ASASWEI Conference 2025

Our team was honoured to participate in the 2025 ASASWEI International Conference, held from 10–12 September at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein. ASASWEI (Association of South African Social Work Education Institutions) brings together academics, researchers, practitioners, and students who share a commitment to advancing social work and related disciplines. This year’s theme “Advancing Social, Economic, and Environmental Justice, Peacebuilding, and Sustainable Development through Teaching, Research, and Practice” could not have been more timely. We took this as an opportunity to  sharing our work on redesigning courses around the elements of authentic e-learning,

Day 1 Highlights

Dr. Nevashnee Perumal and Kim Shmidt opened the session with Authentic E-Learning Strategies for Course Redesign: Voices of BSW Students Studying at Two Eastern Cape Universities. Their work focused on students’ perspectives of a course redesigned around authentic learning principles.

Prof. Priscalia Khosa and Dr. Agrippa Mabvira then presented on The Process of Critical Collaborations on South African Social Work Education: A Participatory Action Research Approach. Their presentation offered insights into the collaborative process and how the team worked together to advance social work education.

In the same session, Dr. Agrippa Mabvira and Prof. Zibonele Zimba presented Social Work Course Redesigning and Rethinking in Alignment with the Elements of Authentic E-Learning. They discussed a systematic review of the authentic e-learning landscape in the post-COVID-19 context. This presentation touched on the benefits and challenges of integrating authentic e-learning elements in teaching and learning.

Prof. Mbongeni Sithole then explored the changing nature of supervision in Digital Social Work Supervision: Being Present in a Digital Space, a topic that resonated as supervision increasingly moves online.

Finally, Dr. Hlologelo Malatji followed with Integrating the Authentic Learning Framework in Social Work Education: Experiences of Social Work Students in an Urban South African University. This presentation highlighted student experiences in a redesigned macro-practice module.

Day 2

On Wednesday, Dr. Uwarren September had a presentation on Fieldwork Practice Experiences of Final-Year Student Social Workers at a Higher Education Institution in the Western Cape. The presentation provided information on the experiences of students in a redesigned Fieldwork Practice module at the University of Western Cape.

Closing Day

The final day brought the conference to a strong close. Prof. Zibonele Zimba delivered a keynote address, Sustainable Development and Social Work: Bridging Research, Policy and Practice. He called for deeper connections between academic research, social policy and practical interventions to meet both environmental and social challenges.

Prof. Roshini Pillay, Ms. Siphathisene Mathebula, and Dr. Agrippa Mabvira followed with Social Work Education Post COVID-19 Course Redesign: Rediscovering New Ways of Learning and Teaching in South Africa. Their presentation reflected on how the pandemic accelerated the need for innovative teaching approaches thus culminating in the inception of our collaborative project.

To conclude the team’s contributions, Prof. Priscalia Khosa presented Rewriting the Script: Lessons from Redesigning the Cultural Complexities Course in Social Work Education, highlighting the importance of culturally responsive curricula.