Advances in Social Work

Pivoting the Profession as We Approach the Quasquicentennial

Goutham M. Menon — 2022-11-08

The year 2023 marks professional social work’s quasquicentennial: the 125^th anniversary of our profession since the first social work classes were offered in the summer of 1898 at Columbia University. The profession has grown in its reach across many human service sectors over all these years creating opportunities for those who want to serve their communities in myriad and impactful ways. As we observe disruptions in the higher education sector, with profound implications to the mission of the social work profession, we are also witnessing many cross-sector opportunities for the future of the social work profession. Given our changing environment, the time is right for us to re-envision social work education and practice in ways that center our professions’ commitment to social justice and the well-being of individuals, families, and communities. In our efforts to meet the needs of the people and communities we serve, we have seen several innovative and impactful expansions into areas that have augmented our original “scope of practice.” Some have occurred to meet the needs of the time; others have morphed due to market conditions for jobs that have been encroached on by other professions/disciplines. And as we see more complex and vexing societal issues in our current environment, it is time for us to collectively discern our purpose, adjust our mindset, and be prepared to meet future challenges and opportunities. This special issue on “re-envisioning social work” provides a space for thought leaders to showcase meaningful and purpose-filled advances for the profession.

A MSW Curriculum Analysis

Ariel N. Hooker Jones — 2022-11-08

As the pandemic surges, the need for remote social work practice (RSWP) is urgent and ensuring that students entering practice are prepared to engage is paramount. Students entering the workforce must be able to demonstrate competency and educators must explore how they are preparing students for RSWP. A cohort of twenty-one MSW students were invited to participate in this study exploring curriculum exposure to RSWP and subsequent confidence and readiness to engage in practice. Only a subset of this cohort (n=13) agreed to participate in the study. This study explored exposure to RSWP concepts through a foundation-level MSW curriculum, practicum, and other program contacts. Results show that even though students were primarily exposed to RSWP in practicum and courses that focus on basic interpersonal skills, other courses, such as research and policy also provided exposure. Students reported that theory and diversity courses made no mention of RSWP. This is concerning because these courses are meant to educate students on practice frameworks and service contexts for underserved populations, like those that are commonly served via RSWP. Although limited, this study has implications for how social work educators embed RSWP throughout the curriculum, instead of siloing this topic in practice courses.

Re-Imagining Digital and New Media Literacies in Social Work Education

Jimmy Young — 2022-11-08

Social unrest and division within the United States has become more visible and magnified since the 2016 election of former President Trump. This unrest has been amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic and white supremist attacks across the country. Throughout this era, information has been perpetuated through systemic and cultural networks promoting pseudoscience, #fakenews, misinformation, and explicit marginalization of racial, gender, ethnic, and cultural minorities. During this time, social work practitioners and educators have struggled to counter misinformation in classrooms and practice contexts. This paper proposes a newly re-imagined framework for addressing misinformation and civil discourse in social work education through the adoption and infusion of digital and new media literacies from within a critical theory driven epistemological framework. Recommendations are provided for incorporating tools, skills, and competencies throughout the curriculum in a more meaningful way that will help the profession combat misinformation, promote civil discourse, and utilize best practices in a digitally augmented society. Only then will the social work profession be able to meet the current and future challenges and opportunities that will undoubtedly accompany the expansion of digital technologies throughout our society.

The Future of Social Work Education

Samantha N. Wolfe-Taylor — 2022-11-08

Advances in technology, an increase in non-traditional students, a new generation of e-learners, the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on education and practice, and the emergence of greater practitioner and client adoption of telebehavioral health present opportunities and challenges for curricular innovation in schools of social work. e-Simulations are reliable, valid, authentic high impact practices that address these challenges and prepare students for a future where social workers are called upon to adopt telebehavioral practice. Although there is literature on the development, implementation, and assessment of simulation-based learning in social work education, much of the literature explores the use of simulations in face-to-face social work education. Provided is a guide for educators and administrators on developing, implementing, and assessing online simulations (e-simulations) in social work education.

