Exploring ethical issues embedded in the call for indigenisation of social work education in Nigeria

Social work is an emerging profession and discipline in Nigeria with its pedagogical content and to an extent, the process being largely Western in design. This has led to a continuous call for indigenisation of social work education to service the peculiar needs of Nigerians. While indigenisation of social work education is a step in the right direction, efforts targeting this goal may give rise to some unexplored ethical issues. We explored some perceived ethical issues that may arise in the process of indigenisation of social work education using qualitative data collected from 15 educators from three universities in Nigeria. The data were coded with NVivo 12 and analyzed thematically. Findings revealed that in attempts to Africanise social work education, educators insisted that some issues like non-heterosexuality are unacceptable and un-African; thus, emphasized that students should not be taught/exposed to practice with sexual minorities. Also, some educators stated that the Nigerian culture of masculine superiority should be sustained. These perspectives are discriminatory, oppressive and against social work ethical principles. We recommend measures including (re)training of social work educators to reconcile their ethical and religio-cultural differences to better prepare future social work practitioners with local and ethically guided knowledge for contemporary Nigerian society. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.