Honoring Women of Color Practice Wisdom in Epistemic Disobedience As Social Work Education Research

Background and Purpose: The 2022 Council of Social Work (CSWE) Educational Policy on Accreditation and Supervision (EPAS) charges institutions of social work education with the responsibility of not only producing anti-racist social workers, but also transforming institutions of social work higher education to reflect anti-racism, diversity, equity and inclusion (ADEI) in their implicit and explicit curriculum. The EPAS leaves room for programs to contextualize assessments, initiatives and evaluation methods based on their unique dynamics. There is limited research offering values-aligned, research- informed guidance to schools confronting the challenges of materializing their many commitments to anti-racism within a neoliberal academic context.

This study seeks to acknowledge how faculty of color have historically engaged in ADEI work as a matter of self-preservation, and thus, possess instrumental practice wisdom which invites possibilities emerging from epistemic disobedience. Historically, positivist research rooted in Western forms of knowing have posed limitations to the gathering of practice wisdom from individuals engaging in often fluid, unplanned and organic approaches as agents of transformation. This case study examines how the practice wisdom of two female faculty of color can inform a process of evaluating available qualitative data from a social work program for opportunities to integrate anti-racism into their mental health curriculum.

Methods: Critical pedagogy and liberatory praxis frameworks assert that the practice of problematizing and the imagining of possibilities work in tandem in order for transformative change to occur. This exploratory case study frames these two components of change as research methods. Problematizing (Component 1): Data in the form of documents and a collectively generated visual storyboard was made available through collaboration with a social work program situated within a midwestern, land-grant public university. Through independent review of the data and a series of collaborative synthesizing sessions, a critical discourse analysis approach was used to identify instances of ideological dominant reproductions of power in the implicit and explicit curriculum. Possibilities (Component 2): Using composite counter-storytelling as a critical methodology, a collection of frameworks, strategic approaches, and resources were identified and organized into recommendations.

Results: Findings are organized into three categories: a) implicit and b) explicit manifestations of an institutionalized culture of dominance within higher education; and c) the absence of key elements of liberatory praxis. Identifying and naming implicit and explicit problematic elements is important work. However, the naming of what is not there (yet is possible), and perhaps existing outside the assumed possibilities available to predominantly white institutions, presents as a most significant finding. Applicable frameworks, strategic approaches, and resources were identified in contestation to these findings.

Conclusion and Implications: This paper seeks to contribute to social work education research approaches which honor the practice wisdom of historically marginalized voices with valuable expertise gained through lived experiences as educators within predominantly white institutions. In addition to offering a potential curriculum evaluation model, identified problem areas and recommendations are offered and can be considered by other departments or programs looking to better align their implicit and explicit curriculum with values of anti-racist and social justice.