#NotDomestication #NotIndigenisation: decoloniality in social work education.

Harms Smith, Linda; Nathane, Motlalepule

Abstract

This article argues that South African social work education, situated in Western modernism and broadly within the ideological project of colonialism and racist capitalism, should move from knowledge and discourses which are domesticating and oppressive, and do essential decolonising work. It explores colonialism and post-colonialism and the politics of social work knowledge, it describes the processes of the #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall movements, and then it describes the work of decolonisation. In order to move from coloniality and domestication, which means neither indigenisation nor Africanisation, social work education must 1) reclaim and repossess truths and narratives about the history of social work in South Africa, 2) explore ideology underlying its knowledge and discourses, 3) facilitate critical conscientisation and cultivate a critical and anti-colonial approach, and 4) include anti-colonial theorists in the curriculum. It provides two examples of courses which facilitate such a process.

Citation

HARMS SMITH, L. and NATHANE, M. 2018. #NotDomestication #NotIndigenisation: decoloniality in social work education. Southern African journal of social work and social development [online], 30(1), article number 2400. Available from: https://doi.org/10.25159/2415-5829/2400

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 20, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Jun 19, 2018
• Publication Date: Jun 30, 2018
• Deposit Date: Feb 20, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 20, 2019
• Journal: Southern African journal of social work and social development
• Print ISSN: 2520-0097
• Electronic ISSN: 2708-9355
• Publisher: University of South Africa Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 30
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: 2400
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.25159/2415-5829/2400
• Keywords: Decoloniality; Critical social work; Ideology; Anticolonial approach; Anticolonial theorists
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2766
• Contract Date: Feb 20, 2018