Improving Social Work Students' Understanding of Health and Social Justice Knowledge through the Implementation of Service Learning at a Free Community Health Clinic

Service learning is a teaching strategy that involves engaging in a mutually beneficial partnership between a community and students in the classroom. Social work education and service learning share core values of service and social justice and, when unified, can offer students unique opportunities to engage in meaningful application of knowledge and skills in a real-world setting. This article provides an exemplar describing the unique student learning outcomes that resulted from a service learning partnership between graduate-level social work students in a diversity course and a community health clinic serving Latino immigrants and Burmese refugees.     

From Clinic to Community: The Evolution of a Group for Women with Postpartum Mental Illness

Since 1980, national and international research knowledge on carers and care-giving has been accumulating. However, the theoretical bases of this research are usually unstated and implicit. Theory is vital in shaping social work research programs and types of social work intervention. This paper examines and critiques the social work theories influencing published social work research on care-giving. A search of key social work journals from 1980 to 2001 identified a total of 102 research articles about care-giving. The perspectives informing these articles fall into four groupings: positivist; interpretivist; systems; and feminist/radical. Building on the model developed by Howe (1987), which differentiates theories of radical change from those concerned with social regulation, each perspective is critically analysed for its underlying assumptions, level of analysis, research methodology and implications for policy and practice. Our review indicated that research on care-giving is dominated by a positivist approach that focuses on stress-coping and social support theories. These approaches are essentially individualistic, focus on the burden of care and prescribe interventions that assist carers to adjust to or cope with the care-giving role. Future social work research on care-giving should be informed by critical social work theories offering deeper structural analysis. This would be more consistent with our discipline's concern for social change and social justice.     

A Conceptual Framework for the Professional Socialization of Social Workers

With the Council on Social Work Education revised Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards, professional socialization has become a matter of policy. The social work literature is characterized by a dearth of conceptual models and systematic research regarding professional socialization. The conceptual framework for the professional socialization of social workers presented herein provides a discrete definition and clarifies what was formerly an ambiguous understanding of the elements of professional socialization. Potential applications of this framework include its use as a foundation for systematic research and a bridge between competencies and signature pedagogy and in informing field instructor training and the integration of theory and practice for students and practitioners.     

Service learning from the supply side: Community capacity to engage students

The rapid increase in the use of service learning raises important public policy questions about who is being served and whether partner agencies have the capacity to meet student demand for community‐based experiences. This article uses a large sample of nonprofit organizations and a comparative framework to examine the characteristics of partner agencies and the scope and nature of college student community involvement. Multivariate analysis tests these factors on a community agency's ability to engage more students, particularly service learners. The findings are generally optimistic about agency willingness to involve students, suggesting widespread community benefits from their involvement. While organizational size and capacity predict current student engagement, an agency's past experience with students and its perceptions of student benefits have the greatest impact on its willingness to take on future students.     

A Teaching Framework for Transformative Multicultural Social Work Education

Abstract

A major challenge in multicultural social work education is fostering meaningful learning experiences for students by matching educational methods and content to students' individual learning needs and characteristics. Building upon transformative learning theory developed by Jack Mezirow, this paper proposes a teaching framework for transformative multicultural social work education that addresses students' individual learning needs and characteristics. This framework uses the dimensions of cultural knowledge and cultural sensitivity to represent four potential stances of cross-cultural learning in students. The paper provides a detail discussion regarding the learning needs and learning foci of students at each stance, and useful teaching strategies and activities that enhance students' transformative learning process so that they develop integrative knowledge about self and others in a dynamic multicultural society from multiple perspectives.     

Inquiry-based learning: A socially just approach to higher education

Higher education’s potential to transform social and economic status and improve society, underlies increasing demands to improve access. But simply increasing access is not sufficient—it is important to ask whether our prevailing pedagogical approaches facilitate an effective and socially just higher education system. In other words, are traditional pedagogical approaches used in universities today truly accessible to the broader student population entering university? The current paper argues that the majority of pedagogies remain rooted in traditional approaches that favor those who benefit from continuous education from primary through to tertiary education. Such approaches rely heavily on incremental credentialism and are neither truly accessible nor socially just. Most introductory courses in universities require prior knowledge and “expect” students to be enculturated into a particular type of learning: as such, students with different levels of preparation, who come from different backgrounds, may be excluded from full participation. In addition, the rising costs of tuition fees and textbooks, and access to technology create inequities that reinforce socially-based discrimination higher education. The paper reports on the impact of implementing a specifically designed course, using closed-loop, reiterative problem-based learning, to create learning paradigms that focus on a more socially just approach for students entering university: these courses do not demand specific prior knowledge, foster difficult ways of thinking, and focus on developing research skills through access to library resources. Finally, the paper reports on students’ expectations about higher education and underscores the importance of re-thinking at least the first-year experience for students.     

