Life After Death: Revitalization of Social Work Education Programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities through Decolonization

Abstract

One of the major problems facing social work education in the United States is that there are too many programs. Currently 463 Bachelor of Social Work programs exist in the United States. The growth spurt of programs has been justified by the belief that the profession of social work will grow faster than average by 2018. Institutions of higher learning are feeling the pressure to fill the impending demand for more social workers in the U.S. and social work education programs are feeling the pressure to fulfill the demand by increasing student enrollment. This demand for growth has created a massive competition for social work education programs to recruit and retain social work majors. The purpose of this project was to discover how decolonization was used in the revitalization of a social work education program at a historically Black university. This project looked at the challenges with which social work education programs at historically black colleges and universities face, and how the usage of decolonization would be beneficial to their growth by creating a sense of ownership among students. This project revealed that the framework of decolonization made a significant difference with students majoring in social work at a historically Black university and that when it is utilized in the context of revitalization and change among students is self-initiated, evolutionary or additive within a social work higher education program, the student’s ownership towards their major will result in the promotion of positive change. Also highlighted within the context of this project was the importance of compassion, family and democratic teaching in relation to student morale. Future researchers can utilize this project to view the importance of the relationships between faculty and students and their interconnection with recruitment and retention. This project gave new meaning to the revitalization of social work education programs in higher education and what it really takes to thrive.