“I am a change agent”: A mixed methods analysis of students’ social justice value orientation in an undergraduate community psychology course.

Author(s):  
Dawn X. Henderson ◽  
Amber T. Majors ◽  
Michelle Wright
2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret I. Davis ◽  
Josefina Alvarez ◽  
Carmen Curtis ◽  
Lucia D'Arlach ◽  
Joseph Ferrari ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
pp. 002087282110200
Author(s):  
Kang Liu ◽  
Catherine A Flynn

While the environment is fundamental to humankind’s wellbeing, to date, social work has been largely focused on the social, rather than the physical, environment. To map how the broader environment is captured in the profession’s foundational documents, an exploratory sequential mixed methods study (QUAL → quan) analysed data from 64 social work codes of ethics. Findings indicate that although the environment is mentioned in the majority of these, there is a continued focus on the social, overlooking to some degree the physical, predominantly the built, environment. A more holistic understanding of the environment would enable social work to better fulfil its commitment to human rights and social justice.


Author(s):  
Marilyn Y. Byrd ◽  
Brenda Lloyd-Jones

There are limited human relations [HRL] programs in higher education in the United States, and even fewer that include an integrative concentration of social justice and workforce diversity. The purpose of this chapter will be, first, to identify the need for social justice and workforce diversity perspectives in HRL programs and then provide a philosophical and theoretical rationale for how an integration of these perspectives is critical to the advancement of HRL in praxis. Second, to develop students' awareness of ways that the organizational social culture operates to create social stratification and exclusion. Third, an experiential service learning component will be described as a necessary step for students to experience environments and contexts where social injustice is prevalent. The chapter will conclude with a proposal for a social justice workforce diversity certificate in HRL that recognizes professional competency and skill as a social change agent. This chapter advances the concept of organizational social justice (Byrd, 2012).


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 160940691984675 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Bailey ◽  
Valerie Steeves ◽  
Jacquelyn Burkell ◽  
Leslie Regan Shade ◽  
Rakhi Ruparelia ◽  
...  

This article evaluates a Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach with mixed methods including concept mapping, q-sorting and deliberative dialogue in the context of a research project on young people’s experiences with digital communications technologies, and addresses some of the central insights of intersectionality theory and praxis. Our approach seeks to ensure that, insofar as possible, the gathered data provide a rich and layered window into the experiences of young people from a range of marginalized communities served by our project partners. The article revisits some key insights and contestations relating to intersectionality and addresses their relationship to our approach. We evaluate whether these methods enhance understandings of the interactions of structures of subordination with other factors identified in intersectionality scholarship, as well as the extent to which they centre the knowledge and expertise of those subordinated by matrices of domination as discussed by authors such as Crenshaw and Hill Collins. Our approach is just one of many that social science researchers interested in advancing intersectionality’s key insights could deploy. While it falls short of full consistency with these insights, its mixed methods work toward our partners’ social justice objectives while facilitating exploration of intersecting axes of subordination. Our approach can also help our project recapture the politic at the heart of many intersectional feminist critiques, such as those of Crenshaw and Hill Collins - that reconceptualizing knowledge requires centring the knowledge and expertise of those traditionally excluded due to interlocking systems of subordination.


2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-126
Author(s):  
Brent Satterly

J. K. Rowling's popular Harry Potter series describes a magical world of witches and wizards that exists in the ordinary world. Captivating an entire generation, Harry Potter is a lore that can teach today's undergraduate social work students about the power of advocacy for social change and the pursuit of social justice. Activating Millennial motivation, this cultural phenomenon provides themes, characters, and magical environments exploring identity, human development, trauma, families, oppression, privilege, power structures, groups, and diversity. For instance, how does studying at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry illuminate the intersectionality of identities in our pluralistic society? How does Draco Malfoy's exploration of his pureblood privilege and prejudice reflect White guilt and racism? And most poignantly, what role does Harry Potter play as change agent? This article takes us into the Pensieve to describe the scaffolding development of the course titled The Spell Craft of Social Work: Harry Potter and Social Justice.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 526-542 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flora Cornish ◽  
Catherine Campbell ◽  
Cristián Montenegro

The field of community psychology has for decades concerned itself with the theory and practice of bottom-up emancipatory efforts to tackle health inequalities and other social injustices, often assuming a consensus around values of equality, tolerance and human rights. However, recent global socio-political shifts, particularly the individualisation of neoliberalism and the rise of intolerant, exclusionary politics, have shaken those assumptions, creating what many perceive to be exceptionally hostile conditions for emancipatory activism. This special thematic section brings together a diverse series of articles which address how health and social justice activists are responding to contemporary conditions, in the interest of re-invigorating community psychology’s contribution to emancipatory efforts. The current article introduces our collective conceptualisation of these ‘changing times’, the challenges they pose, and four openings offered by the collection of articles. Firstly, against the backdrop of neoliberal hegemony, these articles argue for a return to community psychology’s core principle of relationality. Secondly, articles identify novel sources of disruptive community agency, in the resistant identities of nonconformist groups, and new, technologically-mediated communicative relations. Thirdly, articles prompt a critical reflection on the potentials and tensions of scholar-activist-community relationships. Fourthly, and collectively, the articles inspire a politics of hope rather than of despair. Building on the creativity of the activists and authors represented in this special section, we conclude that the environment of neoliberal individualism and intolerance, rather than rendering community psychology outdated, serves to re-invigorate its core commitment to relationality, and to a bold and combative scholar-activism.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Wartenweiler

Fair Battles is a 12-week Swiss education for social justice program with the goal of sensitizing high school students about the impact of their consumer habits on society. The pedagogical concept of Fair Battles is to employ the tool of serious play to enhance students’ social empathy, which then leads to service learning projects. This exploratory mixed-methods study examined the impact of the program by using pre- and post-program student surveys (n=16) and post program semi-structured qualitative student interviews (n=10). The survey data were analyzed using SPSS and the interview data were analyzed using template analysis. The results were organized according to Kirkpatrick’s four-level evaluation model. The quantitative results show a statistically significant increase in the post-program survey scores for the learning and behavior level. The qualitative results suggest that the program had a positive impact on students on all four of Kirkpatrick’s levels. The conclusions are that the Fair Battels program is impactful, that social justice education needs to be holistic and that the combination of serious play and service learning elements seems to be effective for social justice education. Further research in the area of social justice education and serious play is recommended


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