Social Work Students’ Self-Efficacy Toward Direct Practice Skills in Field Education Using Virtual Simulations and Scripted Role Plays

Annie J. Keeney — 2022-11-08

Simulations with professional actors and scripted role plays with peers are effective methods to increase direct practice skills. However, little is known about how simulations or scripted role plays conducted virtually can influence social work students' practice self-efficacy. MSW students enrolled in field seminar courses across two universities were invited to participate in an exploratory, repeated measures assessment utilizing the Counselor Activity Self-Efficacy Scales (CASES). One university (n=100) implemented the use of standardized clients, played by professional actors within field seminar; the other university (n=61) implemented scripted, peer-led role plays. Significant differences were found in pre/post scores among MSW students that participated in simulated client experiences within their field seminar. Simulations and scripted peer role plays may need to be more integrated into social work curricula when opportunities for in-person direct practice skill development are limited due to hybrid or fully remote field placements. Applied learning in social work education must be re-envisioned so programs can prepare MSW students to be effective practitioners in today’s rapidly changing environment.

The Role of Residencies in Promoting Student Engagement in Online Pedagogy

Michael Campbell — 2022-11-08

The COVID-19 pandemic has fractured social connections across all industries, including higher education. Some social work departments were forced to shift from traditional on-ground learning to adopt virtual delivery methods, while others voluntarily made this shift to join the emerging online education trends. When the pandemic restrictions abate, online programs may seek to promote social connections through targeted activities such as adopting a grounded residency. Online programs in social work and other fields have varied application in using residencies to bridge the online and on-ground modalities for learning. Students often report asynchronous online platforms foster a reduced sense of engagement in learning and low levels of connected engagement with faculty and peers. In social work programs, these residencies build on explicit and implicit curricular aims and have an argued externality of building engagement. This paper explores data collected from students (n=131) in a master's in social work program before the initiation of pandemic social distancing protocols and their perceptions of engagement related to their grounded residency experience in one online social work program in the southeastern United States. Results of survey data (quantitative and qualitative) are presented and analyzed with a discussion of the relative impact residency efforts may have on students' reported levels of engagement and opportunities to increase social connection in a post-pandemic environment.

Criminal Records as Predictors of Harm

Casey Bohrman — 2022-11-08

The National Association of Social Work Code of Ethics requires advocacy on behalf of groups experiencing oppression, and yet it can be difficult to recognize when the oppression is emanating from the profession itself. Social work has enacted numerous barriers to entry for people with criminal records, a group that disproportionately includes people who are poor, Black, disabled, and or LGBTQ+. While previous articles have examined the role of criminal records in the social work admission process, scholars have not comprehensively examined the role criminal records play throughout the career of a social worker. This article provides an overview of how records are used in higher education admissions, licensing, and employment, highlighting the limitations of criminal records as future indicators of harm. We argue that the broad use of criminal record checks not only harms marginalized individuals with records but is a disservice to clients who would benefit from the unique strengths derived from their social work training and lived experience. We conclude with future policy directions informed by abolitionist practices including non-reformist reforms that can reduce barriers to entry into the profession and build upon the strengths of people with lived experience in the criminal legal system.

Re-Envisioning Social Work Education

Hye-Kyung Kang — 2022-11-08

Social justice is a central principle of the social work profession and education. However, it can become a hollow ideal unless it is specifically addressed in all applications of social work practice. Scholars have long questioned the social work profession’s commitment to putting social justice into practice. Clinical social work has been particularly criticized for its lack of attention to social justice and for failing to address the concerns of the oppressed by relying on individual intervention while overlooking system-level changes. Given that clinical social work is the largest specialization in social work practice, clinical social work programs must re-envision their curriculum to fully address this criticism and educate future social workers to pursue social justice at all levels of practice. This paper presents the collective work of the social work faculty at a clinical social work program to construct a social justice-focused clinical social work curriculum, which culminated in a statement on social justice commitment in their curriculum, illustrates the iterative process of this work, and discusses the lessons from this experience. Implications include the importance of shared understanding of social justice and articulating how it operates in all aspects of social work practice as well as in social work pedagogy.

