SOCW 356 Selected Students' Posters on Ageing, Ancestry, Old ones, and Elders

SOCW 356 is a core course on human development. In 2019/2020 the School began transforming the course, including improving the curriculum through more global, Indigenous, racialized and updated readings; creating additional units on critical race, and anti-racism in social work, making space for a SW BIPOC live panel discussion, and revising the assessment and assignments.

One of the objectives was to centre the lived experiences of all students, and reflect their heritage, cultural and community connections and ways of being. We are particularly proud of assignment 2, which required students to reflect and present on ‘Ageing, Ancestry, Old ones, and Elders' for this assignment. Students were given an opportunity to read how aging is theorised and lived across the world, to interview an older person in their family or community, and to present this information in a research poster format. This allowed students to practice storytelling, archival research, and oral interview skills.

It was exciting to see the different ways this was taken up – using collages, a painting, photographs and graphics. Students shared amazing stories of resilience, family traditions, colonial impacts and community connections. We invite you to see a showcase of some of the work produced in SOCW 356.

We thank and acknowledge students for allowing us to share their work.

Click the thumbnails to view 356 student posters from 2021 classes.