The emotional labour of decolonising social work curricula

Abstract

In the light of global calls to decolonise the curriculum and the national impact of the Black Lives Matter movement, there is pressure on social work academics to review, deconstruct and decolonise social work curricula. Social work education places strong emphasis on anti-oppressive, relationship-based practice that acknowledges diversity, social and economic injustice. This creates additional complexities and pressures for educators attempting to deconstruct social work curricula. This paper considers the emotional labour that such a task entails, and the usefulness of applying psychoanalytic concepts to understanding this emotional labour. It does this by exploring a critical incident and examining the complexities that educators face in constructing decolonised curricula within a marketised academy. It makes recommendations about the kinds of resources that are needed to support educators, especially Black educators.

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