Integrating Critical, Engaged, and Abolitionist Pedagogies to Advance Antiracist Social Work Education

Jelena Todić — 2022-11-08

The intersecting coronavirus, racism, and economic pandemics electrified U.S. social work organizations into creating long overdue antiracism initiatives. This necessary shift includes the Council on Social Work Education specifying that curriculums must consist of frameworks and practices that eliminate racism. Social work educators will need to incorporate antiracism into their teaching. We argue that critical, engaged, and abolitionist pedagogies contain frameworks and practices that align with antiracism. One of our fundamental assumptions is that liberation, which is a collective state of freedom from racism and other intersecting structures of domination, is the end goal of antiracism. We integrate concepts developed by critical pedagogy scholars, Black feminists, and abolitionist activists with our experiences to share ten lessons we learned through decades of collective praxis as social justice educators committed to liberation.

Looking Back to Move Us Forward

Shirley Gatenio Gabel — 2022-11-08

Social work was a progressive profession at its founding, and social workers sought to transform people’s lives through wide-ranging reforms and work with individuals and communities. Over time, social work has evolved into a more conservative profession. Social workers have perpetuated oppressive policies, structures, and practices that marginalize vulnerable populations. This paper revisits the history of our profession and presents a human rights approach toward justice in social work practice and education that is more in line with its roots and the intentions of its founders. This renewed approach requires the participation of communities and the full inclusion of client voices, creating an atmosphere supportive of human rights, different curricular methods of delivering human rights and justice content, and new skill development in courses and fieldwork. This paper demonstrates how a rights-based approach bridges the divide between macro and micro practice and permeates all professional education and practice aspects. The paper shows how social work education can orient classroom and field curricula to promote human rights by emphasizing community-based practice frameworks and system-wide changes.

Critical Empowerment Frameworks Paramount to Social Justice Work

Maria Joy Ferrera — 2022-11-08

As we continue to navigate the complex challenges of a pandemic and the urgent need for racial justice, social work faculty are well positioned to train the next generation of social workers in human rights work and structural change movements. Authors discuss how engaging key critical empowerment frameworks that include critical race theory, structural competency, together with a decolonizing and transdisciplinary lens within community-engaged research and practice can provide social work students models for collective impact. Leveraging university-community partnerships to directly provide faculty mentorship around human rights work will also be discussed. One author has been working with the institution’s law school and their Neighborhood Legal Assistance Project to provide support, legal resources, and advocacy. She has also co-founded and is developing a Chicago-based coalition to address intimate partner violence-induced brain injury. The second author has helped start and develop two coalitions to advance a coordinated structural response involving the provision of mental health resource support and psychosocial forensic asylum assessments within immigrant communities. Authors also discuss how students have been engaged in health equity work through a racial and healing justice initiative that values and provides training around healing circles within indigenous communities and communities of color. Through these rich learning experiences, students internalize the value of critical empowerment frameworks that inform participatory approaches in collaboration and coalition building that are essential to social justice work and the process of social and structural change.

The Intersection of Sense of Belonging and Financial Hardship Among University Students

Jessica Averitt Taylor — 2022-11-08

This study examines the largely unexplored connection between sense of belonging and financial hardship among college students. Previous research indicates that a variety of demographic factors can impact sense of belonging, including ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, and age. One demographic factor that has not been sufficiently examined within the context of sense of belonging is financial status. This cross-sectional study collected data from 958 students at a single Midwestern university. Approximately half of the student participants reported experiencing financial hardship. Furthermore, students who had experienced financial hardship reported a significantly lower sense of belonging as compared to students who had not experienced financial hardship. Analyses also revealed that even when controlling for other demographic factors, financial hardship remained a significant predictor of students’ sense of belonging. We posit that academic success is connected to both sense of belonging and financial hardship among students, as experiences of financial hardship negatively impact the sense of belonging within university communities. Social work educators are ideally suited to design, implement, and evaluate necessary support services which promote financial wellbeing, and consequently sense of belonging and academic success. As such, social work educators are presented with the opportunity to pivot and embrace new opportunities to serve financially disenfranchised students.

