Browsing by Author "Twikirize, Janestic"

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    Re-imagining Social Work Education in East Africa
    (Social Work Education, 2023-03-20) Nilsen, Ann Christin E.; Kalinganire, Charles; Manyama, William; Ochen, Eric Awich; Twikirize, Janestic
    To an increasing extent, scholars of social work have called for social work education and practice to be more responsive to local norms, customs and needs. Commonly referred to as indigenization, these scholars argue that social work curricula should incorporate practices, theories and understandings that are developed locally, eschewing the ‘professional imperialism’ that have come to dominate the discipline. This is also the case at universities in East Africa. Over the last decades, research emerging from local knowledge has developed substantially in the region. In this article we ask to what extent this is reflected in the social work curricula at three universities in Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, including a Norwegian comparative case. The article relies on a review of the curricula, addressing the characteristics of the teaching materials, the nationality and gender of the authors of the teaching materials, and the local relevance of the teaching materials, questioning whether they build on empirical data from a local or African context and to what extent they address issues of local or regional relevance. Our findings reveal that the presence of national or African authors and publications with a local empirical content is still marginal at the three East African universities.
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    Social innovations in rural communities in Africa’s Great Lakes region. A social work perspective
    (Journal of Rural Studies, 2023-09-24) Spitzer, Helmut; Twikirize, Janestic
    In Africa's Great Lakes region, many rural communities face serious challenges including chronic poverty, lack of infrastructure, high unemployment, inadequate education systems and healthcare services, as well as a fundamental absence of public social protection mechanisms. In some contexts, rural dwellers suffer from the additional burden of armed conflict and political violence. Yet, rural populations show remarkable indications of resilience and exhibit innovative ways of handling their problems by themselves. Some of these approaches can be qualified as social innovations. With its focus on the role of social work in rural social innovation processes, this article aims to contribute to some under-researched aspects at the intersection of social innovation, rural studies, and social work practice. Empirical evidence of rural social innovations is based on a regional study on indigenous and innovative models of problem solving in five African countries. Here, the focus is on two case examples from Uganda and Rwanda. For Uganda, a community-based concept of household clusters to promote rural development called akabondo is presented. The example from Rwanda is called umugoroba w'ababyeyi and refers to a family strengthening and community development program that has been mainstreamed into government policies. This model is located in the challenging context of a post-genocide society. A critical analysis of these models refers to the question whether they fall into the category of a social innovation; to major players in implementing such innovations; to their impact on rural communities and the wider society; as well as to challenges facing such innovations.