Udah, Hyacinth, Tusasiirwe, Sharlotte, Mugumbate, Rugare, and Gatwiri, Kathomi (2025) Ubuntu philosophy, values, and principles: An opportunity to do social work differently. Journal of Social Work. (In Press)

Preview

PDF (Accepted Publisher Version) - Accepted Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (430kB) | Preview

Abstract

Summary: Rising immigration and increasing cultural diversity globally highlight the need to decolonize social work and challenge the hegemony of Western-centric cultural and epistemological foundations. This article explores how Ubuntu philosophy can serve as a global decolonizing framework in social work education and practice. Using a reflective conceptual analysis process, we explored Ubuntu as an alternative paradigm for social work educators, researchers, practitioners, and students. Ubuntu's core values—relationality, collective responsibility, communal accountability, social justice, recognition, and reciprocity—offer a unique framework that sets it apart from other philosophies.

Findings: We propose embracing Ubuntu’s core principles to enrich social work knowledge, theories, and practice, decolonizing and addressing gaps left by Western approaches. We argue that integrating the core values of Ubuntu philosophy can significantly enhance social work practices.

Applications: This article contributes to ongoing discussions on decolonization and the importance of epistemological diversity in redefining social work and exploring new ways of practice.

Item ID:	85325
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1741-296X
Copyright Information:	© The Author(s) 2025. Creative Commons License (CC BY 4.0) This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Date Deposited:	27 May 2025 02:54
FoR Codes:	44 HUMAN SOCIETY > 4409 Social work > 440902 Counselling, wellbeing and community services @ 50% 44 HUMAN SOCIETY > 4409 Social work > 440903 Social program evaluation @ 40% 44 HUMAN SOCIETY > 4499 Other human society > 449999 Other human society not elsewhere classified @ 10%
SEO Codes:	23 LAW, POLITICS AND COMMUNITY SERVICES > 2301 Community services > 230110 Migrant and refugee settlement services @ 20% 23 LAW, POLITICS AND COMMUNITY SERVICES > 2301 Community services > 230111 Multicultural services @ 60% 23 LAW, POLITICS AND COMMUNITY SERVICES > 2301 Community services > 230199 Community services not elsewhere classified @ 20%
	More Statistics