question archive Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander curriculum content The preamble to the AASW Code of Ethics (2010, p
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander curriculum content The preamble to the AASW Code of Ethics (2010, p
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander curriculum content
The preamble to the AASW Code of Ethics (2010, p. 5) states:
??Social workers acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the First Australians, whose lands, winds and waters we all now share, and pay respect to their unique values, and their continuing and enduring cultures which deepen and enrich the life of our nation and communities.
??Social workers commit to acknowledge and understand the historical and contemporary disadvantage experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the implication of this for social work practice.
??Social workers are responsible for ensuring that their practice is culturally competent, safe and sensitive.
These statements set a clear mandate for the educational preparation of social workers. They shape the ways in which the three core values of professional social work practice—respect, social justice and professional integrity—must be practised, addressing Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ experience as a priority in social work practice.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples make up approximately 2% of the overall Australian population. Yet on most national indicators of disadvantage, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples continue to be over-represented. These standards recognise the commitment that social workers must have to addressing this ongoing disadvantage and to engaging in non-racist practice with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
The legacy of the historical disadvantage and trauma affects all Australians. Despite this historical and contemporary disadvantage, many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities are resilient, and a strengths approach is critical.
Throughout these curriculum standards, the Aboriginal lens of Ways of Knowing, Being and Doing (Martin 2003) is used. This lens provides a way of thinking holistically about experience, which becomes profoundly relevant for social work practice with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and indeed, all people with whom social workers engage.
Ways of Knowing:
Ways of Knowing is specific to ontology and Entities of Land, Animals, Plants, Waterways, Skies, Climate and Spiritual systems of Aboriginal groups. Knowledge about ontology and Entities is learned and reproduced through processes of: listening, sensing, viewing, reviewing, reading, watching, waiting, observing, exchanging, sharing, conceptualising, assessing, modelling, engaging, applying. Ways of Knowing also entails processes that allow it to expand and contract according to social, political, historical and spatial dimensions of individuals, the group and interactions with outsiders. So this incorporates the contexts as well as the processes. It is more than just information or facts, but is taught and learned in certain contexts, in certain ways at certain times (Martin 2003, p. 9). ASWEAS Guideline 1.1: Guidance on essential core curriculum content 21
Ways of Being:
We are part of the world as much as it is part of us, existing within a network of relations amongst Entities that are reciprocal and occur in certain contexts. This determines and defines for us rights to be earned and bestowed as we carry out rites to country, self and others – our Ways of Being. These are indelibly driven by our ontology through our Ways of Knowing and serve as guides for establishing relations amongst the Entities. Our Ways of Being are about the rights we earn by fulfilling relations to Entities of country and self (Martin 2003, p. 10).
Ways of Doing:
Our Ways of Doing are a synthesis and an articulation of our Ways of Knowing and Ways of Being. These are seen in our: languages, art, imagery, technology, traditions and ceremonies, land management practices, social organisation and social control. Again these are life stage, gender and role specific. For example, women have responsibilities and rites to fulfil as nurturers and men have responsibilities and rites to fulfil as protectors. Our Ways of Doing express our individual and group identities, and our individual and group roles. Our behaviour and actions are a matter of subsequent evolvement and growth in our individual Ways of Knowing and Ways of Being (Martin 2003, p. 11).
Throughout these standards, the term ‘identity’ is deliberately not used. This is because part of the legacy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders has been both the trauma of identity that led to Stolen Generations experiences, and the ongoing trauma when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ‘identity’ must be ‘proven’. It is also because within social work theory, a notion of a single or fixed ‘identity’ is not consistent with understandings of people as complex, fluid beings.
These curriculum standards outline what all accredited Australian social work programs must incorporate into the learning experiences of their students. By necessity, they engage educators in these learning experiences, so that teaching environments are culturally safe places for all. Therefore, these curriculum standards are about layers of learning.
The curriculum content described here encompasses the basic attitudes and values, knowledge and practice skills needed by an entry-level social worker in any practice setting to promote safe, reflective practice. It is based upon the foundations for social work practice outlined in the AASW Code of Ethics (2010).
