If we can't decolonize, what CAN we do?

This is a story of one professor's journey exploring the meaning of decolonization for graduate education and the resulting MSW syllabus. Recognizing the impossibility of decolonization, she focused on decentering white supremacy power structures in class policies; inviting students to actively build a more accessible learning community. The shift away from hegemonic classroom policies problematizes traditional MSW education and offers students space to exhume and interrogate their values and how they show up as MSWs.

Monica Leisey, MSW, PhD a graduate of the VCV School of Social Work, works at Salem State University. Believing social workers are change agents, her social justice focus informs the work done in and out of the classroom including service as MSW Program Coordinator, SGS Interim Dean, Co-Chair for the University’s reaccreditation, and Co-Chair for the President’s Sustainable Path Forward Task Force. Monica also serves as Associate Editor for Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping. mleisey@salemstate.edu

Karen Kieffer is new faculty in the School of Social Work at Salem State University where she earned her MSW. She is also a doctoral student at the California Institute for Integral Studies and is interested in the intersections of interpersonal embodied and dialogical processes on the emergence of more effective collaborative relationships. In her private practice, Embodied Dialogics, she is currently working in coaching relationships with people with white privilege on exploring issues of embodiment, race, and racism in the United States. kkieffer@embodieddialogics.com