2021 to 2022. It's been around for a few years, not something that I've rigorously or we've tried to rigorously promote. I guess it's just being more of a a resource that's there.

As you know, if people felt it was useful, it's not being like some of the other projects that we've delivered for.

for example, it is. It is quite a sensitive way in which we explore it. When I'm in a sort of meaningful and a meaningful and incisive way that perhaps doesn't lend itself to everyday social work, but equally it still has its place in getting people to question themselves. You know, what's going on around them and and why that's happening.

So for some people, depending on their learning style.

You know, I think it really does help them understand some of those real life modern day issues. The.

Approach has always been about trying to support different learning styles, really, as opposed to just being one size fits all, take you all, leave it kind of approach though. Yeah, that was just trying to sort of thing for something.

Different really and.

Work with BASW members you know to, to be creative, to do that.

The feedback that we've had has generally been positive and I think for that the main positive feedback has been that people have been able to use it inside and outside of work, both personally and professionally, because it it has that kind of flexibility to it. Some of the more critical feedback perhaps has been that some people have really felt it's downplayed.

Serious issues, as this team is a kind of person who's been involved in some of this. Our thinking is just trying to reach different people with different projects really.

Right.

I think it was that the aim of Woolly racism really was to relate to different people's learning styles and hopefully for some people that it would be a bridge in terms of their learning. We recognise it's not gonna please everybody. That it won’t connect with everybody and that's the the risk, I guess with every project.

I think it speaks to different experiences also because working in different geographical contexts, people will have very different experiences, for example.

Precisely.

In a very rural, predominantly white area, someones experience might be very different than it would working in one of the largest cities, for example.

Yeah, yeah. And certainly where I come from, part of the world there in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, you know, some of that lingo, some of that way of speaking is really quite ordinary and normal, you know, in terms of.

Where you from? Where you really from, for example? Or can I touch your wool? Like if you wanna touch your hair and just the way that that's delivered as well as I've tried to capture that, you know that everyday Yorkshire kind of vernacular in a way. But yeah, I appreciate it's not gonna be everybody's cup of tea.

I think it's something that could be really.

Useful in Norfolk where where I'm based which.

Right.

Is.

It's a very predominantly white area and that's reflected in the practice workforce also, yeah.

So looking at the knowledge that we.

Build our practise on and where it came from and thinking about how we can bring in or start with other ideas that perhaps are are absent or voices that aren't centred.

Yeah.

I wanted to.

Ask about decolonisation specifically in the context of practise, education or field education, which is considered widely to be one of the signature pedagogies of social work education. But what would it mean specifically in that context? So the experience for students of going out on placement, which for many is the time that they consider their.

Social work learning is really crystallised. What would decolonisation mean in this context particularly?

Well firstly to.

Say that I'm not a practice educator. I do work closely with practice educators as part of the professional capabilities and Development Group at BASW, and there's lots of different work related to practice education that we've embarked on. I do have an affinity with practise education and I, you know, recognise its importance.

And social where and it really being the kind of, you know, the birthing pool, really, of social work. If you're producing the next generation of social workers, so decolonisation in that context, for me, means reconsidering and redefining what good practice looks.

Like.

Moment, like I alluded to before, some of the standards of acceptable normal, professional, etcetera, some of those are or a lot of those are influenced by Eurocentric standards. And I think we need to unpack what that actually means and what that is, because it can be really disadvantageous.

For some people who, in whatever way, might not conform or be seen to be conforming, and that can be really detrimental to them and their careers and some of their, you know, outcomes like in terms of what practise educate is looking for in a student, what they might expect, etcetera and their interpretation.

and translation. All the other practise educated professional standards. You know, the kind of conversations that had on placement and how a student might be viewed, how they might respond to a student and so on.

I think it's.

Also, about making space for alternative cultures and ways of knowing, healing and existing as human beings, I think some of those things are just innate to us, but it can look and manifest very differently, you know, different people, culturally, socially and so on. So I think it's just about that space.

Being made for that both from on an interpersonal level.

But also other kind of structural and organisational level as well.

So bringing into thinking about what do we mean by what is good practise and whose standards are they, and how do we?

Yeah.

Make space for other ways of being that perhaps we wouldn't. That might not be consciously or specifically outlined in the professional capabilities framework. How do we bring?

Mm-hmm.

That in.

Yeah.

