AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC VIEW OF SOUTH AFRICAN SOCIAL WORK EDUCATORS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: HIGHLIGHTING SOCIAL (IN)JUSTICE

Abstract

COVID-19 has exposed the inequalities and polarisation of South African communities and institutions of higher learning on the continuum of privilege. As nine social work educators, we share our reflections on how we traversed the higher education space during the beginning of the pandemic, using an autoethnography lens, with the pedagogy of discomfort and critical social work theory as the threads in the complex tapestry of our stories. We describe our orientations as social work educators, the successes, challenges, and recommendations on reimagining and reframing learning and teaching in relation to student-institutional relationships, boundaries and support.

Keywords

• autoethnography
• covid-19
• emergency remote online learning and teaching (erolt)
• social work education
• social work educators
• social justice