Social Entrepreneurship and Social Work for Transformational Change

Cherése Godwin — 2022-11-08

Social entrepreneurship is a social action that the profession of social work can use as a working model to propel the profession forward economically, professionally, and socially. Social entrepreneurship can help mitigate complex and vexing social and environmental issues in the future, while creating a larger social impact and transformational shift to social change and social justice, through the social enterprise. The social enterprise brings social policy efforts to life through immediate social action. This article will discuss the historical perspective of the social work profession and social entrepreneurship, the imperative need for social innovation and social impact through the utility of education of social entrepreneurship, and the social enterprise in social work practice models.

Educating Bilingual Social Workers for the Child Welfare Workforce

Lisa Werkmeister Rozas — 2022-11-08

Spanish/English bilingual (SEB) speaking social workers are in high demand, particularly in the area of Child Welfare. Most require training and institutional support to increase their cultural and linguistic competence, yet the majority receive no specific education or support. As a result, many encounter inequities in the workforce. Research points to several elements that are essential to the education and development of SEB social workers. They include professional terminology, supervision in Spanish, and the opportunity to integrate theory and practice. To respond to the needs of a growing Spanish-speaking population, the UConn BSW Program has added a Child Welfare and Protection (CWP) track. CWP is designed to provide BSW SEB speaking students with specialized knowledge and experience to meet the needs of Latinx families served by the Connecticut Department of Children and Families (CT DCF). This paper describes how the UConn BSW program and DCF collaborated to re-envision social work education for SEB students and contribute to distributive justice for client and worker. The CWP Track prepares BSW students to work with a range of Spanish-speaking clients while facilitating institutional support including incentives to create a much-needed workforce pipeline for SEB social work students interested in child welfare.

Defining a Trauma-Informed Approach to Social Work Field Education

Laura Lewis — 2022-11-08

Despite the recognized importance of social work field education, concerns about its dependence on already strained service delivery systems for student learning persist. The growing complexity of student needs, and the deleterious effects of COVID-19 on service systems adds to the problematic landscape. A trauma-informed approach, because it applies to individuals and environments, presents a useful framework for exploring these concerns. A trauma-informed framework to field education, once defined, could edify the profession's response to these challenges. A qualitative survey (n=103) was developed to aid in understanding trauma-informed practices that support student learning. Key findings are that a trauma-informed approach to field education entails creating safe environments where expectations and boundaries are clear, supporting students by processing and validating emotional responses, and utilizing relational, collaborative approaches to supervision. Strategies for each area are delineated. Barriers to promoting trauma-informed field education include lack of time, and lack of organizational support. Authors recommend the adoption of trauma-informed field as a universal precaution approach, ensuring that students experience the principles and atmosphere of a trauma-informed field setting, enabling them to translate these into practice. Social work programs are called upon to better support placement agencies and assume more responsibility for training.

Awareness of Racism Among Social Work Students in a Challenging Era

Hsun-Ta Hsu — 2022-11-08

This study focused on understanding individual (e.g., political identity and alignment of social work core values with the Black Lives Matter movement and the All Lives Matter argument) and social environmental correlates (e.g., social network composition) of awareness of racism among social work students. A convenience sample of social work students (n=98) recruited from a major Midwest land grant university completed an online anonymous survey with questions covering individual characteristics, social network information, and attitudes toward social phenomena. The Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale was used to assess overall awareness of racism, White privilege, institutional racism, and blatant racism. Regression models were conducted to identify correlates of these domains of racial attitudes separately. Liberal political view identification and alignment of Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement with social work core values were associated with better awareness of racism across all domains; aligning All Lives Matter with social work core values was associated with unawareness of overall racism, institutional racism, and blatant racism. Finally, discussion on racial issues with network members was associated with better awareness of overall racism, White privilege, and blatant racism. Social work programs should facilitate inter-group dialogues to build consensus on countering racism. Discussions on the mission and the context of BLM and its opposition efforts should also be incorporated in the curriculum. Finally, more emphasis on the impact of institutional racism should be included into course activities to further discussion on such topics within students’ network.