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I think it's. It is about having a a standard because of course standards are important, but I suppose it's about constantly reviewing and reflecting on what those standards are, why that's a particular threshold, who decides that? And it's not about just creating more work for the sake of creating extra work. I guess it's about refining the standards that exist and improve.

looking for ways to develop them in collaboration with the people on the receiving end and other stakeholders, so that's what decolonisation looks like for me, where it's not a case of, well, we've got all the answers. This is the standard that everybody must comply to and that's it. You know, we never change it. We never review it, we never evaluate it.

As part of any sort of refinement, which I.

Would.

Think is a refreshing, you know, that's what we're constantly kind of looking at, better ways of doing things.

And that would require us to critically reflect on the structures that we operate within, which is a key part of good social work practice.

As standard, isn't it? Why do you think this is important in the context of practice education specifically or field education?

In terms of why it's important, I think it's because the legacies of colonialism are still a priority in social work. For example, how black children are overrepresented in care or as per the recent report from the child Safeguarding Review panel around the disproportionate kind of outcomes in terms of safeguarding and the lack of accountability in terms of safeguarding.

So the the evidence is, is there really, It's just that the the the evidence is considered and taken into account and then informs your policy and practice and education really.

What do you

Think are some of the potential challenges.

For moving towards practice and education, that is decolonised.

Some of the challenges are around people already being really quite busy.

You know, in whatever regards people have huge workloads and I think they may see something like this as being additional work as opposed to integral really in in every aspect or at least a consideration in every aspect and therefore an integral part of how they practise and.

How they approach their work?

One of the ways that BASW England have tried to support people bridging that gap is by developing a resource called Shades of Bias, which is a reflective case study template that enables victims, witnesses, and people responsible for bias to reveal reflective repair.

Through an intersectional and fundamentally anti racist lens and framework. But it is actually relevant to all areas of aspects of protected characteristics.

So that is an opportunity really for people to practice decolonisation in their everyday professional and personal lives. It's really quite a universal tool in that sense. So yeah, there are challenges that exist. You know, people have high workloads, complex workloads. This doesn't have to be additional.

I suppose it's really about just integrating this where possible into everyday practice.

One of the target groups for the shades of bias tool that you mentioned.

Is for practitioners or people who are exhibiting a level of bias themselves, and I was just curious about how if that bias is operating on an unconscious level, what do you think are the conditions that would be most favourable to support somebody in making use of the?

Of that tool.

I think in terms of unconscious bias, you can't know what you don't already know, but I think that as professionals, as human beings that we're aware sometimes when we've done something that's wrong, that might only emerge maybe weeks, months, potentially years down the line. But when we recognise that we either do something about it or we don't.

And the the theme of shades of bias isn't to shame people or blame people as such. It's really about trying to be as constructive and restorative as.

Possible in terms of the conditions that would be needed for somebody responsible for bias, I think they need to be a degree of self honesty. They also need to be opportunity appreciated by us, maybe to explore and document some of what went on, how they responded, their relevant factors etcetera. And it also then need to be a willingness.

To do something about that..

It strikes me as a really hopeful tool that fits with the idea of being committed to a kind of conscious unlearning and being committed to.

Critically, reflecting on our practice and our biases and ourselves and our impact and that it could be a part of an ongoing process of learning that fits with the aim of social work and social work, education more broadly.

Yeah.

I agree and it it requires fundamentally, when looking through the lens of the person or people responsible for bias.

Means that people are open to a degree of vulnerability without be an individual or an organisation or whatever. Starting with. You know, I realise I may have got something wrong or we may have got something wrong here. Not entirely sure what that might be, but nobody's perfect. No organisation’s perfect.

so if you're leading with that vulnerability to some degree, when completing the form through that with, you know in in that particular way.

It seems to me that there's a paradise with what social work asks of many people that access.

Services, which is to really think about ourselves and have impact and be open to being curious and learning and thinking about change and shift. I wanted to ask you as well, what do you think that students need to be able to facilitate?

Some of this more transformative learning.

I suppose I'll be biassed and say tools like shades of bias and also I guess it's a bit cliche, but courageous conversations. Again, that would sort of correlate with shade of bias, supportive leadership that doesn't gaslight or silence them.

Consistent and meaningful supervision such as the relation or anti racism, supervision, supervision template that we developed at BASW, a community of practise like the black and ethnic minority professional symposium or PCD group that we've got at BASW, censoring lived experience, really professional discourse and peer support.

And that's why I feel it's really important that social workers at all stages of their career, that they consider being a member of their professional association for social work. That's BASW, it is a shameless plug. But I really feel that collective voice and that collective professional identity is important. And in lots of different ways.

