THE POWER OF BIOGRAPHY: SHIFTING THE BOUNDARIES OF KNOWLEDGE THROUGH EMANCIPATORY PEDAGOGY AND CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS

In this paper1 I describe the application of the experiential and emancipatory strategies of Gramsci(1971, 1977, 1988), Freire (1970, 1972, 1973) and Giroux (1983, 1994, 1997) in an attempt toshift the boundaries of knowledge and to develop critical consciousness among students using theauthor’s work with international students as an example. Sewpaul (2004a; 2004b) describedcreative teaching/learning strategies and the use of discourse ethics in the development ofcitizenship education with local students. The main argument in this paper is that critical reflectionon one’s social and political realities and the capacity to develop action strategies consequent uponthese reflections constitute central elements in shifting the boundaries of knowledge. Both localand international student populations need to be viewed as “client” groups insofar as we recognisethat they enter the classroom and the field-training context with varying degrees of disadvantage.One of these disadvantages is the control of consciousness by means of state machinery andideology (Gramsci, 1977) in an attempt to maintain capitalist and ruling-class hegemony, which isa feature of both Western and non-Western societies

EMANCIPATORY CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION IN ACTION: DISCOURSE ETHICS AND DECONSTRUCTION (PART 1)

This paper elucidates the importance of emancipatory education to social work education and training, identifies the objectives and underlying epistemologies of a course on Human Behaviour and the Social Environment, and emphasises the importance of negotiating relationships for the creation of a participatory and emancipatory approach to education. It reflects the application of Habermas’s (1996) theory of communicative action and discourse ethics to complex issues including HIV/AIDS and the relationship between race, class and gender and the relationship of these to issues of power, privilege, status and access to resources in the South African context. The incorporation of creative, experiential and empowerment-based teaching/learning strategies are central to the development of critical consciousness in students, and for facilitating effective and meaningful citizen participation among students. The paper also highlights the potentially damaging, albeit unintended, consequences of such teaching strategie

EDITORIAL

The provision of comprehensive social services and programmes that empower vulnerable people in the fields of substance abuse, HIV and AIDS, as well as people with special needs such as migrants, remains a challenge to Social Work.In this edition, two articles look at complex phenomena such as migration and human trafficking: one presents a framework for understanding risk and protective factors relevant to migrants and offers guidelines for social work intervention; the other explores the role the social worker in human trafficking and the place of social work as a profession vis-à-vis this phenomeno

Social work education: current trends and future directions

This chapter deals with changing patterns of social work education in a rapidly globalising world. Neoliberalism and advances in information technology are creating spaces for cross-border, virtual education as never before. The chapter interrogates the impact of neocolonial, capitalist expansion of higher education as a tradable commodity, and reviews some of the debates around the universal and the particular with regard to cross border virtual education. The universal-particular debate is further probed by reviewing global initiatives of the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) and International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW), such as the Global Definition, program consultations linked to the Global Standards, and the proposal to form regional centres of excellence. While well-intentioned, neither the processes nor the outcomes of these initiatives are neutral, often reflecting geo-political power, the project of legitimation, hegemonic discourses and neoliberal and new managerialist thrusts towards standard setting, performance appraisals and external reviews within modernist notions of progress and development

POWER, DISCOURSE AND IDEOLOGY: CHALLENGING ESSEN-TIALIST NOTIONS OF RACE AND IDENTITY IN INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING IN SOUTH AFRICA

Professor Malegapuru Makgoba and Professor Sipho Seepe, while serving as the acting Vice-Chancellors of the then University of Natal (now the University of KwaZulu-Natal) and of Vista University, respectively, were authorised by the Minister of Education at the time, Kader Asmal, to produce a document that charted the way forward for transformation in higher education. This responsibility, assigned to Kader Asmal by the State President, Thabo Mbeki, was delegated to Makgoba and Seepe within the framework of regular interactions with the State President (Seepe, 2004). Thus it would appear that the attempt toward drawing up the agenda for educational transformation took place within a broader political project. The resultant paper appeared as a key chapter “Knowledge and Identity: An African Vision of Higher Education Transformation” (Makgoba & Seepe, 2004) in the book Towards an African Identity in Institutions of Higher Learning edited by Seepe (2004). My paper, which had its genesis in an invitation to present a paper at the launch of the book, is based on a critique of Makgoba’s and Seepe’s essentialist notion of an African identity and their call to replace the Eurocentric with the Afrocentri

