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The Promotion of Global Education in Social Work Through Literature

Dr. Yolanda C. Padilla, University of Texas - Keynote Speaker

Subtheme: Strategies in Promotion of Global Education

Moderator: Dr. Guia Calicdan-Apostle

Abstract:

Dr. Padilla will describe an exciting inter-university project that uses literature to promote global education in social work. The project is being implemented through the Center for Diversity and Social & Economic Justice at the Council for Social Work Education and is being carried out in collaboration with Words Without Borders Campus, an organization that makes contemporary international literature in translation accessible to students and educators. The focus of this project is on developing intercultural competence. Together teaching and learning resources inform service delivery, program planning, community partnerships, advocacy, policy, and other areas of social work practice across a broad range of fields.

Bio

Yolanda C. Padilla, PhD, MSSW, LMSW-AP is the director of the Center for Diversity and Social & Economic Justice at the Council on Social Work Education and the Clara Pope Willoughby Centennial Professor in Child Welfare at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at The University of Texas at Austin. She is engaged in developing innovative approaches to professional social work education. Dr. Padilla served as Vice President of the Society for Social Work and Research for 2014-17. Her research focuses on social disparities in health and social well-being on poverty, race and ethnicity, and immigration as well as the responsiveness of social service delivery to cultural background. She has published extensively on the topics of Latino immigration and poverty and has received funding from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare, a fellow of the Society for Social Work and Research, and in 2019 was awarded a distinguished alumni award by the University of Michigan School of Social Work.

Convivial Classrooms: Learning in the Anthropocene 

Dr. Sophia Emmanouilidou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki 

Subtheme: Promoting Solutions to Social Issues 

Moderator: Dr. JY Zhou 

What is conviviality? How can educators create convivial tools to shed light on and, eventually, amend societal ills? Is a convivial interlude feasible and/or effective in a multicultural learning environment? This workshop draws from Ivan Illich’s philosophy of education, as proposed in the 1970s, and Paul Gilroy’s recent refashioning of conviviality as ‘at ease’ cosmopolitanism. The session offers critical thinking and good practice examples of how knowledge can become/transform into a tool for the reconsideration of both the physical cosmos and human cultures in the age of the Anthropocene. We will present learning/educational activities which give prominence to our ‘glocalized’ selfhoods, and signal channels of communication whereby local knowledge informs universal intelligence/concern and vice versa. To these goals in mind, the workshop explores how the eco-cosmopolitan (i.e. ‘glocal’) approach highlights (some) of our common experiences in the physical cosmos and propels both educators and learners to think and act as citizens of a global village. Attendees with varied backgrounds (cultural, social, religious, and more) participate in creative activities, which prompt them to produce narratives that accept difference and diversity, but above all ascertain the common ground of all human enactment: planet Earth. 

Strategies for Shifting Mindsets for Readiness in Global Transformational Change 

Dr. Sequetta Sweet, ºÚÁÏÉç 

Subtheme: Promoting Solutions to Social Issues

Moderator: Christopher Lipari Pazienza

Transformation efforts in organizations, particularly those in areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and global education, are often seen one-dimensionally as changing the organization, without understanding that transforming an organization requires transforming the members of that organization. Leadership development is a vehicle for widespread organizational transformation. The intent of leadership development is to transfer knowledge, information, and skills (Solansky, 2014). The process of leadership is inextricably connected to the change process; therefore, leadership development is crucial to the success of transformation (Sweet, 2023). It involves helping employees at all levels develop and evolve in areas such as self-awareness and self-knowledge, authenticity, empathy, competence, collaboration, commitment, shared purpose, the ability to be open to various and differing perspective, and the capacity to engage in dialogue or discourse. Providing opportunities for workers to learn through critical reflection urges them to think outside of the current structures that restrict them and to consider the political and social tensions they may face (Vince et al., 2018).

Leadership development involves questioning and reformulating one’s beliefs. Transformation in organizations is supported by finding innovative approaches that shift our beliefs, which is necessary for change in DEI. This session presents opportunities to learn about both individual and collective sensemaking and interpretation, which are the basis for the value of leadership development in social change. Several topics will be covered in the workshop, namely, (a) the importance of questioning and challenging one’s beliefs, assumptions, values, and thinking that underpins one’s actions, (b) schemas, also known as mental models, which are important for transformative learning and change, (c) individual unlearning as part of the process of change, (d) critical reflection as a change readiness strategy, and (e) leadership development as a strategy for change. The session will include experiential learning activities that help us understand how to help ourselves and members of our teams unlearn current ways of thinking and begin to make room for new perspectives to ensure that marginalized, excluded, and oppressed people experience the power of inclusive leadership in organizations and communities. This is particularly important in spaces where DEI awareness is necessary.

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Studying Abroad While Black: Examining Study Abroad from the Perspective of Black Students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Victoria Parker, Program Manager, Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging, Purdue University

Moderator: Dr. JY Zhou

Abstract:

This session will examine the barriers that hinder Black students from studying abroad and suggest ways that these barriers can be addressed. Additionally, this session will explore the advice Black students who participated in a study abroad program have for other Black students interested in study abroad.

Bio:

Victoria Parker is the Program Manager for Purdue University’s Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging,