Abstract
As part of an ongoing curriculum assessment project, faculty associated with the Bachelor's level social work program of the University of Houston-Downtown identified a significant gap in the enrollment of Muslim students as compared to the community at large. In addressing concerns related both to implicit and explicit curricula, the social work faculty developed several action items to address this gap, including the creation of a project to assess student knowledge regarding issues affecting the Muslim community. As part of this effort, a classroom-based intervention was developed, specifically addressing issues of Islamophobia. The intervention was administered to both BSW and MSW students at affiliated universities in the same city. Using a one group, quasi-experimental design, 88 students (70 BSW students and 18 MSW students) participated in a 60-minute classroom intervention session with pre- and post-test surveys administered to assess student knowledge and attitude change. Findings suggest a significant increase in knowledge and a positive change in certain attitudes post-intervention. Implications include the addition of a teaching component on Islamophobia to support the social justice-specific competency, and activities to address larger campus-wide climate issues to support a culturally appropriate and inclusive welcoming environment for Muslim students.
Highlights
All social work programs are tasked with the duty of providing curriculum content as well as a learning environment that is free from oppressive practices, prejudices and discrimination
The goal of this study was to identify existing levels of student knowledge regarding Islam generally, as well as to assess the attitudes of social work students about several different topics related to Islam, Islamophobia and practice with Muslim clients and colleagues
The workshop presentation was related to Islamophobia, the survey sought to measure participants’ self-described knowledge of Islam and Muslims, including the extent to which participants subscribed to certain common misconceptions about Muslims (“all Muslims are terrorists” and “Islam promotes violence,” among others)
Summary
All social work programs are tasked with the duty of providing curriculum content as well as a learning environment that is free from oppressive practices, prejudices and discrimination. All students should be free to learn at the highest levels (EPAS, 2015). All accredited social work programs work intentionally and largely successfully to create an inclusive and safe implicit and explicit curriculum for students of diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds. For students of religious minority groups, this is not so clearly the case. The goal of this study is to develop vigilance with respect to ensuring that social work education is welcoming to all, and ensuring that the social work learning environment is free of barriers for all students. This study was designed to explore knowledge, attitudes, and
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