The Development of a Social Work Program for an Islamic Day School in Southwestern Ontario

The Development of a Social Work Program for an Islamic Day School in Southwestern Ontario Abstract This article examines the evolution of a social work program for an Islamic Day School in London, Ontario, Canada. The Muslim Resource Centre for Social Support and Integration (MRCSSI), and London Islamic School (LIS) developed A Safe Space for Children (SPC) school social work program after extensive community consultation and feedback from leadership and school teachers revealed the need for mental health supports for students. A program implementation and evaluation design was developed by the MRCSSI in collaboration with the LIS and accepted by school administration and community stakeholders. The overarching objectives were to provide students with counselling services; develop school wide interventions, connect students and their families to mental health community resources while also providing ongoing professional development opportunities to teachers on issues relating to student mental health issues. The development of SPC its rooted in literature that reveals that this population is vulnerable to the stigma related to mental health, issues of acculturation, racism, and discrimination. The establishment of a social work program situated in a faith-based school that offers an overall understanding of cultural values and spirituality, aligns with best practices in social work. The project was grounded in a participatory democracy approach integrated with the civil society perspective, constructivist and critical race theoretical frameworks that guided the assessment and program design. Key Words: Canada, Children, Islam, Mental Health, Muslim, Participatory Democracy, School Social Wor

Muslim youth experiences in a visceral islamophobia and anti-muslim racism context

This qualitative study critically examines Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism through lens of Muslim youth. Utilizing a critical ethnographic methodology, 23 Muslim youth between the ages of 18 and 25 years of Black, South Asian and Arab heritage were interviewed. The study foregrounds Critical Race and Anticolonial theories to make sense of the stories by foregrounding racism, white supremacy, and coloniality in their everyday encounters in Canada. Muslim youth understand and experience ‘Islamophobia’ and ‘anti-Muslim racism’, and live through in their daily social relations and interactions. These have governed and shaped Muslim youth to understand themselves and their place in relations to the national building project of white Canadianness. Although the Canadian landscape (justice system, education, employment, housing, immigration and settlements, health, and media) is ‘a fugitive space’ for any life that is not white, there is however a performative danger for bodies who carry race, ethnicity, gender and religion intersectionally. This leaves individual Muslims with daily choices on how much of themselves they may want to reveal in public. For Muslim youth, the cost of showing up Black or Brown while carrying one’s Muslimness is heavier, and it leaves undue burden on their lives as Muslims. The findings reveal that anti-Muslim racism and Islamophobia cannot be buried theoretically under the settler-colonial paradigm in Canada. The study calls for the politics of refusal and resistance at the intersections of race (Black and Brown) and religion (Muslimness) to forge new imaginaries for educational futurities without giving up on the present

ACADEMIC VOYEURISM: THE WHITE GAZE IN SOCIAL WORK

This article explores the insidiousness of racism and White supremacy embedded within the social work academy. We conceptualize the social work academy as the institutionalized practices within social work education, research, policy, and practice. As such, the social work academy is the bedrock that continues to perpetuate racism and colonialism within the profession. Anchored by an integrative analysis of social work that draws on both postcolonial and critical race theory, we theorize that, rooted in this foundation of oppression, White supremacy in social work often manifests as academic voyeurism—the non-performative White gaze. We suggest that academic voyeurism within the social work academy renders Black people, Indigenous people, and People of Colour (BIPOC) as bodies to be studied, exoticized, and theorized about, without any substantive anti-racist change or action required. Academic voyeurism sustains social work’s dissonant position—its endorsement of social justice alongside its simultaneous ambivalence towards racism and White supremacy. The discussion draws on historical underpinnings, research, and experiential data to turn the gaze onto the academy, illuminating the implications of academic voyeurism on racialized bodies and the social work profession’s broader goals. The discussion concludes with a call to collective action for racialized social workers and those wishing to be justice-seeking accomplices.Cet article explore le caractère insidieux du racisme et de la suprématie blanche au sein du travail social. Selon notre conceptualisation, cela comprend les pratiques institutionnalisées dans l’éducation, la recherche, la politique et la pratique du travail social. L’académie du travail social est le socle qui continue à perpétuer le racisme et le colonialisme au sein de la profession. Ancrée dans une analyse intégrative du travail social qui s’inspire à la fois de la théorie postcoloniale et de la théorie critique de la race, notre théorie est que, enracinée dans ce fondement de l’oppression, la suprématie blanche en travail social se manifeste souvent par le voyeurisme académique—le regard blanc non performatif. Nous suggérons que le voyeurisme académique au sein de l’académie du travail social fait des personnes noires, autochtones et de couleur (BIPOC) des corps à étudier, à exotiser et à théoriser, sans qu’aucun changement ou action antiraciste substantiel ne soit fait. Le voyeurisme académique soutient la position dissonante du travail social—son soutien à la justice sociale et son ambivalence simultanée envers le racisme et la suprématie blanche. La discussion s’appuie sur des fondements historiques, des recherches et des données expérientielles pour tourner le regard vers l’académie, éclairant les implications du voyeurisme académique sur les corps racisés et les objectifs plus larges de la profession du travail social. La discussion se termine par un appel à l’action collective pour les travailleuses sociales et travailleurs sociaux racisés et ceux qui souhaitent être des complices de cette quête de justice