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.     

Socialization of Doctoral Students: Implications for Social Work Education

Recent discussions on social work education increasingly have drawn attention to doctoral education. The purpose of this article is to consider these discussions that debated some of the ways of improving doctoral student education and professional development, using professional socialization as a conceptual framework. Issues such as research, teaching, and research assistantship, and conferences are considered as key components of the process of preparing doctoral students for knowledge building through teaching and research. Finally, the paper discusses some implications for social work education.     

Social Work Education

Abstract

Migration across national borders has resulted in demographic changes in the United States, causing the country to become more multi-ethnic. This presents considerable challenges for graduate level educators who need to be responsive to the unique academic needs of diverse populations by considering students' previous experiences, values, and beliefs. This change requires educators to incorporate various teaching styles and to create a classroom atmosphere where security, trust, and openness can be achieved. Developing cultural competence and creating a transformative learning environment is essential for social work educators teaching in multicultural environments in the 21st century. This article provides a brief overview of Burchum's (2002) Evolutionary Perspectives that will help to assist readers in obtaining a clear understanding of cultural competence. It also presents Blunt's Model of Cultural Competence for Transformative Education, which can promote both transformative learning and assist social work educators in fostering a transformative learning environment.     

Space for Cultural and Spiritual Experiences in Social Work Education and Clinical Training

In general education, European American values stand as the unacknowledged norm and are perceived as being culturally neutral or culture free. By recognizing European American culture and spirituality as one of many diversities, social work students may better identify biased values and expectations inherent in the traditional monocultural and monospiritual approach. By providing space for European American culture and spirituality in social work education, among many others, intersubjective interactions become possible. While recognizing the increasing needs of multicultural/multispiritual heritage populations, in this article, the author reexamines cultural and spiritual competencies, focusing on relational issues that are not currently emphasized enough because of a strong conceptual association of competency with knowledge and skills-based practices.     

Occupational Social Work Education for Employee Assistance Practice

ABSTRACT

This article explores the current state of Occupational Social Work/Employee Assistance (OSW/EA) education. It examines the relationship between social work curricula, field placement experiences, and entry-level employment opportunities in the OSW/EA field. It is based on an educational initiative called the Partnership for Employee Assistance Education. Drawing on the OSW/EA literature, surveys, and focus group materials, the article concludes that the nature of OSW/EA is being reshaped by information technology, shifting demographics, globalization, and evolving terms and conditions of employment. The authors discuss how the graduate-level OSW/EA curriculum and field placements are being transformed to reflect these trends. Concepts such as Organizational Social Work and organizational intelligence are discussed. Innovative educational strategies are recommended. Finally, the authors argue that the contemporary workplace offers potential opportunity for innovative social work practice and education.     

An Introduction: Reimagining Social Work Education for the Digital Age

ABSTRACT

Despite the recent publication of a number of articles, along with current presentations at professional conferences, and a scholarly text all on the topic of distance learning and online social work education, many believe that the subject has not received the level of recognition among academics in our profession that it needs and deserves. This Introduction to a special double issue of a prominent peer-reviewed journal serves to welcome the reader to the contents of the seventeen articles that follow, and to provide both an overview and conceptual framework for the special issue as a whole. Underscoring both the opportunities and quandaries, support and resistance, most of the authors would appear to conclude that social work educators must rapidly become more agile in embracing the unique opportunities presented by the technology that we now have at hand.     

Digital Ethics in Social Work Education

ABSTRACT

Attention has been given to the revised National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics that guides social worker use of technology. The revision of the NASW Code of Ethics has signaled a transition in the profession toward ethical online practice using modern techniques and contemporary tools. Practicing social workers are applying these new ethical standards, and many social work educators are doing so when using information and communication technologies with students. However, little research focuses on teaching social work students about digital ethics and professional online conduct. This paper explores the importance of preparing social work students for ethical online behavior.     

Sexual Justice Is Social Justice: An Activity to Expand Social Work Students Understanding of Sexual Rights and Injustices

Social work education could benefit from an explicit educational framework that combines social justice and sexuality: sexual justice. However, there is a paucity of literature in social work discussing this critical issue. This article helps equip social workers to challenge social injustice through a lens of sexuality and builds a conceptual framework by examining sexual justice through pillars of social work: human dignity, community and solidarity, rights and responsibilities, priority for the poor and vulnerable, and peace. An activity providing micro and macro case discussions is presented to help infuse sexual justice into social work programs.     

Safety Training in Social Work Education

Abstract

Social workers are particularly vulnerable to violence due to the type of clients they serve, the preponderance of involuntary service relationships, the settings in which they work, and cutbacks in services. A national survey was conducted of field directors to discern their perceptions about danger to interns, schools' and agencies' practices and responsibilities for student safety, safety standards and policies, training personnel and content, and recommendations for change. Field directors believe that there is a need for more attention to student safety and that risks to students are increasing. There is dissonance between concern about violence and the lack of safety policies and training in schools of social work. Strategies for violence prevention are presented.     

