Interrogating Anti-Racist Social Work Education in England

The focus of this chapter is to reflect on important strands of empirical work which enable us to explore and theorise about how social work students navigate and make sense of anti-racist practice in pre-qualifying training contexts. We examine important empirical evidence which enables us to understand the challenges and barriers students face in this politically and emotionally supercharged area of learning. As educators and researchers we feel that it is important to evaluate the pedagogic relevance and practice utility of teaching social work students about ‘race’, racism and anti-racism, and identify how this learning is supported and hindered in both practice education and formal classroom teaching contexts. Both of us recognise the need to learn more about ‘what works’ for students when delivering anti-racist curricula and preparing students to navigate making sense of the murky and fluid terrain of racism in social work and society.