Using creative modalities to resist discourses of individualization and blame in social work education

In this article, we analyze the individualizing discourses of markets, consumers and choice, in relation to the marketization of care services in an Australian context. As many have highlighted, critical social work practice and education are increasingly marginalized. Institutions and organizations have become focused on producing social work graduates who can adapt to a neoliberalised environment, rather than critically engage with service users and communities to challenge structural inequality. We suggest that creative modalities, coupled with critical reflection and critical sociology in curriculum, offer a means through which students, educators, and service users can challenge reductionist, individualizing and limiting discourses, and enable stronger understanding of the lived experience of marginalized people and communities.