A STRUCTURAL SOCIAL JUSTICE APPROACH TO FAMILY POLICY: A CRITIQUE OF THE DRAFT SOUTH AFRICAN FAMILY POLICY

Sexist language aside, the following quotation aptly captures the power of the family:“The institution of the family stands in a peculiarly central, crucial position. It faces inward to the individual, outward toward society preparing each member to take his place in the wider social group by helping him to internalize its values and traditions as part of himself … It has enormous creative potential, including that of life itself, and it is not surprising that, when it becomes disordered, it possesses an equal potential for terrible destruction.” (Skinner cited in De Bruyn, 1992:21

LESSONS FROM RWANDA

Before a recent visit to Rwanda, all that the country held for me, as with most people, was the spectre of genocide, war, poverty and starving children. My brief visit to the city of Kigali challenged my widely held assumptions about the country. Kigali was the epicentre of the genocide in Rwanda, where about one million people experienced murderous tyranny, within a space of 100 days, that wreaked havoc upon the country and left millions of people with untold losses and emotional scars. Rwanda is, indeed, an amazing example of a country rising from the ashes. My first encounter was on the Air Rwanda flight, where the in-flight magazine warns those entering the country to leave their plastic bags behind; no person would be allowed to pass through immigration and customs with plastic bags and wrappings. A plastic-bag-free country is one of Rwanda’s contributions to environmental conservation and saving the earth. And of course in stores, its paper bags all the way

PROFESSIONALISM, POSTMODERN ETHICS AND THE GLOBAL STANDARDS FOR SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION AND TRAINING

The Global Standards for Social Work Education and Training (hereafter referred to as “thedocument”) that was adopted by the General Assemblies of the International Association ofSchools of Social Work (IASSW) and the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW)in October 2004 was born out of several small and big compromises. As Chair of the GlobalStandards Committee, I remain ambivalent about some of the processes and the product. Aspointed out previously (Williams & Sewpaul, 2004), despite the best attempts at consultationand ensuring representation of different voices, they remained flawed, especially when workingon a document that is supposed to cover worldwide processes and representation. On beingasked to Chair the Global Standards Committee my reaction was that it was a preposterous andover-ambitious goal, with my biggest fear being that it would reinforce a Western hegemonyand reproduce Western professional imperialism in social work education and practice. I wasinformed that because I understood the sensitivities and complexities of such an endeavour, Iwould be suited to lead the process

GLOBALISATION, WESTERN HEGEMONY AND CHINESE PARTICULARISM: IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIAL WORK AND SOCIAL POLICY1

China’s macroeconomic policy, which has recently been described by Chinese policy makersas “a socialist market economy” (Jie, 2004; Zhixin, 2004) but which effectively emerges as astruggle to balance socialism with free market capitalism, contains inherent contradictions.Socialism and free market capitalism are ideologically inconsistent with each other and sharediverse historical roots, with many socialist revolutions being a reaction to the markedeconomic disparities and class differences engendered by capitalist practices. China’sphenomenal economic growth, its obvious neoliberal capitalist practices and its attempt tobalance these with those of socialist ideology and practices raises a critical question: wouldChina implode under the weight of its own contradictions or do these contradictions hold thepotential to chart a new development paradigm for the rest of the world? China is the countryperhaps with the singular ability to contest the unipolar imperialism of the United States;however, the form(s) that this might take remains unclear. In its international relations, China isdriven by pragmatism in respect of foreign trade opportunities, the need for support of theinternational community to maintain peace and domestic stability, and its need for energyresources