There are congruencies between contemplation and social justice social work, such as the importance of awareness of self and political awareness. Yet, the place held for contemplative practices in the process of learning and developing a sense of social justice is under-researched. We completed a qualitative research project to understand student and faculty experiences of participating in anti-oppressive contemplative practices. This was supported by an online toolkit of contemplative practices and an in-person training session for faculty members.
Results demonstrate an appreciation for contemplative practices to be integrated into social work education as a vector for supporting relational know-how, anti-racism education, and critical reflexivity. Contemplative practices are perceived with curiosity and interest yet there is a need to understand how to practically link contemplation with core social work competencies to foster thoughtful scaling up into current curricula.
This 1/2 day workshop includes presentations/discussions of: online toolkit and an overview of the content for the workshops, including a practice portion; sharing experiences, challenges, impacts of integrating contemplative practices into undergraduate social work courses; research results and recommendations and an introduction to the next phase: the creation of anti-racist contemplative digital tools