Placements as a site of oppression: Some evidence and evaluation

This article describes the decision of one social work education department's anti-racist monitoring group to take a more pro-active approach to assessing the extent of oppressive experiences on practice placements. The article describes the development and distribution of a questionnaire to students on placements in a variety of settings: the returns are then analysed and evaluated. The results showed that while practice teachers themselves had not been the instigators of oppressive behaviours, a majority of students had been on the receiving end of, or witnesses to, incidents of racism, sexism or homophobia. The authors conclude that educators, trainers and workers in agencies need to strive towards anti-oppressive workplace cultures, to facilitate students' learning.