Practices in Ecosocial Work Teaching and Learning
Chapter 4: Reenvisioning Social Work Curricula: Ecosocial Work Is Everybody’s Thing
Nicole Mattockset Al.
This chapter highlights key findings from a recent study conducted to examine current MSW course offerings in the USA. It considers the implications for educators and includes a clear call to action to develop ecosocial work courses which emphasize the important role that social workers should and do play in addressing environmental injustices. Additionally, we offer concrete suggestions and resources for educators trying to develop such a course in their own program.
Case Study 2: WiseWater Wellness: In a Disconnected World—Water Connects
Katie McShane & Elaine Moynihan
In a world dominated by capitalist expansion, the gaps between contemporary society and environmental education are becoming wider. While young people learn about the environment and climate change within formal education, the current school curriculum fundamentally lacks an ecocentric approach. To achieve a sustainable future, it is crystal clear that human behaviours, values, and attitudes need to change. Ecocentric education is an important tool in reshaping the unsustainable worldviews that have taken this planet to tipping point. As two youth and community workers and passionate water activists we have worked with young people and communities in various water projects throughout Ireland. Our work revealed that people have a thirst for dialogue and education that is relational and which inspires purposeful action in these critical times. Furthermore, with the reality of the multitude of environmental crises, we experienced many people suffering from eco anxiety, despondency, and a high prevalence of nature deficiency. We knew we had a responsibility to restore hope, and so we developed the WiseWater Wellness (WWW) educational programme. This is a uniquely designed ecocentric wellness education programme that supports reconnecting young people to themselves, their communities and the living world. WiseWater has many tributaries of ecosocial work all flowing from a source of connection, awareness, and appreciation of our interrelationship with the environment.
Chapter 5: Eco-Activism and Greening the Social Professions Curriculum: Teaching and Learning Ecosocial Work in an Irish University
Mary Hurley, Catherine Forde, Fiachra Ó Suilleabháin
The UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 refers to the need to educate populations about climate change. This can be achieved by training novice and frontline workers in the social and helping professions in the causes and effects of climate change and how human and natural ecologies are fundamentally entwined. This chapter discusses the origins, delivery, and outcomes of two new ecosocial work modules introduced to the Master of Social Work and BSocSc (Youth and Community Work) qualifying degree programs in University College Cork in recent years. The chapter argues for a fundamental shift toward a critical and activist pedagogy that counters the anthropocentric focus of the social professions, challenges neoliberal hegemony, and focuses on principles of ecological social justice.
Chapter 6: Linking the Human Rights and Ecosocial Paradigms in Social Work Education: An Example from Practice
Ingo Stamm, Lisa Dörfler
The chapter introduces a new teaching concept on the link between human rights-based social work and the ecosocial paradigm. In Germany, the discussion on ecosocial work has just recently started, and teaching human rights and ecosocial approaches is a new field in social work education. The teaching concept was put in practice in 2022 within the master program “Social Work as a Human Rights Profession” at the Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences Berlin. The seminar focused on the link between human rights, sustainability, and the natural environment, providing a theoretical foundation on the key concepts and discussing how to combine a human rights and an ecosocial perspective in social work practice.
Chapter 7: Eco-Diversity at the Margins: Permaculture as an Ecosocial Pedagogy for Social Work
Alex Skinner, Deborah Lynch
Grounding ecosocial practice concepts in social work curricula remains an ongoing challenge for educators. This chapter explores practical ways social work educators can enable students to critically engage with local-global socio-environmental issues and enact ecosocial practices in a diverse range of social work settings as future practitioners. Conceptually, it draws on the system-based holistic lens of permaculture to offer ecosocial practice narratives for teaching and learning to enrich and deepen social work skills and practices within the ecosocial framework.
Chapter 8: Social Work and Environmental Sustainability Toolkit: Building a Practical Guide to Apply Sustainable Practices in Social Work
Rita Luís, Joana Gomes, Afonso Borga
In this chapter, students from a Portuguese university address the relationship between social work and environmental sustainability using a pragmatic approach: the construction of a toolkit as a practical guide for the application of sustainable practices and projects in social work. The chapter describes the construction of the toolkit, which was developed using a literature review, presentations from experts in the field of sustainability, and six webinars which inform the six topics of the toolkit: “Environmental Social Work in the Community”, “Social Work and the Circular Economy”, “Food Security, Sustainability, and Social Work”, “Social Work and Environmental Education”, “The Human-Animal as an Element in Social Work”, and “Social Work in Environmental Disaster”. Each chapter starts with a theoretical view of the subject and finishes with a presentation of case studies. It is intended that this practical guide for the application of sustainability in the social sector may become a reference tool for students and professionals who want to develop academic work or social projects with an environmental sustainability component.
Case Study 3: Stormkop: Nurturing Minds, Inspiring Action for a Sustainable Future
Luna Haine
In the vibrant city of Antwerp, Belgium, the NGO Stormkop is located in a vast barn next to an ancient dry dock at the Scheldt River. This unique organisation engages children and adults through art, science, and philosophy to raise awareness about climate change and pollution. Stormkop’s dynamic philosophy, tailored to diverse groups, encourages hands-on learning and creative thinking. Founded in 2012 as an educational initiative, Stormkop evolved into a hub for environmental education and action. Supported by the city of Antwerp and various activities, the NGO operates with a horizontal hierarchy, fostering equality and collaboration. During an internship, I participated in their innovative programs, such as pollution clean-up and creative recycling, which profoundly impacted my perspective on social work and environmental issues. This experience highlighted the importance of integrating ecosocial work into education and practice, emphasizing the need for hope and action in addressing ecological challenges.
Chapter 9: Teaching for Ecosocial Work: What Can Ecosocial Policy Offer?
Joe Whelan
This chapter explores social work education in the context of climate change. It suggests that a turn toward sustainable social policies which align with the mission of social work might be one useful way to begin to think, talk and teach about climate justice. In this respect and couched within the overarching framework of a postgrowth aligned capability approach, universal basic services (UBS) and a participation income (PI) are explored. Ultimately, it is suggested that focusing on ecosocial policies in the context of social work education can give future practitioners something to aspire toward, to engage in activism for and to help shape practice.
Chapter 10: Rethinking Transnational Social Work Pedagogy for Climate Change, Migration, and Crisis Preparedness
Janet Carter Anand, Anish K. R., Manish K. Jha, Bipin Jojo, Satu Ranta-Tyrkkö
The ecological crises increase human inequality and vulnerability and among other factors force people to migrate. While the climate crisis is likely to make life gradually harder everywhere, the reception of migrants and the roles and opportunities available for them are enmeshed with prevailing patterns of inequality and privilege. Similar issues are at stake in acute crisis situations impacting local communities and migrants. Social workers are usually among the frontline workers trying to meet the needs of the affected people and enhance resilience at the grassroots. Yet, existing social work degree programs provide hardly any specific training for social workers on crisis preparedness and research on crisis preparedness is limited.
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