Social Work and the Natural Environment: Embedding Content Across Curricula

Social work is a profession focused on people within their environments. This is reflected in codes of ethics, where our shared mandate is to work towards individual wellbeing and social change. Recently, social work literature has promoted green and eco-social work, drawing on climate change science, notions of expanded and future justice, knowledge of the link between health and the environment, and principles of deep ecology. However, if social workers are to take up their place in a rapidly changing, globalised world, rife with environmental concerns, their education must prepare them to do this. One way of doing this is to embed curriculum on social work in relation to the natural environment in already existing units. This paper describes two examples of how this could be done based on the authors’ experiences from their respective universities.

IMPLICATIONS

• It is incumbent on social work to respond to the mounting evidence related to the environmental crisis.

• Social work is well placed in terms of theory, values, and skills to lead the way in developing an eco-social paradigm of potential relevance across disciplines.

• Social work educators need to educate students about emerging issues, such as environmental degradation. Embedding material in already existing courses, as per examples provided in this paper, provides one way of doing this.

     

Transforming Social Work Curricula: Institutional Supports for Promoting Sustainability

Due to the centrality of human rights and social justice in the profession, social work must collectively take a stand on ecological degradation and the climate crisis. Overall, social work education's engagement with issues of sustainability and an expanded ecological justice perspective has been peripheral and piecemeal. It is crucial that social work education expand opportunities to prepare social workers to respond to the global environmental crisis. This conceptual paper considers strategies for integrating environmental content in social work curricula and addresses the essential role of institutional supports for curricular change and professional development focused on sustainability. The role of institutional supports to advance curricular change to respond to environmental crises and promote sustainability is highlighted, along with specific examples from the authors' home institution, including (1) institutional commitment and culture, (2) curricular supports and guidelines, and (3) interdisciplinary faculty development.     

Structural Equation Modeling: An Innovation for Doctoral Social Work Curricula

Abstract

This article offers guidelines for learning and teaching structural equation modeling (SEM). The essential ingredients of an introductory course are presented on the basis of the authors' experience teaching SEM over the past two years. Also discussed are successful and unsuccessful methods of instruction, a practical way to organize the course, and a means to integrate this material into doctoral social work curricula. Teaching SEM can be a practical and worthwhile way to ensure that the profession will have well-trained researchers.     

Incorporating Content on Offenders and Corrections into Social Work Curricula

This article presents suggestions for incorporating content on adult offenders and corrections across diverse curriculum areas, including human behavior in the social environment, practice, research, and social welfare policy. Social work educators are provided with guiding principles for work with offenders and with many concrete strategies for integrating material on this often forgotten population into already existing courses.     

Equity vs. Invisibility: Sexual Orientation Issues in Social Work Ethics and Curricula Standards

The responsibility of the social work profession to be inclusive and equitable in its service provision is reviewed via policies relating to professional training regarding sexual orientation issues. A comparative review of Canada, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (USA) and international standards regarding sexual orientation issues in social work codes of ethics and curricula standards was undertaken. A consistency exists in the USA between its ethics code and curriculum standards further backed by a mandated approach, but it is weak in the area of ethically principled practice skills. Both Canada and the UK are less consistent and comprehensive and lack a mandated approach. The results speak to where consistencies exist and where they need to be established in order to develop an infrastructure that properly trains social workers in cultural competency for these populations.     

Generic Practice in Graduate Social Work Curricula: A Study of Educators' Experiences and Attitudes

This paper reports a study of the teaching of generic social work in graduate curricula in the United States. A key finding was that although a sizable majority of faculty supported a broad definition of generic practice, including a full range of micro and macro interventions, micro approaches were given more emphasis. Major difficulties encountered were: (1) inability to attain depth, (2) lack of faculty expertise in all components of generic practice, and (3) insufficient integration with field work. A majority of faculty lacked formal preparation for generic practice; macro practice was the area of deficiency reported. Core concepts relevant to generic practice were identified. Despite the problems, faculty believe that generic social work is a needed mode of practice.     

Global HIV and AIDS: Calling all Social Work Educators

As the HIV/AIDS global pandemic continues to grow through a third decade, the need for social work educators to prepare social workers in distinct fields of practice with skills to assist those infected with and affected by HIV is of paramount importance. HIV/AIDS holds multi-level and multi-system effects for vulnerable populations. This article features global HIV and AIDS teaching resources beginning with common global practice challenges. Next, five teaching units focus on practice needs and challenges of divergent vulnerable populations including men who have sex with men, women, injecting drug users (IDU), commercial sex workers, and children orphaned by AIDS. Discussion questions, selected readings and electronic resources accompany each unit. The authors close the article with suggested recommendations for content integration into social work courses, and next steps for the profession.     

Environmental Justice Is a Social Justice Issue: Incorporating Environmental Justice Into Social Work Practice Curricula

Social justice education for social work practice is concerned with addressing issues of power and oppression as they impact intersections of identity, experience, and the social environment. However, little focus is directed toward the physical and natural environment despite overwhelming evidence that traditionally marginalized groups bear the burden of environmental problems. In this article, we discuss environmental disaster impacts on marginalized communities, presence of environmental justice in social work literature, and opportunities for integrating environmental justice into social work’s mandated disciplinary competencies. We conclude with an example of a module implemented in a foundation Social Justice for Social Work Practice course using place-based education principles as an illustration of concrete strategies for incorporating environmental justice into social justice curricula.     

Promoting Resilience Through Social Work Practice with Groups: Implications for the Practice and Field Curricula

The realities of contemporary social work practice often push social workers toward a deficit-focused orientation. The article begins with an overview of the major tenets of resiliency and adversarial growth theories and related research findings. We suggest that the group modality epitomizes the application of resiliency theory and adversarial growth to social work practice. A primary focus of this article is on articulating and illustrating the unique contribution group work makes for promoting client resilience. The article provides a theoretical and empirical framework that students, practitioners, and educators alike can use to identify, understand, and capitalize on client strengths through group work. Implications for social work education, specifically the practice and field curricula, are discussed.     

Issues,Components, and Theoretical Considerations in the Integration of Divinity and Social Work Curricula

Abstract

This article describes the common and distinctive features of Divinity and Social Work Curricula. The investigation of these curricula includes an examination of the theoretical foundations of each discipline, program design, field work options, and the need for joint planning. The suggestion is made that dual degree be dropped as the nomenclature for such cooperative programs and that they be named joint degrees programs.     

Socially Engaged Art and Social Work: Reflecting on an Interdisciplinary Course Development Journey

This article shares key questions guiding our process of building interdisciplinary bridges between social work and art to contribute to social justice-oriented education. Through a focus on socially engaged art, we discuss the purpose and forms that these practices take and the role of the audience/participants when working for social change with communities. We then present a proposed course outline that brings social work and socially engaged art together. Our hope is that this discussion will guide others interested in working through interdisciplinary collaborations, as can be seen by the growing interest in the mix of art and social work in practice and education.     

Social Work Field Education as Social Development

SUMMARY

This article will discuss social development models and their application to the establishment of social work field education in Lithuania. A model of field education as social development is presented and discussed, with reference to promoting core social work knowledge, values and skills, establishing relationships between educational and social welfare institutions, and identifying the impact of field education programs on community well-being. Examples from the authors' experience in educational program development and implementation are presented, along with implications for international social work education.