Awakening the Antiracism Collective Through Transformative Organizational Praxis

Jelena Todić — 2022-11-08

Dismantling structures that impede social work professional and organizational growth begins with social work educational institutions. In 2020, the convergence of three pandemics – COVID-19, economic injustice, and, notably, structural racism, catalyzed a group of social work staff and faculty at a public Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in the Southern U.S. The group relied on community organizing and organizational change strategies to form the antiracism collective (ARC). We employed a participatory evaluative case study (Merriam, 1998) methodology to answer two questions: 1) How has ARC accelerated one social work department's integration of antiracist praxis (theory, reflection, action) into all aspects of the department to support the department's mission?; and 2) How can ARC dismantle structures which impede social workers' ability to confront racism? We find that ARC 1) catalyzed department transformation as evidenced by the increased sense of critical consciousness, struggle, integrity, and community; and 2) achieved primarily individual impact, with small but potentially significant department impact, and small but potentially significant structural impact. We highlight strengths and limitations of antiracism collectives as a pathway to confront racism in other social work educational institutions.

The Racial Projects of White Social Work Students

Courtney D. Cogburn — 2022-11-08

Despite a theoretical shift toward anti-racism, racial projects within social work assert public positions against structural racism, while upholding mechanisms that perpetuate its existence. Analyzing the perceptions and intentions of incoming white liberal social work students is necessary for any effort to deconstruct racial projects in the social work profession. The sample used in the present study is composed of a white (n = 139), mostly liberal-identified (84%) group of incoming first year MSW students. Students were asked to provide open-ended responses to a vignette about a Black mother engaging with Child Protective Services (CPS). The vignette was designed to assess structural analysis and decision-making in response to real-world examples of racism and anti-Blackness. The study employed semantic thematic analysis to describe the ways social work students make meaning of the vignette and how this process informs their proposed actions. Students varied significantly on the level of analysis they provided in response to the vignette. The analysis examines patterns of racial projects across 3 main response categories: 1) Descriptive, 2) Analytical, and 3) Action. This analysis is important for informing pedagogical innovations aimed at training anti-racist and anti-oppressive social workers.

Latina/o/x Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) in Social Work Praxis

Mónica Gutiérrez — 2022-11-08

We propose that the profession is theoretically at a point of convergence between CRT and LatCrit. Both theories are united in the production of knowledge to dismantle oppression. This article provides a brief review of CRT and a comprehensive understanding of LatCrit as a starting point for critical social work education perspectives. We discuss implications for social work education by broadening the racial discourse to include Latinas/os/x and suggest critical solutions and adaptations to current social work pedagogy to better prepare students to enter the social work field and respond to this growing population. We provide recommendations for reevaluating social work and find an exit from the loop of “band-aid” interventions that lack a fundamental basis for addressing the underlying causes of trauma, stress, and racism. We provide concrete examples for incorporating LatCrit into social work education, practice. We close by calling on the professions leading organizations, NASW and CSWE, to release statements addressing the recent assault on CRT (and LatCrit by way of its extension of CRT) and join other social work organizations in condemning the unfair attacks on CRT if social work is committed to the Grand Challenge to Eliminate Racism.

Mapping an Integrative Critical Race and Anti-Colonial Theoretical Framework in Social Work Practice

Siham Elkassem — 2022-11-08

The social inequities highlighted by the racial injustice protests of 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic challenge the social work profession to respond to the past and present social consequences that disproportionately impact Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). We argue that social work's commitment to social justice has not taken up an explicit anti-racism mission to eradicate white supremacy, racism, and coloniality in the profession. We further argue that although social service agencies often include a commitment to cultural competence/humility, practices continue to be rooted in color-blind approaches to service and treatment. Social work's failure to address racism poses challenges for those from racialized backgrounds experiencing psychological distress due to racism and other inequities. Building upon the theoretical foundations of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Anti-Colonialism, we provide a conceptual framework for practice and service delivery with BIPOC clients through social work praxis. This conceptual framework offers three overarching directives that include integrated critical race and anti-colonial theoretical concepts for social work practice and service delivery. We discuss the implications for application of this conceptual framework in practice and service delivery.

