‘Racialised nudity’ in social work education: critical reflections on cross-cultural pedagogies

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ABSTRACT Fostering cross-cultural learning is an important component in social work education in Australia. However, cross-cultural learning competencies are often criticised for lacking meaningful engagement with effective decolonial processes. Drawing on a postcolonial perspective, this paper offers a theoretical critique of pedagogical practices that create, sustain, and reinforce racial hierarchy in cross-cultural learning. These practices are discussed within the notions of tokenistic inclusion and racialised nudity that illustrate deficit models of cultural engagement. The paper is underpinned by the argument that a broadly defined and uncritically designed cross-cultural teaching and learning experience runs the risk of perpetuating white supremacy and dominance in social work education. By critiquing tokenistic cross-cultural pedagogical practices, this paper advocates for a re-orientation of social work education where a decolonial approach to knowledge production is embraced within curriculum design with a prioritised focus on the intersection of whiteness and racism.