Integrating Macro–Micro Practice

Social work sets itself apart in the “helping professions” in recognizing the significance of its students and practitioners engaging with the theoretical knowledge and practice experiences sufficient for fluency across macro to micro settings. This practice integration assures comprehensive understanding of person-in-environment, from casework to complex systems work, and is raised to an ethical standard in the National Association of Social Work Code of Ethics and in the International Federation of Social Work Principles. Yet macro-oriented scholars have accused social work educators and professionals of abandoning their obligation to social justice and policy participation and of focusing their energy instead on micro practice. This literature is helpful in addressing how integrated practice can be achieved and informs the development of social workers who solidly embrace a commitment to macro knowledge and participation.

Working and learning from home during COVID-19: International experiences among social work educators and students

This research seeks to explore the experiences of social work educators and students working and learning from home. The findings, from an international survey sample of 166 educators and students, showed that the respondents faced issues with private and personal boundaries, felt the impact of working and learning from home on both physical and emotional levels, and experienced challenges to what was expected of them. The respondents primarily used two types of coping mechanisms to manage these challenges. These findings contribute to a broader discussion of the impact of working and learning from home and are relevant for education administrators responsible for their employees’ and students’ well-being.

Relational Learning and Teaching with BME Students in Social Work Education

Given the imperative to redress the education inequalities between Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) and White students, this contribution explores advances and challenges from within Social Work education (SWE) in relation to the experiences of Black social work students. Drawing on critical race theories and the concept of racial battle fatigue, it explores the impacts of race and racism on students’ academic experience and wellbeing. It proposes the significance of relational wellbeing which has been a constant strand within Social Work education and comprises a valuable approach to the decolonisation process within higher education (HE). Linking this to critical pedagogy, it highlights the role of staff to build safety, confidence and trust to support students to overcome prior education experiences of under-attainment, disadvantage and social marginalisation. Despite the pervasiveness of managerialism within HE, which compromises the teacher-student relationship and emphasises measured changes in student ‘outcomes’, Social Work educators are invited to nurture safe and transformational learning environments.

“Theory’s Cool, But Theory With No Practice Ain’t Shit…”

As it stands today, social work education falls short in providing critical theories and frameworks that reflect the experiences of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). Such insufficiencies maintain racism and other forms of oppression that plague both social work pedagogy and praxis. To challenge and dismantle hegemonic curricula, social work education needs to do more to provide the knowledge and tools necessary for anti-racist social work. The purpose of this article is to present five critical theories and frameworks written by Indigenous and People of Color scholars that social work educators, researchers, and practitioners can integrate into their teaching and practice to raise the critical consciousness of social work students. These five postulations are Compa Love, Racial Triangulation Theory, Breath of Life Theory, kapwa, and cultural wealth. The article will also discuss implications for social work education and practice. Centering the voices of under-represented scholars whose epistemologies are rooted in the lived experiences and communities that the field of social work traverses provides a pathway for social work education and practice to be tailored towards self-determination for all.

Gray Clouds Over Ivory Towers

Black, first-generation doctoral students can be classified as those who belong to the African diaspora and come from families with parents who do not have bachelor’s degrees. Data shows that over half of Black doctoral degree recipients, across all fields, have first-generation status, and literature has shown that these students experience several challenges during their doctoral journey that their peers do not. This paper details six of these challenges for Black, first-generation research doctoral students in social work programs. These challenges result in educational disparities disfavoring these students, and, as such, social workers are compelled by our Code of Ethics to work against these forms of social injustice. This conceptual discussion uses Critical Race Theory and Social Capital Theory to explain the continued existence of these challenges, followed by recommendations that social work educators, academic institutions, and educational organizations can use to improve conditions for Black, first-generation social work research doctoral students across the country. If social work educators take this critical issue, its associated challenges, and the proposed recommendations seriously, they can begin to create safe and actively anti-racist and anti-classist academic environments that are conducive to the success of this student population.

Faculty as a Barrier to Dismantling Racism in Social 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.

Dismantling White Supremacy in Social Work Education

We are excited to share this special edition of Advances in Social Work with you. When we distributed a call for abstracts, we were inundated – in a good way – with proposals. The need for social workers to discuss the role that white supremacy occupies within our history, education, and practice was obvious. Because of the number of abstracts received, we made the decision to publish a double edition so that the important information contained in these articles can be widely shared. The submissions fell into three general themes--historical, instructional, and institutional examinations. Each set of articles offers much for us to reflect and act upon moving forward. There is a reckoning happening and we are thrilled that this special edition is part of that reckoning. In all, we hope that this special issue will help advance our conversations in social work education around white supremacy and how it influences our practice, research, and education. Recognizing that our Code of Ethics calls us to “pursue social change, particularly with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals and groups”, we believe it is important for social work as a profession to consistently evaluate its own institutions for ways we can practice what we preach. As social work educators, we have the ethical and moral responsibility to learn, grow, and challenge ourselves. We can do better. We must do better.

Finding Shelter in the Storm

This paper presents the case study of a 100+ year old school of social work recently shaken by acts of racial aggression targeted toward our Black/African American community. Following campus incidents that received national attention, minority social work students urged faculty to organize action to voice values of equity and justice, and to provide an intentional safe space within our school. In response, a volunteer faculty committee dedicated themselves to the group’s formation and implementation of the Undoing Racism Principles from the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB, n.d.), beginning internally and expanding outward. Representing multiple identities and positionalities of power, committee members use these principles to process our privilege. We reflect on our journeys with racism as social work educators and as individuals who are, and have been, influenced by internalized historical and contemporary racism. Guided by Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Freire 1970/ 2002) and Critical Race Theory (Sulé, 2020), the praxis of reflecting in-and-on our work has evolved (Schön, 1983, 1987). Authors share their personal experiences, professional impacts, and efforts to implement anti-racist pedagogy. Contextual implications for schools of social work that aim to become anti-racist within their implicit and explicit curricula are provided by this case study.