Career Orientations of Female Social Work Students: An Examination of Sex Differences

This study examined the professional expectations and goals of female and male social work graduate students. The results indicated that, in general, female students did not have lower career aspirations or different professional attitudes than males. Differences were found in four areas, including (1) expectations regarding parental responsibility, (2) work values concerning leisure time and early retirement, (3) salary expectations, and (4) expectations concerning continuing education.     

Antecedents of curriculum choice: A comparison of black and white women in traditional and nontraditional college majors

A sample of black and white women from all land grant colleges and universities in the sourth was used to complement what is already known about women's career development. Derived from previous research into the determinants of career choice, three sets of variables pertaining to family background, significant other influence, and prior educational and work experience were related to the choice of a sex‐typical or sex‐atypical college major. Discriminant analysis was used to determine whether the factors and conditions that lead white women to select a traditional or nontraditional field of study operate in a similar fashion for black women. Results showed that for both black and white women, significant other influences and prior curriculum‐related experiences are related to curriculum choice, although in slightly different ways. Further, social background factors are associated with the choice of a college major for black women but not for white women.     

Impact of Repeated Questioning on Interviewers: Learning From a Forensic Interview Training Project

Forensic interviewers have a difficult job with high risk for career burnout and secondary trauma. Few studies have addressed how new forensic interviewers or trainees experience repeated questioning and multiple interviews. This study simulated the process of training new forensic interviewers through the creation of two interview videos in which social work graduate students participated as actors portraying the roles of interviewer and child. These films served as instructional aids preparing graduate social work students for professional child welfare roles while promoting research-based approaches to interviewing children about sexual abuse allegations. Qualitative data from two cohorts of student actors were collected to analyze interviewers’ perspectives on repeated questioning and interviews in child sexual abuse cases. Two themes were extracted from the subjects’ experiences: “It is emotionally taxing” and “Navigating the interviewer role is unexpectedly complex.” Exposure to repeated questions and multiple interviews affected the performance and confidence of the interviewers.     

Planning to work for free: building the graduate employability of planners through unpaid work

In the context of an increasingly precarious and competitive graduate labour market, exposure to pre-graduation professional work experience is becoming an increasingly critical feature of graduate employability. Outside the creative professions the contours of this shift have received comparatively little empirical attention. This study provides evidence of increasing participation in unpaid work beyond the creative industries where it is well established as a common practice. This study examines the complex patterns of opportunities and challenges that are created for and by Australian urban planning students in gaining relevant exposure to professional work, with a particular emphasis on participation in unpaid work experience. Through the lens of employability and the voices of early career professionals, this study explores the complexity of decisions to engage in unpaid work and identifies the potential personal and professional implications of these decisions. Focussing on the ways decisions around unpaid work are shaped by a range of factors including labour market conditions and disciplinary norms the findings yield new knowledge of how unpaid work is practised and shaped as a principal means through which employment-related advantage and enhanced employability in education to employment transitions is sought by participants and the potential implications of this.     

Re-Gendering Social Work Practice and Education: The Case for African-American Girls

Abstract

While professional social work enjoys a solid history of working within African-American communities, there is evidence which suggests that one segment of the African-American community, African-American girls in urban settings, continues to be ignored by social work and other helping professions. This paper describes the changing expectations of African-American female adolescents in one urban high school. By critically interpreting the girls' demeanor and icons, the authors suggest that social workers are uniquely qualified to tender needed services to a vulnerable, often ignored, population.     

She persisted: the pursuit,persistence, & power of African American women in social work graduate programs at Historically Black Institutions (HBI)

Social work graduate programs have long grappled with ways to attract and retain students at the intersection of race and gender. The central structure of this analysis is a hermeneutic phenomenological qualitative study on the pursuit and persistence of African-American women in graduate Social Work programs at a Historically Black Institution (HBI). The data in this article were derived from the responses of 13 participants written in their own words. The themes that emerged around the pursuit of a social work degree were (a) service to Black communities, (b) resistance to misrecognition, and (c) a seat at the table. After sharing the salient characteristics of the findings, the article opens a discussion around the significance of HBIs in educating social workers to work in urban communities and the implications for policy and practice.     

The victim-bind dilemma of black female sociologists in academe

In this article, the author argues that black female academicians, in particular sociologists, are in a “victim-bind,” which indicates their paradoxical ambivalence and produces stereotypical perceptions. This article examines the purpose and functions of stereotypic perceptions of black females in various phases of graduate school and early career development. It draws on the limited literature as well as the experiences and observations of the author and points out how the political culture and institutional structures of academic communities and departments shape images and career patterns of black women being professionalized as sociologists and social scientists in general. It concludes that stereotypic perceptions of black females are tied into the institutional systems of gender, race and power relations which represent in microcosm, the society at large. Her research areas are social psychological consequence of underemployment, racial/gender differences in social comparison processes, racial/gender inequality in academe, and racial/gender differences in perceptions of labor unions.     

