A Discourse Analysis of Online Dialogs in Social Work Diversity Courses

Abstract

Online discussions can extend learning experiences beyond the time and space of the classroom, allowing students more time to process information, and an additional mode of expression for those who are less active in open classroom discussions. They may be especially appropriate for teaching sensitive or controversial subject matter such as oppression and diversity, which is required by the Council on Social Work Education. This study investigated topical themes, depth, and tone of online dialogs in social work diversity courses at two universities in the mid-Atlantic area. Discourse analysis-a type of content analysis-is employed to gain a deeper understanding of the learning experience, and to compare the impact of anonymous and identified participation in the dialogs.     

Development of a Model for Evaluating Social Work Curriculum

Abstract

This paper describes an internal evaluation performed on the BSW curriculum of the School of Social Work of Tel Aviv University, Israel. It focuses on the inductive, participatory method by which the evaluation was designed, and on the measure that was developed. The aim of the paper is to encourage internal evaluation of social work curricula and to provide a model for doing so that others can adopt.     

Integrating Education on Addressing Health Disparities into the Graduate Social Work Curriculum

The purpose of this article is to propose an elective social work course as a means of better preparing social workers entering practice in healthcare to meet the challenges of promoting health and reducing health disparities in minority and underserved communities. Course offerings specifically targeting health or medical social work training vary widely. The additional training provided at places of employment and through continuing education after the master's degree is often inadequate for competently addressing the issues clinicians face in practice.     

Preparation for Social Service Leadership: Field Work and Virtual Organizations That Promote Critical Thinking in Administration Practice

This article examines how to prepare professional social workers for real-world nonprofit leadership roles. A pilot course assignment that incorporates a quasi-organization fieldwork simulation developed by the author is described. Development and application of critical thinking skills are reviewed, the course objective is explained, and methods and content that evolved during a three-semester trial are outlined. Student assignments and evaluation results indicate that a virtual asynchronous classroom experience is beneficial for students and faculty and that MSW administration students studying advanced generalist practice are an under-recognized potential source of nonprofit leadership.     

An Exploratory Study Evaluating the Effectiveness of an Innovative Model for Teaching Multicultural Social Work Education

Abstract

Effective social work practice with diverse populations requires the successful incorporation of multicultural knowledge, awareness, and skills.As a result, there is a pressing need for innovative and evidencebased teaching strategies and methods that provide social work students with these key multicultural tools. This paper describes one such teachingmodel and presents the findings of an exploratory study to empirically evaluate its effectiveness with undergraduate social work students (N =23) enrolled in a multicultural social work course. Based on pre-and post-test composite scores, the findings suggest that this new model of multicultural instruction and assignments increases students' multicultural awareness andknowledge.     

Becoming Teachers for Social Justice: Raising Critical Consciousness

This article shares processes and practices which foster students’ critical consciousness. Critical consciousness, the core of social justice teaching, is a heightened awareness of the world and the power structures that shape it. Teachers can become forces for equity and change by: challenging students to reflect critically on their beliefs and the sources of these beliefs; using text to guide students to look outwards and discover the perspectives and challenges of others; selecting texts purposefully to heighten student awareness of issues of power and equity; teaching students to read texts critically, listening carefully for the points of view of others often ignored or silenced; creating space for dialogue beyond text; and finally, making the world their classroom, blurring the boundary between schools and communities as students research the world and take steps toward change in ways that recognize and re-value our common humanity. Becoming teachers for social justice entails moving students through intentional processes and practices to foster critical consciousness in the hope of effecting change.     

Integrating Computer Content into Social Work Curricula

Abstract

While recent CSWE standards focus on the need for including more relevant technological content in social work curricula, they do not offer guidance regarding how it is to be assessed and selected. Social work educators are in need of an analytic model of computerization to help them understand which technologies are most appropriate and relevant to the professional development of social work students. This article develops a flexible model that can be used by faculty to assess, develop, and evaluate computer content in their curricula. The model presents a cost-effective approach that takes into account the enormous flux and pace of change in the computer industry.     