A good fit: the contribution of action learning to supervision practice

This paper discusses the value of action learning for social work supervisors. Recent years have seen renewed focus on supervision as a reflective space and some indications that the tide may be turning in regard to the dominance of managerial priorities within the supervision of direct practice. It is less evident that a similar shift is taking place for supervisors themselves and, anecdotally, many describe their own supervision as having a business focus with limited scope for reflective dialogue. While the traditional functions of supervision need to adapt to fit the responsibilities of those in management positions, it remains true that these staff provide a vital containing role within the organisational hierarchy. For that to be sustained, it is important that supervisors have space and structure within which to process the emotional, intellectual and practical challenges of their work. The integration of action learning sets within post-qualifying courses for supervisors has demonstrated a useful dual function. Firstly, they provide an effective model for group supervision, facilitating in-depth reflection on complex practice issues. Secondly, they offer managers a peer supervision forum; a safe place to explore dilemmas and share the vulnerabilities which belong to management roles as well as practice.     

Faculty Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Web-Based Instruction in Social Work Education: A National Study

SUMMARY

This paper presents the findings of a national study that examined the perceptions of faculty with Web-based teaching experience concerning the effectiveness of Web-based instruction as compared to face-to-face instruction in social work education. The findings suggest that faculty perceived face-to-face instruction to be more effective than Web-based instruction in all curriculum areas. However, the extent of perceived effectiveness of Web-based instruction varied by curriculum area. Also, online teaching in areas such as practice was viewed as least effective, suggesting that the traditional “no significant difference” conclusions between face-to-face and online teaching need to be examined more closely.     

Predictors of Safer Sex on the College Campus: A Social Cognitive Theory Analysis

Abstract

In April and May 1989, the authors surveyed a sample of students enrolled on four college campuses in New Jersey (N ? 923) concerning their HIV transmission-related behavior, knowledge, and a variety of conceptual variables taken primarily from social cognitive theory that were thought to be potentially predictive of safer sexual behavior. Analyses of sexually active, unmarried students' responses indicated that men expected more negative outcomes of condom use and were more likely to have sexual intercourse while under the influence of alcohol or other drugs, whereas women reported higher perceived self-efficacy to practice safer sex. Regression analyses indicated that, among the factors assessed, stronger perceptions of self-efficacy to engage in safer behavior, expecting fewer negative outcomes of condom use, and less frequency of sex in conjuction with alcohol or other drug use significantly predicted safer sexual behavior. Enhanced self-efficacy to discuss personal history with a new partner was associated with a greater number of risky encounters. Implications of these findings for intervention efforts with students are discussed.     

A Child Welfare Course for Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal Students: Pedagogical and Technical Challenges

SUMMARY

This chapter describes the development of a Web-based undergraduate child welfare course for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal learners. Rather than simply incorporate an Aboriginal perspective into Eurocentric pedagogies and course structures, the authors disrupt the dominance of Western ways of knowing in education by designing the course to situate Western knowledge as a way of knowing rather than the way of knowing and the frame from which all other perspectives are understood. In this research the authors describe the differences between Aboriginal and European thought and reveal how Web-based courses can be designed in ways that do not perpetuate Eurocentrism.     

Anticolonial thought,the sociological imagination,and social science: A reply to critics

Sociology was born in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a project in, of, and for empire. This essay excavates a tradition of social thought that grew alongside metropolitan sociology but has been marginalized by it: anticolonial thought. Emerging from anticolonial movements, writers and thinkers, anticolonial thought in 19th and 20th centuries emerged from a variety of thinkers (from indigenous activists in the Americas to educated elites in the American, Francophone and British colonies). I argue that this body of thought offers distinct visions of society, social relations, and social structure, along with generative analytic approaches to the social self, social solidarity and global relations—among other themes. Anticolonial thought offers the basis for an alternative canon and corpus of sociological thinking to which we might turn as we seek to revitalize and decolonize sociology.     

Making Black Lives Matter in academia: A Black feminist call for collective action against anti‐blackness in the academy

In this article, as have many Black women scholars in the past, we again call for collective action against anti‐blackness and White supremacy in the academy. Drawing from black feminist theory, we discuss the long history of Black women academics' activism against anti‐black racism and introduce the current movement: Black Lives Matter (BLM). Although BLM is often construed as resisting anti‐black violence outside the academy, it is also relevant for within the academy wherein anti‐blackness is likely to be manifested as disdain, disregard, and disgust for Black faculty and students. We discuss some of the ways in which anti‐blackness and liberal White supremacy are manifested in the lives of Black faculty and students, and propose that non‐Black allies have key roles to play in resisting them. Like second‐hand cigarette smoke that harms everyone in proximity, anti‐blackness and White supremacy harm us all, and a shared movement is needed to dismantle them.     

