Infusing Content on the Physical Environment into the BSW Curriculum
In August 1999, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) delegate assembly passed a major platform on environmental policy. The NASW now mandates that social workers take a proactive stand on environmental exploitation and environmental justice issues in all facets of their professional activities. This requires social work education to provide a more comprehensive view of the environment to include the physical as well as the social. The authors are faculty members of the Ramapo College Social Work Program, which has infused environmental content into all aspects of its BSW Curriculum. This article will describe how Ramapo incorporated such content into the liberal arts foundation, program prerequisites, and professional foundation areas of human behavior in the social environment (HBSE), research, practice, field, and policy. This model is offered as a guide to assist other social work programs in developing content on the physical environment in the BSW curriculum.