scholarly journals Interracial Team Teaching in Social Work Education

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2/3) ◽  
pp. 730-749
Author(s):  
Luis O. Curiel
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Team Teaching ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Teaching Method ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Pedagogical Approach ◽  
Systemic Racism ◽  
Work Education

This article aims to explore anti-racist social work education through interracial team teaching, where one instructor is White, and the other is Black, Indigenous, or a Person of Color (BIPOC). This pedagogical approach is presented as an emerging conceptual model to consider in anti-racist social work education. As an anti-racist approach to teaching, this model aims to engage students and faculty in a more active and accountable role in dismantling systemic racism and White supremacy through social work education. A close examination of published articles on interracial team teaching revealed an absence of theoretical frameworks to guide this teaching method. Critical Race Theory (CRT) emerged as a compatible theoretical framework for teaching anti-racism within an interracial team-taught model. Five CRT tenets from Sólorzano et al. (2005) align with previous studies to support this emerging pedagogical approach as a viable option. Findings suggest that anti-racist education requires explicitly naming terms like White supremacy, racism, and colonization within the social work curriculum. Interracial team teaching necessitates shared power and authority between instructors and calls for White educators to examine their White identity and resist performing allyship. Academic institution hiring practices need a greater representation of BIPOC faculty to reduce overburdening faculty of color.

scholarly journals Decentering Whiteness in Social Work Curriculum

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2/3) ◽  
pp. 801-820
Author(s):  
Stephanie Odera ◽  
M. Alex Wagaman ◽  
Ashley Staton ◽  
Aaron Kemmerer
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Critical Thought ◽  
Course Content ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
Racial Identities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Work Education

The social work profession has historically been dominated by the presence and perspectives of whiteness. The centering of whiteness in social work education is reflected in course offerings, course content, assignment construction, and inherent racialized assumptions about who clients and social workers will be in practice spaces. Critical race theory (CRT) and liberation theory provide a framework for considering how to make visible the ways in which white supremacy is embedded in social work education, and to identify strategies for disrupting its presence by decentering whiteness. The purpose of this project is to foster critical thought about ways to dismantle racism and white supremacy in social work educational spaces. Using the reflexive methodology of collaborative autoethnography, the four authors - two course instructors and two students - with varying racial identities and positionalities, reflected on the experiences of coming to, being in, and transitioning out of the course. Areas of convergence and divergence in the autoethnographic reflections revealed strategies such as embracing vulnerability, promoting authentic relationships, and normalizing emotional as well as cognitive engagement for decentering whiteness in social work education. Implications and recommendations for social work educators and students committed to engaging in anti-racist practice are also discussed

Implementing Mastery Learning in the Social Work Classroom

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-140
Author(s):  
Christopher B. Aviles
Keyword(s):  
Education Research ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Teaching Methods ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Teaching Method ◽  
Mastery Learning ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
The Social ◽  
Work Education

This article describes how the essential elements of the teaching method called mastery learning can be structured in the social work classroom. Mastery learning is a behavioral teaching method successfully used in social work education. Research studies on teaching rarely describe teaching methods in enough detail for instructors to discern how the teaching methods were implemented or how they may have been implemented differently. This can give social work educators a limited picture of what a teaching method could look like in their classrooms. The essential elements of mastery learning can be implemented in whole or part and can be structured in either simple or complex ways. Ways in which social work educators can implement mastery learning to better fit their classrooms are presented in this article.

scholarly journals Liberation-based social work theory in progress: Time to practice what I teach

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 516-523
Author(s):  
Alexis Jemal
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Teaching Experience ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Transformative Potential ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Critical Action ◽  
Work Education ◽  
Critical Social

