Educating against all odds: The context and content of social work education in times of national crisis in Greece

Greece is six years into a socio-economic crisis during which oppression has increased as a result of unjust austerity measures. Reflecting on the need for an anti-oppressive practice, a qualitative study of pre-qualifying social work education was carried out in one of the four national Departments of Social Work (subsequently abolished). This paper reports the findings of semi-structured interviews with final year students (n=14) and academic staff members (n=10) on the content and context of social work education in relation to anti-oppressive practice. The study revealed the need for a radical shift in social work education based on the emancipatory values of the profession.