Blending Voices: Autoethnography as a Vehicle for Critical Reflection in Social Work

Critical reflection is important to vital process issues within social work practice; thus, it warrants attention in teaching and supervisory contexts. Autoethnography is a newer qualitative research methodology that uses the experiences of the author/researcher to extend social science understanding (Sparkes, 2000). In this article, the authors use autoethnography to frame critical reflection as a process of exploring social work knowledge and its potential implications, given that such knowledge is situated within fragmented and diverse selves and identities. Thus, good autoethnography is a unique way of accessing knowledge within intersubjective realities, which simultaneously generates a form of critical reflection (the comparison and assessment of emergent knowledge situated within selves and identities). Purposely incorporating an autoethnographic strategy, the authors draw from their experiences to show how personal narratives, the core of autoethnography, might be used to infuse critical reflection into social work education and practice.     

Strengthening the Affective and Behavioral Dimensions of Learning About Human Diversity

Abstract

This article describes an autobiographical writing assignment completed by students and faculty that is shared in an off-site retreat. It highlights an approach to learning about human diversity that blends affective and behavioral approaches with more traditional cognitive methods. It supports the interrogation of student and instructor assumptions, biases, attitudes, and experiences that result from living in a diverse and inequitable world. Such interrogation is critical if students are to develop the capacity to engage a broad range of clients with varying constellations of social identity. The paper narrates the issues and processes involved.     

Assessment Processes in Social Work Education: A Review of Current Methods

This paper explores the process of assessment in social work education programs throughout the United States. Following the guidelines of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) 2008 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS), social work education has switched from student learning outcomes to competency-based measures. Included in this study is a literature review on current assessment practices and results of a research project on assessment practices in social work education programs nationwide. The findings may be useful to social work educators in addressing programmatic changes and revisions based on the 2015 EPAS.     

Improving the Research Climate in Social Work Curricula

Abstract

Research courses are associated with performance anxiety and educational insecurity for many social work students. This paper makes the case that student anxiety associated with research courses is rooted in the history of the social work profession, and this history sheds light on the present day climate of research in social work education. The authors suggest that improvement to the research climate in social work education requires an “institutional” response. To that end, this paper describes a committee process that resulted in changes to one school's curriculum policy by revamping student learning objectives for a sequence of five research courses that spanned BSW and MSW programs. The committee produced a continuum of student learning expectations based on Bloom's taxonomy, which represents a logical progression of knowledge and skill competencies as students advance through their course work.     

Beyond Diversity and Inclusion: Creating a Social Justice Agenda in the Classroom

ABSTRACT

A social justice classroom agenda relies on the ability of educators to create a space free from microaggressions that can be strengthened through an approach of cultural humility. Utilizing Bonnycastle’s social justice continuum, this article explores how to create a classroom grounded in social equality and guided by social work values to foster participation from students across all social identities.     

Early Childhood Education and Care Content for the Social Work Curriculum

Social workers are poised to play an important role in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings; however, they need the knowledge and skills necessary to make a meaningful contribution. This article presents learning activities that infuse ECEC content, centered on the following four areas for social work education: (1) history of the profession, (2) observation of current practice, (3) culturally competent service delivery, and (4) advocacy to enhance social justice. Through this infusion of content, social work educators can better prepare their students for the growing field of ECEC practice and for social work practice more broadly.     

Introducing Sexual Diversity into Social Work Education

ABSTRACT

Social workers encounter sexuality-related issues in a variety of practice settings. Yet, less than half of professional preparation programs incorporate content on human sexual diversity in their curricula (Diaz & Kelly, 1991). Such an omission poses problems for competent practice with persons-in-sexual situations, especially in a pluralistic society and a multicultural world where there are varied beliefs, values, and options regarding adult sexual expression. This article describes a humanistic group approach to introducing sexual diversity into graduate social work education. It incorporates democratic values and guidelines, group process, and sexual diversity exercises into a professionally ethical approach to a controversial subject in the classroom.     

