Teaching race in social work education

Abstract This paper aims to consider the difficulties inherent in leading diverse groups of adults who are training as social workers to think critically about ‘race’ and ethnicity. It draws on our experience as tutors at an adult residential college with a focus on second-chance education. The students on the BA Social Work include adults from a range of ethnicities and nationalities who hold multiple identities. This paper explores how we approached teaching ‘race’ to this group, relates and reflects on the students’ individual experiences of race and ethnicity, and discusses how these were integrated into classroom teaching.