The Routledge Handbook of Critical Pedagogies for Social Work

The Routledge Handbook of Critical Pedagogies for Social Work traverses new territory by providing a cutting-edge overview of the work of classic and contemporary theorists, in a way that expands their application and utility in social work education and practice; thus, providing a bridge between critical theory, philosophy, and social work. Each chapter showcases the work of a specific critical educational, philosophical, and/or social theorist including: Henry Giroux, Michel Foucault, Cornelius Castoriadis, Herbert Marcuse, Paulo Freire, bell hooks, Joan Tronto, Iris Marion Young, Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci, and many others, to elucidate the ways in which their key pedagogic concepts can be applied to specific aspects of social work education and practice. The text exhibits a range of research-based approaches to educating social work practitioners as agents of social change. It provides a robust, and much needed, alternative paradigm to the technique-driven ‘conservative revolution’ currently being fostered by neoliberalism in both social work education and practice. The volume will be instructive for social work educators who aim to teach for social change, by assisting students to develop counter-hegemonic practices of resistance and agency, and reflecting on the pedagogic role of social work practice more widely. The volume holds relevance for both postgraduate and undergraduate/qualifying social work and human services courses around the world.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction: The imperative of critical pedagogies for social work Part 1: Key foundational concepts 2. Karl Marx: Capitalism, alienation and social work 3. Reaching Back to Go Forward: Applying the Enduring Philosophy of Jane Addams to Modern Day Social Work Education 4. Lifting the veil of our own consciousness: W.E.B. DuBois and transformative pedagogies for social work 5. Reaching Higher Ground– the importance of Lev Vygotsky’s therapeutic legacy for Social Work 6. A Prophet without Honor: Bertha Capen Reynolds’ Contribution to Social Work’s Critical Practice & Pedagogy 7. ‘Reflecting on Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks: Marxism and Social Work 8. From Language to Art: A Marcusian Approach to Critical Social Work Pedagogy 9. Theodor Adorno: ‘Education after Auschwitz’ – Contributions towards a critical social work pedagogy 10. Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy for critical consciousness and practice 11. Teaching democracy in the social work and human service classroom: Inspiration from Myles Horton and the Highlander Folk School 12. Pedagogy and power through a Foucauldian lens 13. ‘A social work counter-pedagogy yet-to-come’: Jacques Derrida and critical social work education and practice 14. From privileged irresponsibility to shared responsibility for social injustice: The contribution of Joan Tronto and Iris Marion Young to critical pedagogies of privilege 15. Critical social work education as democratic Paideia: Inspiration from Cornelius Castoriadis to educate for democracy and autonomy 16. Sociology for the people: Dorothy Smith’s Sociology for Social Work 17. Henry Giroux’s vision of critical pedagogy: Educating social work activists for a radical democracy 18. Social work through the pedagogical lens of Jacques Rancière 19. Giorgio Agamben – Sovereign power, bio-politics and the totalitarian tendencies within societies 20. Avashai Margalit’s Concept of Decency: Potential for the lived experience project in social work? 21. The Relevance of Nancy Fraser for Transformative Social Work Education 22. Roberto Esposito, biopolitics and social work 23. Gilles Deleuze: Social Work from the position of the encounter Part 2: Specific applications: Fields of practice, Postcolonial and Southern Voices, Practice Methods, and Fields of Practice 24. Donna Haraway: Cyborgs, Making Kin and the Chthulucene in a Post-Human World 25. Critical (Animal) Social Work: Insights from Ecofeminist & Critical Animal Studies in the Context of Neoliberalism 26. Piketty’s inequality and educational convergence concepts for transformative social policy practice 27. The radical potential of Carl Jung’s wounded healer for social work education 28. Embedding the queer and embracing the crisis: Drawing on Kevin Kumashiro’s anti oppressive pedagogies for social work education and practice 29. The Panopticon Effect: Understanding Gendered Subjects of Coercive Control through a reading of Judith Butler 30. Disrupting Ableism in social work pedagogy through Merleau-Ponty and critical disability theory Postcolonial and Southern Pedagogies 31. No more ‘Blacks in the Back’: Adding more than a ‘splash’ of Black into social work education and practice by drawing on the works of Aileen Moreton-Robinson and others who contribute to Indigenous Standpoint Theory 32. Engaged Buddhism, Embodiment, and the Legacy of Joanna Macy 33. Frantz Fanon’s Revolutionary Contribution: An Attitude of Decolonailty as Critical Pedagogy for Social Work 34. Samkange’s theory of Ubuntu and its contribution to a decolonised social work pedagogy 35. The relevance of Gandhism for Social Work Education And Practice Practice methods 36. Teaching community development with Hannah Arendt: Enabling new emancipatory possibilities 37. The Transformation and Integration of Society; Developing Social Work Pedagogy through Jürgen Habermas’ Theory of Communicative Action 38. Alain Touraine: The politics of collective action 39. Augusto Boal and Hans George Gadamer: A complimentary relationship toward critical performance pedagogy in social work education 40. Critical transformative learning and social work education: Jack Mezirow’s transformative learning theory 41. bell hooks’ trilogy: Pedagogy for social work supervision 42. Navigating the Politics and Practice of Social Work Research: With Advice from Pierre Bourdieu 43. Stephen Brookfield’s contribution to teaching and practising critical reflection in social work