Dishing from the Cultural Pot: An African Instructor’s Experience Teaching BSW Courses

Social work literature abounds with reports of collaboration of U.S. social work schools with other schools of social work abroad, and the experiences of U.S. social work faculty teaching in foreign countries (Boyle, Nackerud, & Kilpatrick, 1999; Cornelius & Greif, 2005; Gilin & Young, 2009; Johnson, 1999; Tunney, 2002). Similarly, the narratives of the fieldwork experiences of U.S. social work students abroad are documented (Horncastle, 1994; Mathiesen & Lager, 2007; Rai, 2004). However, not much attention has been devoted to capturing the experiences of international educators teaching social work courses in the U.S. This paper seeks to fill this gap by describing some of the differences and challenges faced by those who come into America and teach BSW courses. It is presented from the point of view of an African doctoral student and his teaching experiences at a major university.