Animating pedagogies of discomfort and affect for anti-racism and decolonizing aims in social work education

Abstract

This dialogic composition captures the interconnected experiences of two racialized doctoral students co-teaching a critical social work practice course in a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) program parallel to undertaking a doctoral independent study on anti-racism and decolonizing curriculum and pedagogies. The undergraduate course sought to articulate the distinct desires of and connections between anti-racism and decolonization by drawing on pedagogies of discomfort and affect to support students in engaging difficult knowledges. This paper animates the layered entanglements of multiple actors: two doctoral students, a BSW student, and a faculty member. To capture these layered understandings and constitution of social work education through critical reflection on teaching practices, we weave together our various voices as a way of making visible the need for relationality within higher education. Through our experiences of holistic (un/re)learning, we reflect on tensions, resistance, and (im)possibilities that emerge when curriculum, pedagogies, and bodies collide.