Developing Anti-oppressive Ethics in the New Curriculum

• Published in: Social work education Vol. 24; no. 6; pp. 677 - 692
• Main Authors: Clifford, Derek, Burke, Beverley
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Routledge 01.09.2005; Taylor & Francis
• Subjects: Curriculum; Curriculum subjects: programmes and methods; Education; Educational sciences; Ethics; Interdisciplinary Approach; Professional Ethics; Social Work; Social Work Education; Teaching methods; United Kingdom; Decision Making; Social Work; Ethics; Training program; Higher Education; Education
• ISSN: 0261-5479; 1470-1227
• DOI: 10.1080/02615470500185101

This paper describes the development of an anti-oppressive ethics and values module appropriate for the new social work degree. It is contended that there has been insufficient attention paid to ethics teaching in social work education generally in the UK, and in particular there has been: The paper proposes a rationale for an anti-oppressive ethics module that will enable traditional ethical theories to be placed within an anti-oppressive social work values context, and aim to provide students with a more adequate guide for decision-making. The module will be developed in consultation with service users and interprofessional colleagues. It will take into account the British legal and policy framework, the General Social Care Council code of practice, as well as the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education requirements, but placing them within an anti-oppressive framework drawn from the authors' current and previous work in this area, and will have special reference to recent feminist moral philosophy. The authors have recently been re-located into a Faculty of Health and Applied Social Studies and will be developing the new module on ethics in consultation with health lecturer colleagues specialising in ethics with the aim of developing interprofessional co-operation and sharing of perspectives between staff and students. They write with long experience of both practising and teaching social work, and with diverse experiences of 'race', gender, class, and also being both service users and providers.