“Exploring a New Direction for Social Work Education and Training in Nigeria”, Social Work Education – The International Journal, 27 (3), 229-242
American and British models of professional social work that have been exported to Africa have been critiqued as unable to address the unique issues and cultural characteristics of the majority of Africans. Such critiques have increased as the social work profession in the Western world has failed to come up with answers to many of its own most vexing social problems. African social work educators are therefore questioning the borrowing of such ‘problematic’ Western social work knowledge. This paper critically reviews the challenges for social work education and training in Nigeria of this Western-influenced social work legacy that is largely remedial in nature and underpinned by the charity and casework model that locates problems within individuals and their families. Building on recent scholarship, personal experiences of schooling and working in Africa and the West, as well as experiences from collaborating on a project with colleagues in a social work program in a Nigerian university, three issues are put forth that could guide an exploration of a new direction for social work education in Nigeria.Identifier ISSN: 0261-5479
Uzo Anucha is an Associate Professor in York University’s Department of Social Work and the founding director of the Applied Social Welfare Research and Evaluation Group. Her work and research interests include homelessness and under-housing; immigration and diversity; community-based research; critical positive youth development; social work; international social work.
Other publications from this author include:
- “Growing New Roots: The Housing Experiences of Racialized Newcomers in a Second -Tier Canadian City” in Canadian Social Work– Special Issue on the Settlement and Integration of Newcomers to Canada (2014)
- “Negotiated challenges in the workplace: Immigrant women’s views and experiences of employment in Canada”: Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work 27 (4), 420-434 (2012)
- “Housed but Homeless? Negotiating Everyday Life in a Shared Housing Program for Homeless People” in Families in Society – A Journal of Contemporary Social Services, 91 (1), 67-75 (2010)
- “Engaging the Canadian Diaspora, Youth Social Identities in a Canadian Border City” in McGill Journal of Education, 44 (3) (2009)
- “The Challenges and Possibilities of Re-visioning Social Work Education in Africa” in New Directions in African Education: Issues in Curriculum, Pedagogy, Policy and Access (2009)
- “Increased racial group breast cancer care and survival differentials in America: Historical evidence consistent with a health insurance hypothesis, 1975 to 2001” in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, 113, 595-600 (2009)
- “Trans-nationalism, social identities and African youth in the Canadian diaspora” in Social Identities, 15 (2), 227-242 (2009)
- “When a Bed is Home: The Challenges and Paradoxes of Community Development in a Shared Housing Program for Homeless People” in Canadian Review of Social Policy (58) – Special Edition on Canadian Homelessness, 62-83 (2006)