Pedagogy and Diversity: Enrichment and Support for Social Work Instructors Engaged in Social Justice Education

The primary purpose of faculty development is to create and sustain a culture of teaching excellence. For social work faculty, an important part of teaching excellence involves incorporating core social work values such as social justice and diversity across the curriculum and developing pedagogical skills and strategies to teach these issues effectively. In this article, we present a model of a faculty development seminar that offers a facilitated space for instructors to discuss how issues of diversity, social identity, and oppression influence their teaching, the classroom environment, student interactions, and the overall campus climate.     

批判教育学视野下的美国多元文化教育——访美国加州大学洛杉矶分校Peter Mclaren教授

"多元文化主义"产生于二战以来的各种社会变革思潮,旨在促进跨越种族、宗教、国家的文化理解和文化宽容,其概念被广泛地使用于各个学术领域,包括历史的、政治的、教育的等等。Peter Mclaren教授是美国加州大学洛杉矶分校教育和信息研究学院的教授,他被誉为批判教育学的领军人物之一。近年来,Mclaren教授主要运用马克思的政治经济学说,并与诸多学者和社会人士合作,积极致力于美国以及拉美地区的多元文化教育运动。Mclaren教授访问我所之际,笔者有幸与其主要就美国多元文化教育的历史发展过程以及批判的多元文化主义的核心内容进行探讨和交流。     

Queering the Social Work Classroom: Strategies for Increasing the Inclusion of LGBTQ Persons and Experiences

ABSTRACT

The inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) perspectives and experiences in the social work classroom is necessary to adequately include LGBTQ students and prepare graduates to practice effectively. Drawing from queer theory as a theoretical framework and the authors’ experiences in practice and teaching/learning spaces with LGBTQ youth, this article offers practical strategies for creating classrooms inclusive of LGBTQ persons. Queering the classroom builds skills in students beyond practice with LGBTQ people and communities, thereby enhancing their capacity to engage diversity in practice more generally and to advance human rights and social justice.     

试论游戏在社会工作专业教育中的作用

游戏是人类一种极具魅力的活动形态,是人类一种美好的存在。游戏有着非常丰富的内涵,其所蕴含的自由、愉悦、专一的游戏精神契合了"游戏如教学"的学校教育精神。社会工作专业教育是社会工作专业体系的重要组成部分,在社会工作专业化的过程中,专业教育发挥着关键的作用。将游戏引入到社会工作专业教育的课堂教学活动中,对学生建立与培养(理解)社会工作价值观、掌握社会工作理论知识、提升社会工作方法技巧的能力发挥着重要作用。     

The Teacher–Learner Relationship: Considerations for Social Work in the Digital Age

ABSTRACT

In light of a rapidly changing educational landscape, this paper will discuss the implications of online education for the teacher–learner relationship, which is a critical aspect of academic and professional development for the social work student. As technology revolutionizes relationships, how will we ensure the intra-and interpersonal nature of social work education? The pursuit of accessible and flexible educational opportunities presently driving social work education threatens to undermine this important alliance. The centrality of relationship is discussed here in the context of current trends in distance learning. Relational-Cultural Theory and Transactional Distance Theory are posited to provide evidence for the significance of relationship in learning.     

交响乐课堂教学中大学生团队合作精神的培养

分析和论述了交响乐教学不仅有助于培养学生深厚的世界文化底蕴、拓宽专业知识面、构建合理的知识结构,更有助于培养学生浓厚的团队合作精神和合作意识。认为并提出在交响乐课堂教学中可以通过强化交响乐演奏者全程"职业素质"、引入合作学习模式,以及发挥教师在教学中对团队精神培养的主导引领作用等途径,培养大学生的团队合作精神和行为。