by Chris Hilburn-Trenkle
A new textbook produced by a scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work gives social workers an essential skills-based guide for practicing global social work by centering local knowledge and expertise.
Johnson, Howard, Adair Distinguished Professor Gina Chowa, associate dean for global engagement and director, Global Social Development Innovations at the School of Social Work, is editor of the book, “Global Social Work: Preparing Globally Competent Social Workers for a Diverse and Interconnected World,” which features contributors who are experts in the field from around the globe. The 243-page textbook published by Springer Publishing offers social workers the skills for context-specific global practice that demonstrates applications relevant to addressing challenges that communities across the world face to help individuals cultivate a robust knowledge base.
We spoke with Chowa about the publication, her decades of social work practice and more. The transcript has been edited for clarity.
To learn more about the book or to purchase a copy, click here. The book was released to the public Aug. 28.
What was the process like for you to put in the time for editing and creating this textbook?
I’ve been asked by publishers to publish a textbook for some time now—since I was an associate professor. I didn’t think it was the right time then. I wanted to focus on the demands and expectations of tenure and promotion before I could even think about writing a book. But then the time came when I thought that it was time to contribute to the profession, particularly global social work in the Global South. I did not want to write a book sitting in my office in a corner thinking about what I have experienced. I wanted the book to be a collaboration with folks who are on the ground, doing the work, and together we could offer guidance and skills to the next generation of global social workers.
When I started, I was very clear that I wanted experienced folks across the globe to be contributors. If you look at the contributors there are folks from different countries, who have done the work and have invaluable experience. We have scholars, policy makers, practitioners who work in Africa, Asia, America, Latin America. I approached each one of them and asked if they could contribute to the book …
These chapters are written by different contributors. As an editor you provide the structure for the content but you also have to read all the chapters to make sure there’s no repetition, make sure one chapter augments the other and then you have a goal for each chapter and a goal for the book as well. It was a long process; it was a lot of work. There would be weekends where from Friday to Monday I would be working on the book …
But it was a worthwhile job. I really enjoyed editing the book because my goal is to provide a skills development textbook not only for students, but for professionals as well.
Given all the connections you’ve made around the world, how did you go about the process of deciding which contacts you wanted to consult in putting together this book?
All my work is based on relationships. This was another project that was based on relationships. Each one of the authors I have a relationship with. We’ve worked together, we’ve interacted. It was alignment as well. I wanted to make sure I had folks who had experience on the ground, not just theoretical, conceptual. This is a skills development textbook, it’s not only theory. It’s about providing tools to students and professionals on how to do global social work in a reciprocal, mutually beneficial, impactful way. I can vouch for each one of the authors that they have done the work. It was easy to narrow it down to folks who have done the work.
They have experience in each one of the areas that I asked them to write about. It wasn’t easy because I had a longer list than the folks who responded, but ultimately, I got the right people to write the chapters.
Why are the competencies, theories and practice methods that you mention in the textbook so important for social workers?
I think social work is a profession that is human-centered. It’s like medicine and nursing, it’s very easy to cause harm if you’re not careful in the way that you interact with people. You can call social work many different things. We are enablers, facilitators, advocates, therapists, managers, organizers. It’s important to get into the profession with the competencies and the skills that you need to be able to do the work and cause no harm.
For younger professionals, maybe even students, they need to have a foundation of the theories that we use, but there are also values and ethics that we need to instill in the next generation of social workers. That will be the structure from which they can launch whatever it is they are doing.
If you think about cultural humility, I prefer cultural responsiveness because I don’t believe folks can be culturally competent—if I’m not from your culture it’s very difficult to be competent. I think it’s responsiveness, it’s that humility that causes you to say, “So how can I work with you to ensure that you have a voice, and you can contribute to your own well-being.” Those are things that are very important for a social worker to have as a foundation. On that foundation you’ll build the skills and the tools that they can use. Those are important because someone can say social work is an applied science, but I would say fundamentally we are human-specific before we are a science and because we are human-specific, we ought to be responsive to the changing dynamics that happen with human life.
How does the School’s Global Engagement Office relate to these principles and instill these values in the next generation of social workers?
The Global Engagement Office in the School of Social Work is built on these values. We talk about reciprocity, we talk about mutual benefit, we talk about respect, we talk about cultural humility, which I would push further and say cultural responsiveness. But there’s also evidence-based practices. I think that’s a term we need to unpack as folks who are in a global community because sometimes, we impose what we think is evidence on others without really thinking, “Who has defined that as evidence? Who has pushed that as evidence?” There are power differentials, even in the profession. In the Global Engagement Office, we realize that is true. There are power differentials when you’re working in a global community. It’s important that we step back as social workers and self-reflect and ask ourselves, “How am I showing up as a social worker in this space? Am I respecting the folks who have lived experiences of the issue? Am I coming in and believing I’m the one who has solutions?”
The connection between the book and the Global Engagement Office is we do realize there is a history to social work. The first chapter talks about what global social work is, and I make the distinction between international social work and global social work. International social work is, “We know we are going to practice outside our country.” Whereas global social work is, “there are issues in the world, how do we address these issues in a way that takes into consideration the history, colonization, and how do we ensure that those with lived experiences have a say in their well-being.” It’s very similar to the way that we think about engagement in the Global Engagement Office.
How has your work helped you to be able to prepare other social workers with the skills to challenge these Eurocentric approaches and apply the right skills for teaching effective, context-specific practices?
I was born in Zambia. My first degree is in Zambia. My two other degrees are from America. I have practiced in so many countries, not just as a researcher. Before I became a researcher, I was a professional social worker. I’ve practiced for 30 years.
I’ve seen what good practice is, I’ve seen when we don’t have humility and openness, what harm we can cause. I’ve worked in situations where I’ve known we’ve made mistakes. I’ve learned over the years. Some journeys have been painful. It’s not just good experiences, it’s a mix. I’ve been in situations where social workers have caused harm. I’ve been in situations where international development agencies have done harm and we’ve gone in and tried to clean up. I have the experiences; I’ve been in the trenches, and I’ve learned from others. It’s not just that I have that experience myself, but I’ve interacted with folks who have experience as well. That interaction of learning through mutual learning has also shaped me.
Is there anything else you would like people to know about this book or your work in general?
The biggest thing that I want people to understand is this is a skills development book. It’s a manual for both students and practitioners on global social work. It’s not a theoretical book. It’s a hands-on book that will build the skills and competencies that we hope the next generation of social work will have. It’s built on respect for humanity. No one is superior. I talk about the indigenization of social work, so ensuring it’s context-specific and it makes sense and it’s relevant to the communities we work with.
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