The Role of the Graduate School of Social Work in Criminal Justice Higher Education

This article deals with the extent to which graduate schools of social work are providing education in the field of criminal justice. It raises the question of whether the two-year professional social work model can be adopted for graduate education in criminal justice. A detailed survey taken in 1972 revealed that graduate schools of social work provided insignificant course offerings in the broad field of criminal justice.

The article concludes by showing that graduate schools of social work are appropriate vehicles for criminal justice type offerings, while at the same time indicating that those concerned with criminal justice have the opportunity to experiment with the social work model.     

The Roots of Early Black Nationalism: Northern African Americans' Invocations of Haiti in the Early Nineteenth Century

This article argues that Haiti played a far greater role in the cultural and political activities of northern free blacks than historians previously credited. The evolving political, economic and social makeup of Haiti during its first three decades of independence spurred African-American interest in the island-nation. Relying on American newspaper reports, sailors' accounts, messages from the state of Haiti, and where possible, African-American voices, this work demonstrates the emigration of the 1820s was not the first wave of African-American interest in the black republic but the culmination of decades of interaction and exposure to the Haitian black nationalist project.     

Beyond the Mommy Track: The Influence of New-Concept Part-Time Work for Professional Women on Work and Family

This study investigates how the option for new-concept part-time work influences the ability of mothers of preschool children working in professional occupations to successfully integrate work and family responsibilities while maintaining career opportunities. Data are from a subset of the 1996 IBM Work and Life Issues Survey in the United States (n = 687). Compared to their counterparts who worked full time, mothers who worked in these part-time positions reported significantly greater work-family balance and did not report significantly less career opportunity. The part-time group reported 47% fewer work hours and 41% lower income than the full-time group. These data support the notion that new-concept part-time work is a viable option to assist women in professional careers to successfully integrate their family career. Implications of these findings are presented.     

African-American Women in the Workplace:

This article looks at the perceptions and professional perspectives of African-American female EAPs who work with African-American women in various industries. It provides an exploration into the attitudes of African-American women about several workplace and personal issues including:

• sexual harassment and discrimination

• racial discrimination

• career opportunities

• work assignment disparity

• organization culture and sensitivity

• organizational supports

These concerns have been examined against a backdrop of actual demographic changes that have occurred for minority and all women over the last decade. The author has used her own experiences as an EAP professional for the last ten years, in addition to those of other African-American women EAPs, in order to highlight and identify the central issues of concern for Afiican-American female clients. The data were gathered through indepth, face-twface interviews with six African-American female Employee Assistance professionals. Their experiences illustrated the difficulty that EAPs are still having in effecting the problems of sexual discrimination and harassment, racial discrimination, and general career barriers that African-American women face in the workplace. As our current cadre of intervention strategies are not yet successful, new approaches are called for as we move toward ihe next century, especially if EAPs are to enhance our effectiveness in helping clients confront some of the most significant problems they face.     

The Middle Years of the Decade Publication Project

This article reports the results of a qualitative study of the professional identities, roles, and relationships of a variety of geriatric case managers located in nine demonstration sites around the United States. Beginning with an overview of social work and nursing roles in health care settings, the authors provide background on the study and its methods, followed by results that highlight the voices of persons interviewed. They conclude with implications for social work education in five areas: articulating social work's great tradition, developing career opportunities, building alliances with students and educators in other professional schools, engaging in ongoing faculty development, and infusing the social work curriculum with geriatric content.     

“Social Work Idealism” and Students’ Perceived Reasons for Entering Social Work

This article reports the results of a study designed to measure “social work idealism” and factors influencing career choice among beginning BSW and MSW students. Influence factors were categorized as altruism, professional concerns, and influence of others. The investigators explored the predictive capacity of idealism and student demographics on the career choice factors reported by students. Overall, idealism ran high among all students, and altruistic reasons were reported as more important than professional reasons in their career choice. Also, students who scored high on social work idealism tended to attach greater importance to altruistic reasons than to professional concerns, as did younger students and female students.     

