Skills to enhance the efficacy of anti-racist supervision

Abstract

In a time of increased social division, overt bigotry, and pervasive structural violence, social workers have an opportunity to lead the helping professions in meaningful social transformation. Social work supervisors play a central role in developing and guiding ethical social work practice. Yet, little empirically driven scholarship exists providing supervisors with strategies for disrupting racism and bias in the practice of their supervisees. This exploratory qualitative study employs a grounded theory approach to unearth such strategies. Fifteen participants with social work supervisory experience, who identified as anti-racist, offered insights into in vivo approaches to disrupting racism in social work practice. The findings from this study emphasize the importance of a strong supervisory foundation, comprised of centering race and being in authentic relationship with staff. Further, strategies such as assessing the race consciousness of staff create the foundation to employ competencies for efficacious anti-racist supervision including taking space versus pausing, providing incremental pedagogical scaffolding, and leveraging a foundational supervisory skillset. These strategies represent tangible approaches social work supervisors might employ when engaging in anti-racist practice with their staff.