Humanity in social work pandemic pedagogy: Rejecting normalcy and embracing uncertainty

Social work educators often feel responsible for nurturing the next generation of practitioner through training in academic classrooms and supervision in field settings. They feel accountable to the profession, to their students, and to their students’ clients, both present and future (Jemal, 2021).

Early in the pandemic, almost all colleges and universities converted from in-person teaching to remote instruction as the pandemic reached their campuses, sometimes with only days’ notice. But social work education has more moving parts than your average university major. Every aspect of our training, from classroom to field, was impacted. In the face of extreme uncertainty—operating at every level of social work education—educators had to rapidly modify their pedagogical practices.

Educators and students alike felt the pressure to pivot quickly and adjust to a new normal as implicitly and explicitly mandated by their academic institutions. Yet, some social work educators have resisted this normalcy narrative and built-in time for reflection and community care. They have held virtual space for their students to come together and reflect on their experiences, share concerns, and feel supported (Taiwo, 2021). Others have worked overtime to prioritize humanity through feminist teaching and centering a pedagogy of care to address the anxieties the pandemic introduced into their classrooms (Hutchison, 2021; Mehrotra, 2021). Photovoice was used to center students’ experiences creating a space to share reflections (Malka, 2021). These pedagogical shifts and the overall resistance to simply carrying on in the midst of a global emergency have given students and educators a space to process and time to grieve. The adjustments furthered the university’s educational mission and aided in the student’s advancement but also insisted on alignment with social work values.

For a profession that relies on interpersonal practice and group engagement, there was also the abrupt loss of interpersonal contact, with all its professional and personal implications. The loss of casual in-person conversations in hallways or classrooms have increased feelings of isolation and loneliness for students. Similarly impacted is field education where students can’t touch base in person with a supervisor nor do they have direct access to their clients.

Despite innovations in teaching, existing inequalities have widened. Access to reliable technology and internet service is a hurdle for many students (Azman, et al. 2021). Expectations of cameras on, good lighting, and full engagement places additional burdens on students living in households crowded with people, with limited space, or less capacity to create learning environments in their homes conducive to success. Even while acknowledging the significance of these disadvantages, some fear that the move to online education will remain a permanent fixture in social work training after the world recovers from the pandemic fueled by the need of institutions to increase revenue through online enrollment.

Although the likelihood of a global pandemic was imminent, few were prepared for an emergency of this scale (Hunter, 2007). The net result was the introduction of uncertainty into the already complex nature of social work education. Entire universities were unsure about whether or not they would hold in-person classes. Agencies were uncertain how to provide services for clients as needs increased due to economic and mental health emergencies triggered by the pandemic. Educators and clinicians were unsure how to best work with field students without putting both their clients and students at risk. Social work accreditation organizations were uncertain how they would maintain professional standards while accommodating the flexibility necessary for students to complete their degrees. Through all this, educators wrestled with their own unsettledness while trying to manage the anxieties of their students. The pandemic has compounded all this uncertainty because no element of the educational system is left unaffected by the pandemic’s disruption.

Yet even though we have experienced many losses during the pandemic, we have the opportunity to put our social work values into practice and model them in the classroom by rejecting normalcy, holding space for reflection, and centering humanity. Grappling with uncertainty and complexity can strengthen social workers’ adaptability and skills, producing a strong and resilient crop of practitioners for the future (Afrouz, 2021).