Anti-racism and predominantly 'White areas': Local and national referents in the search for race equality in social work education

Abstract

This article draws on research that investigated teaching and learning for anti-racist and cultural competency practice across social work programmes in Wales. It utilises the concept of 'predominantly white areas', defined as both a spatial category and as a mode of thinking to show how anti-racist teaching can be marginalised by misplaced assumptions associated with small minority presence. It draws on the relatively new theoretical trajectory of 'whiteness' studies to explore how particular constructions of the local/national context form a critical interplay with anti-racist teaching and learning, in this case 'the Welsh context'. It argues that anti-racist teaching needs to be accommodative of an understanding of constructions of the local and the national within which the recognition of minorities and the teaching of anti-racism can be appropriately reclaimed. © The Author 2012.