Amy Rossiter’s body of work has had profound pedagogical and theoretical impacts on the lives and work of the authors of this paper. Using a relational methodology with letters as a starting point, we interview each other about Rossiter’s impact on each of us, and continue this engagement with letters throughout the article. With particular focus on despair in the classroom, we extend Rossiter’s contributions in conversation with Cvetkovich, Ahmed, and other queer and critical affect theorists to think through how to encounter that despair with the use of “melting pedagogies.” We illustrate some of the ways that we try to facilitate this melting, knowing that this work is always partial, contingent, and located in our own practices in the context of despair and hope. We finally consider what scholars and educators can learn and who they can become through ongoing and deliberate engagement with Rossiter’s deep and incisive contributions to ethics and a commitment to social justice.

Amy Rossiter has long called our attention to the governing effects of social work knowledge (i.e., how it directs both discursive thinking and the daily actions of people). For her, knowledge itself is neither neutral nor true but is produced and maintained by discourse that defines what is considered acceptable and true. The production of knowledge is a relation of power; therefore, social work knowledge itself should be a topic of scrutiny. Taking her argument to heart, we seek to show how the governing effects of knowledge discursively operates in a practice setting, using a pilot program training manual designed to help East Asian Canadian immigrants to build self-esteem as a case example. Instead of viewing the training manual as having discovered some truths regarding the nature of self-esteem, we take it as knowledge that reflects the dominant discourse of self-esteem that is constituted historically, materially, and discursively. In so doing, we attempt to show how the concept of self-esteem is produced and how it organizes and governs social work practice.

Anti-racist practice calls for the development of theories and practices which privilege understandings of the complex and particular operations of race power together with relevant cultural knowledge. Substantial and particular cultural knowledge and an understanding of one's cultural self are critical to all aspects of anti-racist practice. Informed and sensitive cultural knowledge is essential to processes of healing and recovery from the devastating community, family and personal effects of race-related oppression, and therefore to anti-racist practice. Theories and practices most commonly adopted in Australia come from Western cultures and reflect those underlying values, meanings and arrangements. The literature concerning cross-cultural practice is extensive and diverse, particularly as it relates to counselling. Closely intertwined with learning about culture and culturally based theories and practices, and learning about oneself as a cultural being, is learning about oneself within the relations of race.

The globalising resistance movements and events will, hopefully, become historical markers on the road to a more accountable and just world. The term ‘development’ is used in a variety of social work contexts and is often applied as a comparative marker of and for the assessment of the level of economic prowess and the level of wellbeing and welfare across nations and groups of people. Indeed, the last twenty years certainly have sobered United States President Bush-the-elder’s triumphal 1989 declaration after the ‘fall’ of the Soviet Union that a ‘new world order’ was to break loose, bringing ‘wealth and solidarity’ on the basis of ‘market-oriented policies, democratic policies and individual rights’, leading to the ‘well-being of billions of people’. Addressing the tension between universality and specificity, Wendy Brown confronts a set of paradoxes about rights, ‘the central one of which is the question of the liberatory or egalitarian force of rights is always historically and culturally circumscribed’.

This second edition of 'Critical social work' has been thoroughly revised to take into account recent social, economic and political developments. Coverage of theoretical frameworks has been substantially expanded and reflects current concerns such as evidence-based practice and human rights. The causes of people's marginalisation and oppression are examined in relation to class, race, ethnicity, gender and other forms of social inequality. Case study chapters in the earlier edition on working with immigrants, Indigenous people, women, men, families, people with psychiatric disabilities and those experiencing loss and grief have been updated and revised. The second edition includes new case study chapters on disability, older people, children, rurality, and violence and abuse.--Back cover.

Evidence-based practice must be seen in the historical context of attempts by social work theorists to formulate a scientific foundation for social work practice in the context of the ongoing debate about whether social work is a science or an art. Theory, whether it refers to broad social theories concerned with the sociocultural context and individuals’ experiences of oppression or theories of practice that are focused on strategies for intervention, is very important for social work practice. Critical realism seems to offer a reconciliatory position between positivism and social constructionism. Critical realism acknowledges that knowledge is socially and culturally situated, but at the same time asserts that an objective reality exists. Critical social workers would argue also that values associated with challenging oppression are more compelling than those values traditionally associating with ‘helping’. An alternative tradition in social work for the development of practice knowledge is critical reflection and reflective practice.

