Activist leadership in social work education: A recent Australian example that secured paid placements for students

Abstract This article provides an account of the collective activism of four social work academic leaders who formed a coalition with students and trade union advocates to bring about one of the most significant progressive reforms to higher education in Australia in decades. Our campaign, involving a multipronged strategy, resulted in the Federal Government announcing a Commonwealth-funded ‘Prac Payment’ to help 68,000 students (studying social work, nursing, teaching, early childhood, and midwifery) with expenses during mandatory, unpaid placements. While not all goals have been achieved, our work continues, and our research, advocacy, media engagement, political lobbying, and alliance-building have initiated a national movement to assist students, particularly those from equity backgrounds, to complete their degrees and enter feminized professions with workforce shortages. The article describes our critical approach to activist leadership, which was inclusive and democratic; demonstrating antioppressive values in practice and a commitment to social justice by amplifying the voices of students with lived experience of placement poverty. Underpinned by activism theory and practice theory, the activist leadership in this campaign contributes to critical conceptions of social work leadership by shifting focus from individual leaders to leadership as practice, catalysing others to lead.