Disrupting White Supremacy

Cynthia Mackey — 2022-11-08

Social workers must participate in ongoing anti-racist and culturally attuned approaches to disrupt white supremacy in our profession, institutions, and society. Our social work mission, values, and ethics demand that we engage in social work education, practice, and scholarship that seeks social justice for all people. In line with these expectations, social work doctoral education is tasked with training the next generation of social work scholars by providing doctoral education that is responsive to society's most pressing social problems. While disrupting white supremacy is an aspirational goal, we argue that white supremacy infiltrates social work education, manifests itself in diverse ways over time, often isolating Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). We use testimonios to explore these issues and describe four BIPOC women’s experiences navigating their social work doctoral programs. From these insights, we contend that social work doctoral education continues to uphold white supremacy by promoting Western epistemologies and theories above other equally valid forms of knowledge, including non-Western schools of thought created by and for BIPOC scholars. We provide recommendations for alternative theories and epistemologies for social work curricula and offer implications to support BIPOC students in social work doctoral education.

Using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research to Promote Anti-Racism in Social Work Higher Education

Dashawna J. Fussell-Ware — 2022-11-08

Recognizing a clear call to dismantle traditionally racist structures within our nation, doctoral students at the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work formed the Anti-Racist Doctoral Program Student Committee (ARDPSC) to push for systemic changes within our school and profession to eliminate anti-Black racism. Our student-led initiative is an innovative approach for two reasons. First, we strengthened our community virtually despite the limitations of COVID-19 and virtual spaces. Second, although collective organizing among students can be seen as threatening, we held a tension between agitation and collaboration, and contributed to, rather than disrupted, implementation of anti-racist reform. We map our experiences onto the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) using narrative data and documents produced by our committee. First, we describe how we built anti-racist group processes, established brave working environments, and integrated processes to reflect on change at various system levels. Next, we describe our actions to push our school and profession to be anti-racist and assess outcomes using the CFIR. Finally, we share our reflections on how to continue this work. We hope to document our experiences and reflect on how social work student groups can contribute to dismantling white supremacy and rebuilding institutions with an anti-racist approach.

We Deserve to Thrive

María Gandarilla Ocampo — 2022-11-08

The summer of 2020 saw a racial justice awakening among predominantly white scholars. While this “awakening” or reckoning regarding the long-standing racism in society is welcomed and necessary, we must recognize the stark differences in how this work is felt and ultimately in how the work needs to be done by different groups in society. While BIPOC scholars worked to balance the need to process and recover, self-preserve, and advocate, white peers formed book clubs and posted black squares to their social media sites. This distinction describes the frustrating reality that many BIPOC scholars experience in the work of undoing racism. We bear the unrelenting burdens of being oppressed, fighting racism, and trying to survive in a society that does not value our inherent dignity and worth. For BIPOC doctoral students who simultaneously navigate the roles of being a student, peer, and instructor, these burdens are threefold. We are expected to do the invisible work of mentoring and holding space for fellow BIPOC students while also educating white students and faculty/administrators on racial justice issues and contending with faculty expectations. These burdens are exacerbated as we see anti-racism quickly go in vogue and then fall out of favor soon after. The aftermath: unfulfilled promises and commitments by self-proclaimed anti-racists, leaving BIPOC scholars to pick up the pieces and solely shoulder the never-ending work of anti-racism. There is a continued lack of sustained commitment to achieving racial equity across the board. The steps that have been taken are often characterized by quick fixes that fall short of the real work that will lead to a racially just, equitable and inclusive community. The purpose of this paper is to bring attention to the challenges within the academy experienced by BIPOC social work doctoral students. Drawing upon our experience with creating a BIPOC-centered support group at a predominantly white institution (PWI), we provide insight and recommendations on how colleagues and administrators alike can take action to hold space, bolster, and better support BIPOC doctoral student scholars by creating inclusive educational environments, offering tailored, concrete, and formal supports, and ultimately creating an anti-racist academic culture free from all forms of oppression.

