ABSTRACT

There is a conspicuous silence about the role of religion and spirituality in social work in Uganda, yet they are critical components in the lives of social workers and their clients. The authors’ collective experience of social work education in Uganda, South Africa, Sweden, the UK, and Australia attested to an absence of content on religion and spirituality in social work education. Most universities in Uganda incorporate little content on spirituality resulting in graduates ill-equipped to handle spiritually-related issues with their clients and communities. Authors adopted a content analysis of the narratives in their PhD theses to explore the inextricable connection between spirituality and social work practice in Uganda. From the common findings, the authors conceptualise an African Spiritually Sensitive Practice-Theory and a reflective tool for social workers in education and practice. The paper draws on lessons from research arguing for incorporating indigenous knowledge and African spirituality to inform the social work curriculum in Uganda.

摘要

关于宗教和灵性在乌干达社会工作中的作用明显保持沉默，但它们是社会工作者及其客户生活中的重要组成部分。作者在乌干达、南非、瑞典、英国和澳大利亚的社会工作教育集体经验证明，社会工作教育中缺乏有关宗教和灵性的内容。乌干达的大多数大学很少包含有关灵性的内容，导致毕业生没有能力处理与客户和社区有关的灵性问题。作者对博士论文中的叙述进行了内容分析，以探索乌干达的灵性与社会工作实践之间密不可分的联系。从共同的发现来看，作者将非洲精神敏感实践理论和社会工作者在教育和实践中的反思工具概念化。该论文借鉴了主张将土著知识和非洲精神融入乌干达社会工作课程的研究经验。