Strengthening aging content in the baccalaureate social work curricula: what students have to say

Encouraging student's interest and preparing them for social work practice with older adults is increasingly important in view of the demographic changes that are taking place. This article describes a study that engages BSW students in a discussion of best models for promoting gerontological social work curriculum infusion. Using two focus groups, the authors explore barriers to student interest and potential strategies to recruit students for gerontological social work. Fear of their own decline and mortality, lack of exposure to older adults and aging issues emerge as the primary reasons for aversion to working with older adults. Strategies to promote student interest, organize curricula, and create an inclusive learning context are discussed.     

(In)credible Violence: An Analysis of Post-Alvarado Domestic Violence Asylum Cases in the United States

ABSTRACT

Every year, women from around the world apply for asylum in the United States to escape an abusive partner. In this article I find that domestic violence applicants may not be interpreted as viable truth tellers since they are missing specific markers of credibility, including legitimacy of fear, coherence and corroboration, and proof of no culpability. I link these questions of credibility to broader US discourses about gender-based violence and racialized conceptions of victimhood, which show a preference for credentialed knowledge over women’s experiences and employ assumptions about autonomous, linear decision-making. I argue that the deployment of these discourses represents a tactic of exclusion, likely motivated by fears of immigration. Asylum adjudication practices (including credibility determinations) must address these issues in order to secure the health and well-being of women fleeing abusive partners in their countries of origin.