Social work education integrates theory and practice to bridge the micro-macro divide. The theoretical framework of intersecting identities reveals hidden inequities related to health consequences. The global pandemic, reflecting a colliding of personal and professional worlds, interrupted an elective social work course designed to: 1) develop transformative potential (i.e., critical consciousness of and critical action against white supremacy, anti-blackness, and racial oppression of Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC)); 2) model liberation-based social work education and practice; and 3) prepare students to be critical social workers in the field. The pandemic created an in-class opportunity for the professor, also the course’s designer, to practice what she teaches. This self-reflexive essay details the pandemic's impact on a teaching experience and follows the professor’s journey to more fully understand systems, inequity, and her own transformative potential. The transformative potential development process included many learning experiences in the areas of relationship and community building; transformative consciousness development; accountability and responsibility; efficacy; and, critical action. The unforeseen global pandemic presented the professor with opportunities for deep reflection about liberation-based social work education and practice. By bringing the reality of how macro processes create micro consequences into the classroom in real time, the professor’s responses were tested against oppressive norms, standards and values versus those that honor a person’s humanity. An important discovery is that a critical social work educator teaches in ways that spark radical imagination to disrupt the oppressive status quo camouflaged as personal choice and business as usual.

scholarly journals Assessing Antiracism as a Learning Outcome in Social Work Education

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2/3) ◽  
pp. 766-778
Author(s):  
Phillipe Copeland ◽  
Abigail Ross
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Learning Outcome ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Work Education

The current political climate and reversals of gains made during the Civil Rights Movement underscore the urgent need for preparing emerging social workers to effectively address white supremacy in social work practice. Antiracism education in social work aims to ensure competent antiracist social work practice towards the goal of eradicating white supremacy in all its forms. Given the widening racial disparities evident in income, health and educational outcomes, it is essential to examine the degree to which social work education adequately prepares emerging social work practitioners to engage in antiracist social work practice. This paper presents findings of a systematic review of social work research assessing antiracism as a learning outcome. After reviewing more than 150 studies published between 2008 and 2018, none of them focused on assessing antiracism as a learning outcome. Our review demonstrates that despite the importance of antiracist social work practice, published research on assessment of antiracism as a learning outcome is sparse and is not antiracism-focused as much as it is antiracism-inclusive. More attention to identifying and disseminating best practices for assessing student competence in antiracism practice is required to defeat white supremacy.  

scholarly journals Faculty as a Barrier to Dismantling Racism in Social Work Education

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2/3) ◽  
pp. 500-521
Author(s):  
Ebony N. Perez
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
The United States ◽  
Race And Racism ◽  
Specific Content ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
Work Education

Facilitating learning around race and racism is often uncomfortable for faculty as well as students. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate the experiences of undergraduate social work educators who teach about race and racism in social work programs. I employed a qualitative case study design to understand the lived experience of undergraduate social work educators who teach race specific content. I employed a combination of purposive sampling and snowballing methods to identify nine participants from the Southeast region of the United States. Utilizing a Critical Race Theory (CRT) framework to analyze interviews, several key findings emerged revealing faculty as barriers to facilitating learning around anti-racist content in the classroom. These findings were a) their own racial identity; b) insufficient formal preparation around race and racism; c) lack of faculty comfort with anti-racist content; and d) lack of skill in teaching anti-racist content. Recommendations include the implementation of scaffolded antiracist content throughout social work curricula that would be required by the Council on Social Work Education as part of the accreditation process.  

scholarly journals Wrestling the Elephant

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2/3) ◽  
pp. 545-565
Author(s):  
Carolyn Mak ◽  
Mandeep Kaur Mucina ◽  
Renée Nichole Ferguson
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
White Supremacist ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
Institutional Policies ◽  
Classroom Dynamics ◽  
The Social ◽  
Work Education ◽  
Whiteness As Property

White supremacist ideology is the elephant in the social work classroom, negatively impacting educators’ abilities to facilitate discussion and learning. One of the most effective ways to dismantle and organize against white supremacy is to politicize the seemingly benign moments that occur in the classroom that can create discomfort for students and instructors. Politicization includes identifying and addressing both the racial (micro-) aggressions that occur in the classroom and the processes and institutional policies that create complacency and lull us to sleep. In this conceptual piece, we use a Critical Race Theory (CRT) framework to understand how white supremacy perpetuates itself in the classroom, with a particular focus on whiteness as property. As well, we explore what it means to decolonize the classroom. Using a vignette based on our teaching experiences, we use these two frameworks to analyze classroom dynamics and interactions, and discuss how implications for social work education include waking from the metaphorical sleep to recognize the pernicious effects of whiteness and white supremacy. Included are practical individual teaching, relational, and systemic suggestions to enact change.

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