Christian Adeleke

Christian Adeleke

Research Interests

  • Social work education & field education
  • Economic and educational justice
  • Educational equity, access, and reform
  • Student wellbeing and success
  • Critical and culturally responsive pedagogies
  • Academic labor and New Social Movements
  • Social welfare history

Teaching Interests

  • Human Behavior in the Social Environment (HBSE)
  • Social Welfare Policy and Services
  • Social Work Values and Ethics
  • Practice with Older Adults and Diverse Populations
  • Anti-racist and Critical Pedagogies
  • Macro Practice & Community Organizing
  • Research Method

Christian Adeleke, LMSW (he/him), is a doctoral candidate at the University of Texas at Arlington School of Social Work. He holds a Master of Social Work degree from Florida International University and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Florida State University. With over five years of direct practice experience, Christian has worked across diverse human service sectors including substance use recovery, mental health, child welfare, crisis intervention, housing support, medical social work, and individual and group therapy.

Christian’s research explores how professional social work, particularly field education, reproduces the same oppressive systems it aims to dismantle. His dissertation focuses on unpaid internships as a structural barrier to educational access, student wellbeing, and long-term workforce equity in the social work profession. His methodological expertise includes qualitative content analysis, survey-based methods, and mixed methods research, with a strong grounding in Critical Race Theory, labor studies, and education policy.

Christian has contributed to multi-institutional research projects on field education reform, student financial hardship, and disability justice in social work. His work has been presented at national conferences such as CSWE, APHA, and SSWR. He has taught undergraduate courses on human behavior and social justice and served as a field instructor and clinical supervisor for MSW interns while managing a clinic team. In all roles, Christian is committed to equitycentered pedagogy, community accountability, and transformative education.