Private Pain,Public Choices: Influence of Problems in the Family of Origin on Career Choices Among a Cohort of MSW Students

This study draws on a survey of 126 graduate social work students from a large school of social work in the United States to investigate the impact of family problems on career choices. Sixty‐nine percent of the students indicated they had a family history of problems related to substance abuse (44%), psychopathology (43%), compulsive disorders (17%), and/or violence (35%). Students who report more indicators of psychopathology and violence were more likely to see their family history as influential in their career choice. These students were also more likely to select mental health/health as a practice area. However, no differences were found between students without a family history of problems and those who did not see their family history as influential. Students' history of family problems and their perceptions of its influence on career choice did not affect the likelihood of selecting a practice method. The authors discuss the implications of these findings and conclude with a series of recommendations for social work education.     

The growth of the sociology graduate program at Kent State University

The initial growth of the graduate program in sociology at Kent State University was dominated by the interests, academic training and career goals of particular people who participated in it. Moreover, in 1939, when the program was initiated, its growth closely mirrored the principal concerns of the discipline. Today the program is responsive less to the discipline or particular faculty, and more to political, economic and demographic factors. As a state-funded institution, this university and graduate program are more likely to react to state needs and those of its other public, the students. Her interests include professional socialization and organizational change, particular in the field of health care. His most recent work is research on “belief in a just world” and in the social psychological aspects of gender roles.     

The Educational Orientations of Graduate Social Work Faculty

For this exploratory study of the educational orientations of graduate social work faculty, the author surveyed faculty in 38 randomly selected graduate social work departments in the United States in Spring 1991. All were sent a revised Hadley Educational Orientation Questionnaire, which measured their agreement with 12 items each on Mentoring Orientation and Master Teaching Orientation scales. The survey also asked about the source of their educational philosophies. Analysis of 346 responses suggests that faculty tend toward a master teaching approach in attempting to impart essential knowledge and to empower students, but they also incorporate elements from the mentoring approach. Faculty indicated that their educational philosophies were derived principally from work experiences, personal experiences, and professional socialization.     

Seven strategies for facilitating access of nontraditional students to graduate education in social work

Undergraduate academic performance as a principal criterion guiding admission to graduate social work education may result in the exclusion of otherwise strong candidates for involvement in graduate education. This paper presents seven strategies for strengthening the admission status of nontraditional students, that is, those students who do not possess adequate undergraduate grade point averages to justify admission. These strategies are particularly important in the United States given the elimination or substantial limitation of affirmative action policies in higher education. Schools of social work, like other educational institutions, must become more creative and proactive to ensure that candidates for graduate education who can make important and substantive contributions to the profession gain entry. Using adult learning theory, the authors offer a rationale that underscores the need to look at an individual's vocational background and professional experience as well as professional commitment to serving vulnerable populations in order to assess readiness for admission. And, the authors identify the importance of offering opportunities to these individuals to strengthen their post-undergraduate academic records in order to be more competitive in the applicant pool. Each of the seven strategies is discussed in terms of its key processes and outcomes in relationship to developing these individuals as viable candidates who can compete in the admission process. The strategies are based on the logic of empowerment theory and they underscore the necessity of building on the strengths and assets that these individuals bring to graduate social work education. The authors illustrate the inclusion of these strategies into the admissions process of a school of social work in the United States and suggest that the use of these strategies can facilitate 'affirmative access' to social work education.     

Curriculum Building in International Social Work: Toward Preparing Professionals for the Global Age

Abstract

How can social workers be better prepared to practice and make other professional contributions in an increasingly interdependent world? This article reports the results of a study of expert opinion on the rationale for and optimal approaches to internationalizing social work education. Learning objectives and content areas for the general graduate curriculum and for specializations are discussed. Curriculum recommendations are presented to address three identified arenas for professional contribution: Enhanced domestic practice; professional exchange and action; and international practice and research.     

Social work students’ professional and personal exposure to social work: an Australian experience

General career research suggests that many factors may influence how people select a career, including information about or exposure to the career. The focus of this paper is upon how exposure to a social worker personally (e.g. friend or family) or in a therapeutic capacity (e.g. received social work therapy) may influence the decision to become a social worker, when compared to other disciplines. The results showed that 63% of 64 social work students had personal and/or professional exposure to social work prior to making a career decision. When compared to other students (n?=?447) the social work students were significantly more likely to have accessed social work services (themselves or a family member). The influence of a friend who was a social worker and working with a social worker was noteworthy for mature-aged students. These results highlight that every interaction social workers have with the community provides valuable information about the profession and gives insight into social work as a career. Additionally, the results suggest that the increase in numbers of social workers and the influence of that exposure to a social worker have resulted in an increase in the use of social work services by students, and may continue to rise in the future.