I was recently involved in an online discussion about anti-racism. It became apparent that one of the participants, in discussing institutional racism, was using the term ‘institutional’ in its narrow everyday sense. That is, he was equating the term ‘institutions’ with organisations. He was therefore interpreting institutional racism simply as…

Chehore, H. (ed.) (2021) Social Work in the Face of Intersectional Racism: “Still I will Rise”, ISBN 9781914408151 I first met Hilda Chehore when she invited me to be a speaker at a conference she was organising. The conference was a big success, and it was an honour and privilege to be part of it. I realised I had met one of life’s ‘movers and shakers’. So, when…

Okeze-Tirado, V. (2021) Diversity Acrostic Poem: Working with Diversity Developing Culturally Sensitive Practice in Social Work and Social Care, London, VOT Training ISBN 9781838444105 I have found acrostics to be a really useful, memorable teaching tool — that is, making a set of points that spell out a relevant word…

Reid, W. and Maclean, S. (eds) (2021) Outlanders: Hidden Narratives from Social Workers of Colour from Black & Other Global Majority Communities, Birmingham, BASW. ISBN 9781912130566 Many years ago, I was approached by a publisher with a view to editing a collection of readings by black social work and social…

It is not uncommon for disputes to arise either within or between organizations. There are various ways in which people can attempt to resolve such disputes and ultimately the courts can be called upon to make a judgement in favour of one party or the other. However, allowing the dispute…

As someone with a long interest in language and how it is used, I am fascinated by how changes of terminology take place. Suddenly people are using a new term, sometimes to refer to a new concept or approach, but sometimes the new term just replaces an old one. …

There is a longstanding expectation in professional education that students and practitioners should be able to apply theory to practice. While I fully agree that theory is an essential underpinning of good practice, my view is that asking people to apply theory to practice is not a helpful thing to…

I attended a conference once where one of the presenters said that when people undergo a major change in their lives they experience something very similar to grief. ‘Similar?’, I thought to myself. ‘No, it is more than similar, it is identical; it is grief’. Grief is our reaction to…

Edward de Bono is best known for his work on lateral thinking. In fact, he has become a very influential writer in shaping generations of managers and other professionals. Furthermore, he has the distinction of being famous for more than one approach — that is, as well as being extremely…