4.1. Knowing and Being: attitudes and values
To ensure safe practice, the social work curriculum content is expected to embed the following specific attitudes and values underpinning practice:
1) Respect for, and acknowledgment of, the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander experiences.
2) Respect for the person and who they are in their unique cultural context.
3) A preparedness to challenge racism and oppression.
ASWEAS Guideline 1.1: Guidance on essential core curriculum content 22
4) An understanding of, and a critical engagement with, notions of universal human rights, social justice and non-racist practice.
5) Acknowledgement of the need for continual critical reflection on our personal and professional cultural contexts.
6) Recognition of the richness of knowledge and skills within different Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups.
7) Recognition of the strengths and tensions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander worldviews.
8) Recognition of the importance of dialogue, accountability, mutual respect and responsibility in building understanding and relationship.
9) Acknowledgement of the complexities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander experiences.
10) Recognition of the constantly changing nature of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander contexts and experiences.
11) Recognition of the Australian practice context and the interface with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander experiences.
4.2. Knowing: knowledge for social work practice
The social work curriculum is expected to address the following specific knowledge areas underpinning practice:
1) Knowledge of the resilience, strengths and survivorship of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their communities.
2) Knowledge of the intergenerational impacts of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander experiences of racism and oppression, in particular, the traumatic legacy of the Stolen Generations.
3) Knowledge of the continuing health and social inequalities between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and other Australians.
4) Awareness and understanding of historical and contemporary perceptions of social work services among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and the legacy arising from experiences of colonisation, dispossession and the Stolen Generations experiences.
5) Knowledge of the three core values of professional social work, outlined in the AASW Code of Ethics (2010).
6) Knowledge of Australia's history of colonisation and its devastating impact on the wellbeing and ways of life of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
7) Knowledge of legislative and policy practices that both enhance and inhibit Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander wellbeing at individual, family and community levels.
8) Knowledge of the central notions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community and family life, including country, language, kinship and moiety.
9) Knowledge of some of the worldview differences between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Western perspectives in relation to time, 'identity' and individuality.
ASWEAS Guideline 1.1: Guidance on essential core curriculum content 23
10) Knowledge of the structure and governance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and communities.
11) Knowledge of the importance of Aboriginal worldviews, terms of reference and meaning.
12) Knowledge of communication differences with the Aboriginal emphasis on yarning and storying.
13) Knowledge of theories of race, diversity, and power.
14) Knowledge of Australia's history of colonisation and its importance in shaping the nation.
15) Knowledge of key organisations that support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
16) Knowledge of who to engage with and how when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and communities, mindful of the resourcing issues that they face.
4.3. Doing: skills for social work practice
The social work curriculum is expected to address the following specific knowledge areas underpinning practice:
1) Critically reflect on their own personal and professional assumptions and worldviews, and the influence they have in social work practice.
2) Critically reflect on the organisational and social factors influencing the capacity for practice to be culturally sensitive and safe.
3) Engage in continual learning about culturally respectful, empowering practice.
4) Use supervision to critically reflect upon Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues emerging in practice.
5) Work effectively with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander colleagues within organisational contexts.
6) Communicate effectively through respectful, clear dialogue.
7) Assess and address any barriers to effective communication.
8) Assess the cultural context and experiences of clients as part of an overall assessment to understand the ways these are influencing current wellbeing and/or difficulties.
9) Advocate with and on behalf of clients in culturally respectful and socially just ways.
10) Use the full range of social work methods to work for change and social justice with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities.
11) Establish rapport and empathy with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples particularly through the use of listening rather than questioning.
12) Relate using skills of yarning and storying and other skills based on narrative approaches.
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Acknowledgements
The AASW board of directors acknowledges the significant contributions and commitment of all those involved in the development of this statement and the accompanying resource document. A particular thank you goes to the consultants and to the Reference Group, an august collection of practitioners and academics working at the forefront of reconciliation and education issues.
Consultants: Dr Christine Fejo-King and Dr Lou Harms
