Developing a poverty-aware pedagogy : from paradigm to reflexive practice in post-academic social work education

Social work scholars haveargued that poverty reminds us of the necessary commitmentto educate professional social workers in the development of poverty-aware practices. Being inspired by a conceptual framework thatcaptureshow poverty-awareness can be the subject of teaching in social work programs, this article offers a qualitative analysis of the reflections being made by a cohort of students about their learning process in a post-academiccourse. Five common themesare discussed: (1) from recognizing micro-aggressions to tackling macro-aggressions, (2) poverty is an instance of social injustice and requires collective indignation, (3) notions of commitment and solidarityare ambiguous, (4) poverty is an instance of social inequality rather than merely social exclusion, and (5) from being heroic agents tosocial change ‘from within’. Based on these findings, we raise thelessons learned for social work educators.Social work scholars haveargued that poverty reminds us of the necessary commitmentto educate professional social workers in the development of poverty-aware practices. Being inspired by a conceptual framework thatcaptureshow poverty-awareness can be the subject of teaching in social work programs, this article offers a qualitative analysis of the reflections being made by a cohort of students about their learning process in a post-academiccourse. Five common themesare discussed: (1) from recognizing micro-aggressions to tackling macro-aggressions, (2) poverty is an instance of social injustice and requires collective indignation, (3) notions of commitment and solidarityare ambiguous, (4) poverty is an instance of social inequality rather than merely social exclusion, and (5) from being heroic agents tosocial change ‘from within’. Based on these findings, we raise thelessons learned for social work educators.A