article · Social Work Education
Ubuntu represents an overarching African philosophy encompassing shared knowledges, values, and practices across all regions of the continent. It operates across micro, meso, and macro levels, spanning individuals, families, communities, society, the environment, and spirituality. Within social work education, particularly in Africa, Ubuntu offers a philosophical and ethical foundation, informs theoretical knowledge, and records the history of African social work. It shapes professional methods, research practices, pedagogical models, and fieldwork, while fostering confidence among educators, students, and communities, and advancing decolonisation. However, full adoption faces hurdles, including the colonial background of the profession, broader societal changes, and a shortage of relevant instructional materials. Overcoming these barriers requires the active creation and deployment of learning resources grounded in Ubuntu principles.
Traditional social work education frequently relies on external frameworks that may not reflect regional realities. Grounding educational programmes in Ubuntu allows institutions to align professional training with indigenous African values, ethics, and communal practices. This relevance helps educators and students engage more effectively with community needs through culturally grounded problem-solving and teaching approaches.
The findings highlight a clear opening for developing Ubuntu-centred instructional content, textbooks, and curriculum packages for universities and training organisations. The primary users would be social work educators, tertiary students, and academic publishers. This work is at an early conceptual stage, requiring the authoring, piloting, and validation of new educational materials before they can be deployed at scale.
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The overarching philosophy of Black people of Africa is known by different names but Ubuntu is the most popular name. Ubuntu’s origin is attributable to Black Africans in all regions of the continent—North, West, Central, East and South. Different communities may emphasize its different aspects but they are common knowledges, values and practices. The article begins with a discussion of the philosophy of Ubuntu and its application at the micro (individual and family), meso (communal), macro (societal, environmental and spiritual) levels. The roles of Ubuntu in social work education are then discussed with a focus on Africa. These roles are offering a philosophical foundation; being a source of ethics and values; being a source of knowledge including theories; offering a history of African social work; shaping social work methods; building the confidence of educators, learners and communities; shaping research; being a pedagogical approach; enriching fieldwork education; and indigenizing and decolonizing. However, there are several impediments to the full use of Ubuntu, including the colonial history of the profession, changes to African society and lack of Ubuntu-inspired educational resources. The authors recommend continuous development and use of educational resources that are created with Ubuntu philosophy as a guiding principle.
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DOI: 10.1080/02615479.2023.2168638
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