Encouraging critical reflections on privilege in social work and the human services

Critical reflection is promoted by many progressive social work writers as a process for facilitating practitioners’ capacity to reflect upon their complicity in dominant power relations. However, the critical social work literature tends to focus attention on those who are disadvantaged, oppressed and excluded. Those who are privileged in relation to gender, class, race and sexuality etc are often ignored. Given that the flipside of oppression and social exclusion is privilege, the lack of critical reflection on the privileged side of social divisions allows members of dominant groups to reinforce their dominance. This article interrogates the concept of privilege and examines how it is internalised in the psyches of members of dominant groups. After exploring the potential to undo privilege from within, the article encourages social work educators to engage in critical reflections about privilege when teaching social work students about social injustice and oppression.