Creating a place to inhabit and the Mandela model

 I had the privilege of co leading a European Association Schools of Social Work workshop last week with speakers from around the globe. The themes that came out of this workshop resonate and will inform our work as we move forward

  • 'Glocal' Global and local need to be seen as interchangeable in SW education and throughout social worker's careers

  • Drawing on indigenous solutions and developing worldwide common values

  • Examining the global movement of people because of world conflicts and war

  • Focus on global student placements

  • Implementing the opportunities to work together on a global stage from learning from the pandemic

Underpinning our work is a model that we created to support achievement for Global Majority students. We call this ‘Creating a place to inhabit’, based on the work of South African theorist Mbembe (2016). Its goal is to decolonise our curriculum, making it more inclusive and diverse and less Anglo-centric. Through doing this, we have cultivated an environment that enables all students and staff members to ‘inhabit a space to the extent that one can say, “This is my home. I am not a foreigner. I belong here”’ (Mbembe, 2016, p. 30). We also now draw on the MANDELA model of supporting students, which we discovered in our Continuing Professional Development (CPD) book club.

As our work continues with the implementing the nuts and bolts of anti racist practice into the curriculum we continue to strive to create ‘a place to inhabit’ in our provision. Many challenges associated with the pandemic have compounded our success, but we are determined to overcome these as we move forward. As a programme team as we return to the University ‘creating a place to inhabit needs to be central in our approach.


The next EASSW workshop on international Social Work in education training and practice will be on May 24th, 2022, 4pm-7pm (BST) see you there!

Mbembe, A. J. (2016). Decolonizing the university: New directions. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, 15(1), 29–45. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474022215618513

Tedam, P. (2011). The MANDELA model of practice learning: An old present in new wrapping? The Journal of Practice Teaching and Learning, 11(2), 19–33. https://doi.org/10.1921/jpts.v11i2.264

 

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