A Call for Self-Compassion in Social Work Education

Many social work students approach the end of their formal training unprepared to utilize self-care approaches to prevent burnout. Providing students more comprehensive self-care training can help address this issue. One approach to fostering self-care and addressing stress and burnout in social work students is the attitude and practice of self-compassion (SC; i.e., compassion directed inward). Training in SC can be helpful, as it has been shown to be effective in addressing stress and burnout, as well as enhancing practice. This article explores the benefits of integrating an SC approach within professional social work education. A definition, review of the SC literature, and a conceptual sketch for integrating SC approaches in social work education are presented.     

Distance and Online Social Work Education: Novel Ethical Challenges

Digital technology has transformed social work education. Today's students can take individual courses and earn an entire degree without ever meeting their faculty members in person. Technological innovations such as videoconferencing, live online chat, asynchronous podcasts, and webinars enable social work educators to reach students whose personal circumstances and geographical locations make it difficult for them to attend school in person. This paper highlights complex ethical issues associated with the proliferation of digital and online social work education. Key ethical issues concern student access; course and degree program quality and integrity; academic honesty and gatekeeping; and privacy and surveillance.     

The Construction of Social Class in Social Work Education: A Study of Introductory Textbooks

Social work introductory textbooks reflect myriad practical interests, pedagogical concerns, and theoretical considerations. However, they also present students with accepted views, dominant perspectives, and main discourses of knowledge. In light of this centrality, the present article examines the representation of the concept of “social class” in introductory textbooks as a way to look at the construction of the concept in social work education. Based on the content analysis study of 50 introductory textbooks, the article suggests that social work education has overlooked or even denied the relevance of social class. Class differences, as part of other categories of power such as race, ethnicity, and gender are crucial factors in explaining diversity and inequality. As social justice is one of the main premises of social work, the question of how to prepare students to deal with class issues as future practitioners seems to be very important, especially in light of increasing social class gaps.     

Innovations Applied to the Classroom for Involuntary Groups: Implications for Social Work Education

There is an increasing demand for social work students to be prepared to work with a wide range of involuntary groups including the more traditional court-ordered programs in domestic abuse and chemical dependency, as well as groups in mental health and schools that provide outreach to high-risk client populations. This paper introduces three innovative frameworks including Reactance theory, Stages of Change model and Motivational Interviewing. Classroom guidelines and exercises are presented that help students integrate these interventions as they develop their group work skills. Strategies for involving students in moving these innovations towards best practices with involuntary groups are discussed.     

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.     

Partnerships in Social Work Education

Historically, society has associated a visit from a child protection worker with the removal of children. In Canada in the 1960s, Aboriginal children were removed from their communities in alarming numbers and were referred to as the “sixties scoop.” This may in part explain the difficulty in recruiting Aboriginal social workers into child welfare practice. This reality prompted the development of a post–bachelor degree certificate aimed at increasing the number of Aboriginal child welfare social workers in northern British Columbia. The results discussed in this article stem from three certificate cohorts and highlight the development of new partnerships and students’ experiences. Two years following the completion of the third cohort, nearly 80% of the students recruited were still employed in the North.     

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.     

The Use of Emotions in Social Work Education

The role of emotions, although central to social work practice, has been relatively neglected in the process of teaching and learning social work. This article explores how social work educators can incorporate an understanding of the role of emotions in both the teaching and practice of social work. Attention is drawn toward evolutionary and developmental perspectives, emotional regulation, and the current treatment of emotions in the educational context. Further, the article explores the role of optimal emotional arousal in the learning and retention of social work curriculum and its concurrent relational implications for practice.     

Students' Participation in Social Networking Sites: Implications for Social Work Education

Social work students have few guidelines to help them evaluate the implication of their posted information on Internet-based social networking sites (SNSs). There is a national trend among employers of human services to cross-check publicly available online information on applicants. Based on data from a survey of 105 baccalaureate and master's social work students at a Midwestern university, this study explored students' perspectives on problematic information on SNSs. The majority reported that they had posted information on SNSs that they would not want their prospective employers to cross-check. Students offered a wide range of opinions, attitudes, and characteristics that contribute to the assessment of the risks that information they post on SNSs pose for their profession. The purpose of this study is to stimulate a conversation among social work educators on how to inculcate awareness and training of students on the ethical implications of SNS participation and to discuss directions for future research.     

社会工作毕业生对本科教学的反馈研究

以天津师范大学社会工作毕业生为研究对象,了解毕业生的就业和职业适应状况、对本科教学等方面的看法和评价,以期为今后社会工作专业的教育教学改革提供较为客观和现实的指导和建议。     

中国社会工作教育发展面临的若干问题及其解决对策

当前，中国社会工作教育的发展正面临着若干突出的问题，这些问题有着一定的成因，并会造成很大的危害。因此，必须在遵循解决问题的原则、明确解决问题的思路基础上，采取具体的对策措施来寻求实际问题的有效解决。