Pedagogy and Social Work Education

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Presented in my professional dossier, August 2024.

 

There is no teaching without learning —Paolo Freire (1998)

 

Students are at the heart of my EL approach. Interacting with students continually helps me understand my role as an educator and researcher and helps me identify and refine my priorities. In EL, I position myself as a learner and reflect on my teaching practice as I engage with students, instructors, SW and the world. The practice of SW is continually changing; as an educator, I have a responsibility to reflect on these changes and provide students with learning opportunities that prepare them for practice. By positioning myself as a learner, I work to develop innovative pedagogies and teaching strategies that are relevant to SW, students and society. As I learn from these experiences, I then have the opportunity to share my findings, engage in dialogue with other educators and contribute to SW education and beyond.

Critical Pedagogy

Paolo Freire is well-known for his pedagogical approaches linked to social work practice. In his work, Freire lays out the theoretical foundations of a pedagogical model that aims to develop critical thinking and learners’ autonomy, a model that he has studied and developed throughout his career. This model requires learners to gradually acquire a power of reflection and expression to deepen their understanding of common real-life problems and to identify appropriate solutions.

Since summer 2020, I have been designing a pedagogical framework inspired by Freire, and other critical educators such as hooks, Palmer, Kumashiro and Giroux, to provide SW learners with an engaging and critical learning experience while reducing possible obstacles and barriers. I have integrated key elements of this framework into different aspects of my pedagogy and, more significantly, into the course designs for SOWK335, SOWK440C/529A and SOWK550. I have presented this pedagogical framework when discussing teaching SW and pedagogy at the SSW, and gave a talk:

Community of Practice Pedagogy

Community of Practice (CoP) Pedagogy[1] can enable students to engage, as a community of learners, in a more active learning experience and build knowledge collectively. With the support of the SoTL Seed Program (ISoTL, UBC) in the winter of 2020, I investigated the applicability of CoP Pedagogy in learning social work by using a CoP pedagogical framework in SOWK335. In this course, teams of six to eight students met throughout the semester to discuss class topics, reflect on their applicability to SW practice, and analyze case studies. Using qualitative research techniques (student focus groups and observations), I investigated how CoP Pedagogy created a discussion space for challenging subjects, evaluated its principal applications and determined its limits. In evaluative feedback on the project, a student summarized the benefits of this pedagogy:

We’re not only able to engage but we’re also growing and forming our group culture, and developing our skills as social workers in a group context together, we’re learning and making mistakes together, but that creates an environment where you don’t feel being judged or criticized on the points or stand you’re making, and letting us learn skills necessary in that environment, a safe space environment.

Impact Statement

This study provided a comprehensive evaluation of the CoP pedagogy within social work education. By assessing its effectiveness, we documented the significant benefits of CoP pedagogy, such as enhanced student engagement, collective knowledge-building and the creation of a safer learning environment. We also identified the essential conditions for fostering student safety and engagement and explored the limitations of this pedagogical approach. The findings from this project were disseminated across various platforms:

 

Process-Based Learning and Community Engaged Learning

Inspired by the discipline of urban planning, I redesigned SOWK440C/529A to employ Process-Based Learning (PBL) Pedagogy,[2] also known as Studio Pedagogy and Community Engaged Learning (CEL). To support this work, I initiated an ongoing collaboration with the UBC Centre for Community Engaged Learning (CCEL) to build and strengthen the community relationships and engagement that are integral to PBL and CEL. I also adapted course projects to help students support organizations working in the context of the pandemic.

The integration of PBL and CEL pedagogy had positive educational outcomes, as students showed significant engagement in the course and built meaningful projects that helped community organizations. In total, I have led 16 impactful PBL/CEL projects both in and beyond the classroom, in areas including decolonization, trans rights, climate change mitigation, anti-racism, gender-based violence prevention and food security. Please see section 9(c) in my CV for the detailed list.

 Impact Statement

Through strategic partnerships and innovative projects, I have significantly enhanced the learning experiences of SW students by integrating real-life community engagement into the curriculum. These initiatives have not only enriched students’ educational journeys but also contributed valuable tools and projects to the community, the field of social work and beyond:

  • Partnership with Lama Mugabo. Several of the projects listed in the previous section were the result of a close partnership and collaboration I established from 2021 to 2023 with Lama Mugabo, a community planner and organizer who was working at Building Bridges Rwanda, the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition and Hogan’s Alley Society. This partnership enriched students’ learning experiences through real-life engagement and mentorship from a prominent community leader in Vancouver. The partnership’s value was recognized through funding from the Partnership Recognition Fund in 2022 and 2023. The partnership permitted students in SOWK440C/529A to develop tools and projects centred on antiracism and decolonization, and their findings and recommendations were presented to NGOs in the DTES as well as at UBC and the SSW. For example, an outcome of this partnership is summarized in the following article: Hogan’s Alley Society Partners with UBC Students to Combat Anti-Black Racism in Social Work, 2022, Community Engagement, UBC.
  • Toolbox for Community Organizing: Students Engaging with Communities Advancing Community Engaged Learning Grant, CCEL, 2022. In December 2022, I was awarded the Advancing Community Engaged Learning Grant from CCEL for my project Toolbox for Community Organizing: Students Engaging with Communities. The project aimed to create a toolbox to assist students in carrying out community organizing projects as part of the course SOWK440C/529A. We tested the toolbox in fall 2023, and after reviewing the feedback from students, I made it an essential part of the course. It helps students to plan, execute and assess their community organizing projects.
  • Community Engaged Teaching Fellow, CCEL, 2024. In the spring of 2024, I was invited to join the Community Engaged Teaching Fellow program, which began in August 2024. This fellowship provides an opportunity to collaborate with UBC instructors who are dedicated to community-engaged learning. It offers a unique opportunity for self-reflection and scholarly examination of my teaching methods in the context of community-engaged learning. To achieve this, I will comprehensively analyze my teaching practices within the framework of a community organizing course offered in T1 2024 (SOWK440C/529A).

[1] CoPs are groups of people who have a strong appreciation for interacting with one another on a specific area of knowledge. Over time, the group can “develop a unique perspective on their topic as well as a body of common knowledge, practices and approaches” (Wenger et al., 2002). Proponents of the CoP framework argue that learning is inherently social and locally situated, and they push back on traditional education methods that focus on individuals learning abstract concepts. Barab, Barnett and Squire (2002) wrote that the CoP approach de-centres what is in the individual’s mind, and instead centres learning within social interaction. There has been a growing interest in CoP pedagogy in higher education. Situated learning and CoP can be especially meaningful in the context of social work education, where tacit knowledge is especially important and not everything is written down in manuals, but instead is often gleaned from social experiences and accumulated understandings (Moore, 2008). To date, most applications of CoP in social work education has employed virtual communities of practice rather than using in-class CoP pedagogy.

[2] The PBL model includes three key elements of learning: “the process of discovery; interdisciplinary collaboration; and metacognition (reflection)” (Hostetler, 2014). In this model, learning occurs through the problem-solving process, where students choose and apply solutions in situations similar to real life. Students engage in planning-related tasks, creative thinking and critical analysis to build practical actions and solutions to problems (Higgins, Aitken-Rose and Dixon, 2009).