British Journal of Social Work (2005) 35, 435–452 doi:10.1093/bjsw/bch190 Advance Access publication March 21, 2005

Use of Critical Consciousness in Anti-Oppressive Social Work
Practice: Disentangling Power
Dynamics at Personal and Structural
Levels
Izumi Sakamoto and Ronald O. Pitner
Izumi Sakamoto, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of social work at the University of Toronto,
Canada. She received her MA in social welfare from Sophia University, Japan, and her MSW,
MS (psychology) and Ph.D. (social work and social psychology) from the University of
Michigan, USA. Her research interests include anti-oppressive social work, gender and immigration, cultural influences on the self and identities, and cultural negotiation processes of newcomers. Ronald O. Pitner, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of social work at Washington University in
Saint Louis, USA. He received his MA in psychology from the University of Tennessee, USA, a
MSW and Ph.D. (social work and social psychology) from the University of Michigan, USA.
His research interests are broadly defined in terms of social cognition, stereotyping, prejudice, race and ethnicity, multicultural social work.
Correspondence to Izumi Sakamoto, Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto, 246
Bloor St West, Toronto, ON M5S 1A1, Canada. E-mail: Izumi.Sakamoto@utoronto.ca

Summary
One of the limitations of anti-oppressive perspectives (AOPs) in social work is its lack of focus at a micro and individual level. AOPs should entail the social worker’s addressing the needs and assets of service users, challenging the oppressive social structure and, most importantly, critically challenging the power dynamics in the service-provider/ service-user relationship. Critical consciousness challenges social workers to be cognizant of power differentials and how these differentials may inadvertently make social-work practice an oppressive