Chapter 10: Rethinking Transnational Social Work Pedagogy for Climate Change, Migration, and Crisis Preparedness

The ecological crises increase human inequality and vulnerability and among other factors force people to migrate. While the climate crisis is likely to make life gradually harder everywhere, the reception of migrants and the roles and opportunities available for them are enmeshed with prevailing patterns of inequality and privilege. Similar issues are at stake in acute crisis situations impacting local communities and migrants. Social workers are usually among the frontline workers trying to meet the needs of the affected people and enhance resilience at the grassroots. Yet, existing social work degree programs provide hardly any specific training for social workers on crisis preparedness and research on crisis preparedness is limited. This chapter reflects the teaching and learning experiences from the intensive course Climate Change, Migration and Crisis Preparedness, taught once in Finland in June 2022 and second time in India in January 2023. The course was part of a higher education mobility project focusing on crisis preparedness in social work and involving social work educators and postgraduate social work students from two Finnish and two Indian universities. The chapter discusses the pros and cons of the intensive course format and how it enabled the participants to learn together from the multifaceted subject matter. The discussion elucidates the conceptualization, framing and organization of preparatory sessions, identification of resource materials, and delivery of the course, engaging critically with the active participation of students, their feedback, and field insights from the global north and south.