Post-Fordism would suggest to critical social workers that the various contexts of practice have all the characteristics of an industry undergoing significant restructuring. Social work, critical or otherwise, inevitably deals with a radically reconstituted welfare system, the contours and effects of which are often not fully understood from the vantage point of university students. Social work generally is aligned to sets of social, economic and political conditions represented by the Keynesian welfare state which no longer exist. Effective critical social work in the current workfare world of welfare has three essential components: a critical analysis; critical reflexivity combined with a critical consciousness; and critical politics. The characteristics of that environment have altered significantly, designing out ‘spaces’ where critical social work could be practised. Social policy is now focused on transforming the ‘identities, interests, capacities, rights and responsibilities’ of its citizens so that they may become active agents in the pursuit of a competitive edge in a global economy.

The beneficial role of companion animals on human health and wellbeing across the life span is well documented in the rapidly expanding multi disciplinary body of literature known as human animal interactions (HAI). Social workers practice at the interface of people and their diverse environments. The presence of human animal bonds (HAB) within client systems, between people and companion animals in particular, are increasingly acknowledged and valued by social workers. Additionally, some social workers incorporate animals in their practice through animal assisted interventions (AAI). However, there is a paucity of empirical literature on social workers’ knowledge about and experiences with the inclusion of animals. We conducted a survey across three prairie provinces in Canada, replicating a study that was first implemented nationwide in the U.S. and later in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. The survey explored social workers’ knowledge of HAI in social work. The results, similar to the Nova Scotia and U.S. findings, suggest that s social workers have general knowledge about HAI and the HAB, and that some do incorporate animals in practice. Social workers seem to have increasing knowledge and skills about HAI. While this is a positive trend, there is nonetheless a need for specialized education and training on the beneficial impact that companion animals can have on social work practice. In this paper, the application of zooeyia within social work is adopted as one approach to understanding HAB. Important implications for human health and wellbeing and social work practice at the practitioner and organizational levels are discussed.

There is a growing interest in the provision of trauma interventions in schools, including support for refugees being educated in Canada. Very little research, however, has explored trauma training for those working in schools, particularly from the perspective of teachers. This qualitative case study focused on one school district in a mid-sized city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, examining perspectives on existing trauma training held for teachers who work with Syrian refugee students. Results from seven teacher interviews suggest that social workers must be careful not to slot teachers into pre-existing general trauma training, but must design specific trainings that consider the setting, developmental needs, and forms of trauma unique to war, displacement, and resettlement stressors in order for the trainings to be most helpful to teachers. Further research from the perspective of teachers, as well as Syrian students, is needed in order to create more equitable educational environments.

Intersectional queer activists and scholars have critiqued mainstream gay and lesbian social movements for losing their radical edge and promoting homonormative political agendas. Homonormativity concentrates power in the hands of LGBTIQ2S+ activists with race, gender, and class privilege. The Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) of Toronto is Canada’s largest LGBTIQ2S+ religious community and a significant player in global LGBTIQ2S+ human rights movements. This paper explored the perceptions of inclusion and representation of members of MCC across embodied social identities including sexual identity, gender identity, race, age, socioeconomic status, and ability. Three dimensions of inclusion were examined: personal feelings and experiences, alignment of personal social justice priorities with those of the church, and representation in church leadership. In the fall of 2015, BSW student researchers collected survey data from 146 respondents attending MCC Sunday services. The study found that most respondents, across identity categories, felt personally included most of the time and nearly all felt that their social justice priorities were aligned with the priorities of the church. Respondents who reported exclusion across all three dimensions identified as pansexual, trans male, gender non-binary, intersex, and Asian. Others who generally felt included but not represented in leadership identified as Indigenous, Black, heterosexual, bisexual, gay, and cisgender. Findings suggest that this activist spiritual community has resisted homonormatization to create a space of radical inclusivity but must continue to work hard to extend this space and to prevent the reinscription of social hierarchies.