Unsettling reflexivity and critical race pedagogy in social work education: narratives from social work students

Abstract

Recognizing and dismantling structural racism is at the core of the National Association of Social Work’s (NASW) Code of Ethics and is also one of the Social Work Grand Challenges to tackle. Although increasing scholarly research has examined critical reflexive approaches to incorporate in the training of prospective anti-racist social work practitioners, scholars, and educators, limited research has examined narratives from social work students grappling with positionality and power structures of the profession. This article suggests unsettling reflexivity as a critical race pedagogy tool to disrupt and contest systems of power in social work education by presenting four critical autoethnographic narratives of graduate and doctoral social work students. Implications and recommendations to prioritize a pedagogy of relationality and discomfort for social work education are discussed.