Out of Balance: Moving Beyond Anti-Racist & Anti-Oppressive Education

Abstract

Debates over the nature of social work education are not new. What is new, however, comes from the Council on Social Work Education’s (CSWE) injection of critical pedagogy into social work education through “anti-racist” and “anti-oppressive” competencies laid out in the 2022 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS). As a result, social work classrooms have become dedicated to fostering moral directives at the cost of practical skills. Students’ hard-earned money is now thrown away as they sit through lessons of stereotyped, pessimistic “moral education” rooted in “luxury beliefs,” leaving them unprepared for the complexities of practice and failing thousands of clients across the United States in the process. I speak from experience: I am part of the first cohort of MSW students educated under the new 2022 EPAS framework. Indeed, I neither close my eyes to the grave realities and suffering associated with social disadvantage, nor do I deny the enduring realities of racial difference in the United States. However, I hope this paper illuminates how my MSW education was hollowed out at a state university. I also offer several recommendations to rebalance anti-racist and anti-oppressive education, grounding future training in principles of cognitive liberty, adversarial collaboration, and substantive tolerance.

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