Mental health in vietnam and the move to incorporate social work: A mixed methods study of staff perceptions and expectations

In 2010, Vietnam established social work as a profession. As part of their strategic plan, the government aims to incorporate social work into existing hospitals and health care facilities in the country, including psychiatric hospitals and mental health care centers. This paper, based upon survey and focus group data from 194 people working in three major mental health facilities in Hanoi, explores direct care staffs’ perceptions of this historic incorporation of social work, with a particular eye to the benefits and challenges of the transition. Results show most staff members thought social workers would provide great support to the many unmet needs of their largely underserved and impoverished patients. They also viewed social workers as a potential resource to the treatment team by reducing work overload. Existing staff, however, were less attuned to the clinical functions of social workers in mental health settings, often equating social work with community development and social movements. Some were concerned about social workers taking on their tasks; others about new social workers being hindered by the professional hierarchy in which doctors were placed at the top. Successful integration of social workers will hinge on strong support from policy-makers and leaders of mental health systems.     

Pathways to sector selection: A conceptual framework for social enterprises

As hybrid organizations with financial and social objectives, social enterprises must balance competing logics for governance, stakeholders, and outcomes when considering organizational design and structure. The existing legal landscape for organizations exacerbates this dilemma by forcing social enterprises to incorporate as either a nonprofit or for‐profit organization. This research examines the entity formation process for social enterprises by presenting sector choice as an interaction among four factors: equity financing, organizational lineage, human capital, and funding environment. Using a qualitative comparative case analysis, this research demonstrates that contingent factors drive sector choice when legal incentives and institutional pressures are unclear. For those choosing nonprofit forms, the status of the parent organization—the organizational lineage—is determinative. For those operating in the for‐profit context, human capital is predictive. The resulting conceptual framework contributes to existing organizational theory on hybrid organizations by presenting the sector selection process as independent of the motives or legal incentives typically associated with sector choice. This research concludes with a discussion on the advantages of delaying the formal sector declaration process.     

Impediments to Health Care for the Foreign Student

Abstract

Today's college students occupy a “window” between older adults, whose need for hepatitis B vaccination is minimal, and younger people who receive the vaccine as part of their childhood immunization series. However, because of the high-risk activities that are often part of student behavior, college students are among the individuals who are at the highest risk for this disease; 75% of all reported hepatitis B cases occur in persons between the ages of 15 and 39 years. It is therefore imperative that college health professionals take seriously their responsibility to educate students about issues related to hepatitis B and make available programs that enable the students to receive immunizations. This article briefly describes a successful hepatitis B education and immunization program at an institution that has no mandatory prematriculation immunization requirements.     

Co-supervision of social work students: A model for meeting the future needs of the profession

This article presents co-supervision as an effective and efficient model for field education of social work students. In our current climate of scarce resources and with a changing workforce that is increasingly feminised and part-time, this model provides a framework for efficient resource allocation by sharing the responsibility of field education among more than one social work supervisor. We will describe a model of co-supervision that we have developed over a period of 6 years. We will be using the findings from our own exploratory study for this model along with practice-based reflection to support our proposal that co-supervision is an innovative and beneficial model for field work education of social work students.     

When Religion Enters the Dialogue: A Guide for Practitioners

Several factors, including Freud's debunking of religion and social work's discomfort with its religious roots, have resulted in a trend of avoiding religious issues in social work education. The result is compromised care. In this paper, clinical vignettes are utilized to illustrate some of the difficulties which may occur. A series of guidelines is offered, with the aim of increasing therapists' comfort level in negotiating religious issues in practice. Areas of discussion include assessment, resistances, object relations, and countertransference. Case examples demonstrate application of guidelines.     

Reflective practice in a process for the re-approval of ASWs: An exploration of some inevitable resistance

In this article a mental health trainer and a group facilitator explore the background to developing a new protocol to manage the re-approval of mental health social workers in an inner London borough. The new procedure involved social workers attending a series of small group sessions in which they were invited to present and reflect on their work with clients. The dynamics of these sessions and particularly some of the transferential material between group members and facilitator are explored here. The significance for mental health social work, post-qualifying learning and the possibilities of reflective practice is considered.