Anti-othering co-education

This paper reports on three practices used in online social work education. People enrolled in online Social Work degrees at CSU commonly have families and work commitments in addition to their studies. Many are already working in the human services. The educational practices discussed here leverage the maturity and experience of the people enrolled. These practices are: critical reflection tasks on the experiences of students as users of human services; connecting people in the same fields of practice across States through threads on subject discussion boards; and incorporating student specialist knowledge in subject presentations. This approach enriches the connection of course material to the lived experience of people already in practice, and models inclusion and democratic practice by educators. The approach has yet to be evaluated but responses from the people participating are encouraging. We are interested now to hear thoughts from other educators and to hear about similar strategies being used by others. We see these practices as contributing to; bringing the service user into the class, discouraging an ‘us and them’ approach to tertiary education, and of contributing to de-stigmatising. It incorporates the knowledge of the people in the class, elevating their role and the valuation of their own knowledge. It makes the limitations of the academic more transparent – I have knowledge and experience but I am not a specialist in all topic areas that I facilitate. This approach contributes to epistemological justice, the inclusion of the ‘service user’ view, and brings critical social work practice into the classroom.