#SocialWorkSoWhite

Autumn Asher BlackDeer — 2022-11-08

To date, social work continues to be a predominantly white-dominated profession; this is true across all levels of the profession’s current and aspiring membership, including students, practitioners, and faculty members. This racial composition is remnant of our profession’s history of upholding white supremacy and legacy of white saviorism. Not surprisingly, foundational teachings of social work center and champion white women (e.g., Jane Addams) while neglecting the important contributions of Black and Brown social workers to the profession. The harm done by continuing and upholding these practices extends to all spheres that social work education touches, directly or indirectly. While the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics would lead one to think of social work as a noble profession, the reality demonstrates that we continually fall short of that reputation. Social work education is guilty of exploiting vulnerable and marginalized communities for the benefit of the profession under the guise of promoting social justice. For example, field placement, a cornerstone of social work education, continues to send mainly white students into communities of color for the purposes of learning, often treating the community as guinea pigs in the pursuit of white knowledge through experiential learning. Although in the long run, field placements can have some benefits for communities, we need to be more critical about the practices we engage in and the ways in which they fail to advance social justice and reinforce the status quo. We are at a pivotal moment in our profession as we reckon with the dissonance between our preaching and practice. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the many ways in which social work education haphazardly 1) perpetuates colonialism and upholds white supremacy, 2) harms marginalized communities, and 3) fails to model our code of ethics. We make a call for serious introspection within the field of social work: to evaluate the power dynamics at play, reckon with our past, and plan for a profession that strengthens and lives up to its commitment to social justice. We conclude with recommendations for transformative change within the social work profession.

Best Practices for Antiracist Education in Virtual Settings

Jandel Crutchfield — 2022-11-08

In 2020, resources proliferated for 1) teaching in virtual settings in response to educational disruptions; and 2) antiracist education practices. Resources that combined these subjects to suggest antiracist education practices for the virtual setting were comparatively few. In this article, the authors propose ways to connect antiracist practices to virtual education. We begin with an exploration of racism and antiracism. Next, we explore existing literature for how racism shows up in the virtual classroom. Literature suggests instructor bias, course planning, and course delivery practices can work to uphold racism and manifestations of white supremacy in these virtual settings. Drawing from the work of scholars in the area of antiracist pedagogy, we suggest processes educators can engage in for increasing awareness of instructor bias, and for increasing the use of antiracist practices in course planning and delivery to help begin (or continue) the process of implementing antiracist practices in the virtual classroom.

If Anti-Racism Is the Goal, Then Anti-Oppression Is How We Get There

Carmela Fusciello Smith — 2022-11-08

Many schools of social work around the United States of America wrote anti-racism statements because of the recent murders of Black and Brown people. In this contribution, the authors describe a challenging and tense discussion of racism and anti-racism leading to a group process about oppression and anti-oppression in the social work profession. For some, the urgency to address racism led to tactics and strategies that got in the way of social workers engaging in anti-oppressive practices. While the structure of higher education often reinforces traditional hierarchies of power, the profession of social work calls us to promote our core values of social justice, integrity, and the importance of human relationships as we strive for an anti-oppressive future. Consequently, social work faculty may experience role conflict as we navigate these tensions. We believe it is important to harness and process such discomfort as we critically examine the power dynamics within our own department, and our own profession. This voluntary, ad hoc group, composed of a diverse group of faculty members, provides space for ongoing mutual aid, consciousness raising, appropriate discomfort, and accountability. If anti-racism is the goal, then anti-oppression is how we get there.

The Other Side of the Dais

Mitchell Rosenwald — 2022-11-08

This article articulates a reinvigorated vision for social workers to be elected and appointed to serve in public office and an array of strategies to achieve this vision. Coupling the current and divisive political climate with the pressing inequities of marginalized populations, an urgent imperative exists for social workers to “re-envision” and expand their macro practice options more deliberatively by serving in public office. Included in this challenge is the necessity for social workers to assume legitimated macro power by holding elected and appointed positions in government – a sub-branch of “political social work.” To that end, this article articulates five components of political social work practice in elected and appointed office: 1) the roles and skills of elected and appointed officials, 2) making the decision to seek office, 3) campaigning and networking, 4) serving in office; and 5) enlisting social workers to assist others who seek public office. It concludes with recommended strategies to strengthen these components that both social work education and social work professional associations should consider.