So that's what I think that students need and practice. Educators and really everyone and anyone needs social work. I think it's important that that you really take really I know it's all busy, but I think there's some real strength in numbers for social work and moving things.

Forward.

Hmm. Thank you. How do you think that employers and educators can support students to feel able and to challenge oppressive structures in practice?

I think that can be done by moving beyond performative actions and engaging in accountability and equitability. Some of the things that spring to mind in terms of what employers can do would be things like creating psychologically safe learning environments for people where you know they can get it wrong and they won't be.

Blamed and there isn't a culture of people feeling sort of downtrodden.

but one where they feel empowered and willing to admit and accept it. Yeah, I got it wrong. And you know I will do what I need to do to restore that. I think it's important for whistleblowers and students to be able to feel sort of appropriately protected. And I suppose most importantly, that anti discriminatory, anti oppressive and anti racist practice is a core.

standard not a sort of an optional module.

And of course.

Performative allyship should be avoided at all costs.

Yeah. I mean, I think the point that you're making that this needs to not just be an add-on module, but a thread that runs through.

All that we.

Do through social work education in terms of the curricula, but also what happens in the room and the creation of those psychologically safe spaces that enable people to.

Explore their own biases and views and make sense of the world as they experience it and how that might differ from.

Others.

Mm-hmm.

Is a good place to start, and I've been struck through this discussion that a lot of your points fit with the recommendations.

From the scoping review that we heard.

About in the previous episode, which recommend that we need to as a profession internationally look to integrate indigenous knowledges, knowledges to dismantle white dominance and reconstruct the curricula fostering critical reflection and understanding the sociopolitical.

Context, which is a significant challenge given the education system more broadly and the narratives around history that many people will finish education holding as true so.

Yeah, but.

The argument from the scope and review is that social work and scholars of social work have a moral imperative to engage with these ideas and to ensure that social justice.

Remains at the core of social work education because it is.

At the heart of.

What social work?

Is all about.

Yeah, I wondered if you had any final thoughts.

Or final reflections.

Just to say, I agree with what you were saying there and I applaud and salute the work that's being done by yourself, your colleagues and the organisation. It's very important work and that's why these spaces are so crucial really, for these discussions.

I rarely sort of mainstreamed really, but it does keep that that awareness raised it just keep that fire burning in many ways in terms of the like you said, that bedrock and social work around social justice in the current geopolitical situation, global affairs, it's sort of, but this is the counter to a lot of what we're seeing, which we know.

To be against our values and principles, so we have to keep pushing in in that direction, but we have to be the right direction.

In terms of final reflections.

I see decolonisation, not really. I don't see it as a project with a deadline. It's just an ongoing ethical practice, really, but something that we aim to do and deliver and achieve, and in everything that we do, we're not always going to get that right. But there just has to be that self honesty to begin with and the endeavour really to.

Want to improve things?

Thanks so much. It's been, it's been really good to talk to you and hear your hear your thoughts. Thanks very much.

Thank you, Cat.

Wayne highlighted how it can be difficult or like an unachievable goal to fit decolonising into our work lives due to being too busy.

But really, listening to how he has fit it into his work and life and the different models and toolkits that can be used is really helpful to see where we can fit decolonising into our personal and our work lives without any additional work, social work as a learning journey. And I think it's really key to highlight how there is always something to learn from.

We're really, really just beginning a learning journey, to be honest, as social workers and as students, I think sometimes we think we're powerless being students. But actually the strength in our voices and our experiences, and when we look at the world today and some global injustices we can.

See how silence and inaction can indeed perpetuate those injustices. So there is an active role for us as students, as members of societies, in challenging these injustices, for example.

I think for me, the key takeaway is to learning to be aware of our own unconscious biases. I know that I don't always feel confident enough to be able to say that I got something wrong or that I don't understand something. But listening to this conversation has made me think about the importance of critical reflection and how I can look at how situations have made me feel why I felt a certain way and what I can.

learn from the experience.

For me, my key takeaways, learning about, you know, the need to refine standards that exist, but also actually there is space for refining the ones that already exist and understanding that we will not always get things right and we need collective action in order to build resilience.

To learn to challenge and to grow.

You've been listening to the decolonising social work Field Education podcast, global dialogues for change, an International participatory project with students, experts by experience, practitioners, and academics. Funded by the the European.

Association of Schools of Social work led by Associate Professor Henglien Lisa Chen at the University of Sussex.

And Co-produced by Mitali Kulkarni. Visit our website dialogueswfe.org and follow us online. Decolonising social work starts with you. Stay tuned.