Global Analyses of Social Work

3 credits · Undergraduate

This course focuses on social issues beyond Canada, and the ways in which global analyses in social work theory and practices attend to them. By broadening the scope of what social work is and does, students learn strategies to challenge hegemonic approaches as well as the colonial and imperial epistemic frameworks that typically shape the Anglo-American centric social work views of helping. Students critically engage with the similarities and differences in social work practices across diverse sociopolitical and cultural contexts, emphasizing the importance of social work rooted in local realities and lived experiences. Nuanced, decolonial analyses acknowledge and respect diverse knowledge systems while interrogating power relations in global and local social work practice.