Social Workers as Potential Agents for Drug Policy Reform

Annie Grace Benjamin — 2022-11-08

There is a growing recognition that our society must address systemic racism, mass criminalization and violent policing with alternative responses to crises in communities. Reform advocates have increasingly proposed that social workers, equipped with the skills and training to de-escalate tensions and respond to mental health and substance use crises, should work in teams alongside police officers. Despite broad support by community stakeholders, law enforcement, and the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), this approach remains fraught if we do not critically examine our role as agents of social control in such systems. A clear case study is the War on Drugs, wherein social workers have assumed the role of frontline enforcers through our employment in the criminal legal and child welfare systems, health care, and coercive drug treatment programs. The harsh and punitive laws stemming from the War on Drugs have contributed to the mass criminalization of people who use drugs, devastated communities, separated families, and so much more. Our focus should shift towards upstream advocacy for policies to reduce the scope of the criminal legal system altogether. We propose suggestions to re-envision social work’s role in less punitive and carceral responses.

The Case for Mandatory Reporting as an Ethical Dilemma for Social Workers

Sam Harrell — 2022-11-08

Mandatory reporting of child abuse is a part of the civil legal system that can activate a policy cascade disproportionately criminalizing racialized and marginalized communities. While social work scholarship has explored ways to increase provider compliance with mandatory reporting laws, there is a dearth of research focused on how social work education guides future providers towards the praxis of mandatory reporting discourses. This article presents findings from a content analysis of social work textbook excerpts focused on mandatory reporting of child abuse in the U.S. We found that textbooks affirm social work’s loyalty to the State by approaching mandatory reporting through a deontological lens and systematically reinforcing risk management practices. Although some texts offer a nod to mandatory reporting as facilitating ethical dilemmas, none offer guidance for how to navigate competing social work commitments, and none actually treat mandatory reporting as an ethical dilemma. We argue that social work education should equip future practitioners to: a) have a nuanced understanding of mandatory reporting laws and requirements; b) contextualize mandatory reporting within broader discourses of criminalization, professionalization, and neoliberalism; and c) ground future practices in macro social work ethics.

Dismantling Structures That Impede Clinical Social Work Practice

Dianna Cooper-Bolinskey — 2022-11-08

The current study examined the relationship between pre-licensure supervised experience requirements and license violations in order to ascertain whether jurisdictions requiring higher numbers of hours of supervised experience to obtain clinical social worker (CSW) licensure had fewer violations. The purpose of the study was to explore if there is a measure of “enough” supervised experience without compromising protection of the public. Three data files were used to complete the study: National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB), Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB)’s Supervision Requirements per Jurisdiction Data, and ASWB’s U.S. Social Work Licensee Data. Results indicated that jurisdictions requiring less than 4,000 hours of supervised experience reported fewer violations than would be expected, whereas jurisdictions requiring 4,000+ hours of supervised experience reported more violations than would be expected given the number of CSWs within the respective groups. Results question the practice of requiring higher amounts of supervised experience as a regulatory standard. Implications for social work regulation include support for nationally standardizing the required amounts of supervised experience outlined by Groshong (2011) and the ASWB (2018) Model Social Work Practice Act.

Coaching and Social Work

Virginia Rondero Hernandez — 2022-11-08

There is increasing recognition of the merits of coaching in social work, yet gaps in knowledge persist about the use and effectiveness of coaching in social work settings. This article bridges concepts and findings from the literature on coaching to provide readers with the information needed for decision-making about whether and how to integrate coaching into practice. Coaching is currently being used in a number of social work fields of practice to support the transfer of learning, practice implementation efforts, leadership development, and organizational processes. The evolution of coaching from the corporate world into service delivery settings is reviewed, with special attention to the commonalities and distinctions between coaching and social work practice. Knowing more about the background, purpose and value of coaching can equip the profession with further insights about the appropriate application of coaching in the world of social work. Moreover, the reader is invited to assess the potential of coaching as a method for enhancing workforce and leadership competencies and practice behaviors in service of improving client outcomes.