ABSTRACT

Historically, the development of social work education in most African countries has been strongly influenced by and modeled upon Western knowledge and pedagogy. Social work education has not been the product of a progressive indigenous social transformation but rather that of foreign practices imposed on African societies. This paper, therefore, examines the contribution of western pedagogy and knowledge in the development of social work education in Nigeria. In-depth interviews were used to collect data from eight purposively selected social work educators and thematically analysed. Findings show that the curriculum that is used in Nigerian social work education is designed in line with European culture and orientation. Also, most textbooks used for social work education in Nigeria are from the Western context and thus, have not been able to aptly address the unique issues, culture, and behavioural patterns of Nigeria. Therefore, there is the need for transformation of Nigerian social work education from being Western-centric to being Afro-centric while accommodating the relevance of its Western-centric origin. It is recommended that indigenous knowledge and culture should be incorporated and integrated into social work education in Nigeria to reflect and stimulate services that are culturally and nationally compatible.

摘要

从历史上看，大多数非洲国家社会工作教育的发展都深受西方知识和教育学的影响，并以其为蓝本。社会工作教育不是进步的本土社会变革的产物，而是强加于非洲社会的外国实践的产物。因此，本文考察了西方教育学和知识对尼日利亚社会工作教育发展的贡献。深入访谈被用来从八位有目的地选择的社会工作教育者那里收集数据，并进行专题分析。调查结果表明，尼日利亚社会工作教育中使用的课程是根据欧洲文化和方向设计的。此外，尼日利亚用于社会工作教育的大多数教科书都来自西方背景，因此，未能恰当地解决尼日利亚的独特问题、文化和行为模式。因此，有必要将尼日利亚的社会工作教育从以西方为中心转变为以非洲为中心，同时适应其以西方为中心的起源的相关性。建议将土著知识和文化纳入尼日利亚的社会工作教育，以反映和促进在文化和国家上兼容的服务。