Just Call Racism What It Is: Disrupting Whiteness through Instructional Praxis

Background and Purpose: Freire (1970) defined praxis as “reflection and action directed at the structures to be transformed” (p. 126). It is the responsibility of all of us – social work students, instructors, researchers, and practitioners – to continuously reflect on our positionalities and potential to reproduce the harms of structural racism (Kishimoto, 2018). In social work classrooms, educators have an even greater responsibility: to merge knowledge and action into instructional praxis that facilitates students’ self-reflection, critical thinking, and transformative consciousness about disrupting oppressive systems (Jemal, 2021).

There is a lack of social work scholarship about operationalizing curriculum and pedagogies that develop structural competence (Mehrotra et al., 2017). Researchers cite an overemphasis on “colorblind, colonial, and Eurocentric” biomedical approaches (Tang Yan et al., 2021, p. 2) and curriculum that centers whiteness as the standard for professionalism (Stevenson & Blakey, 2021). When individuals we serve are under increased threat by oppressive forces, there has never been a more opportune time for social workers to become structurally competent (Plummer et al., 2021).

To understand the transformative potential of instructional praxis in social work education, the study explored how MSW students made meaning of a course that incorporated problem-posing education and critically-engaged pedagogies to develop structural competence. Mass incarceration was used as a lens to represent the policies, practices, and beliefs that perpetuate oppressive systems (Bailey et al., 2021).

Methods: The study was conducted using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis, a qualitative approach that co-constructs detailed interpretations of meaning behind participants’ lived experiences (Smith et al., 2022). The study explored eight participants’ perceptions about how they made meaning of structural racism through participation in a course titled Social Work and Mass Incarceration: Practice, Research, and Policy. The researcher collected data using in-depth, semi-structured interviews.

Findings: Based on analysis of participants’ meaning making about the course, the researcher found participants experienced significant perspective change, increased levels of critical consciousness, and expanded knowledge of how structural forces work together to perpetuate privilege and oppression. In addition, participants compared their positive experience with the course instructor to disappointing interactions with other instructors in the graduate social work program, who they described as avoidant of class discussions about racism One participant articulated her expectation that social work instructors should “call it [racism] what it is, and go in with that mindset as you’re teaching future professionals.”

Conclusion and Implications: Findings illuminate participants’ perceptions that many of their instructors lack instructional praxis. This is not surprising given that most social work programs do not provide training about teaching anti-oppressive course content (Cassuto, 2023). Training is especially crucial for white educators, whose instructional identities inadvertently center whiteness. According to participants, white instructors would be more effective if they relinquished power over knowledge production and criticized their own race, ethnicity, class, religion, or nationality when it is complicit in oppression. In the same way we expect students to be reflexive, white social work instructors must take steps to examine and disrupt deep-rooted assumptions and beliefs to effectively implement anti-racist and critical pedagogies.