Ideas and actions “It felt like trying to call people who never call you back”: results of an undergraduate community engagement curricular strategy

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

ABSTRACT An undergraduate social work program developed a strategy to address student self-reports of low knowledge and comfort levels in policy advocacy and community practice. The pilot, entitled Advocacy-in-Action Exchange, is intended to infuse experiential learning in social policy and community practice courses, hypothesizing that student perception of their knowledge, skills, and comfort in these areas would increase due to the community-engagement-inspired plan. Through community relationships, community profiles, and policy examination, students developed project goals and culminating products with their community partners. Pre- and post-quarter questionnaires were completed by a total of 124 students on the first and last days of the courses. Twenty-nine students voluntarily participated in focus groups. This exploratory study utilized a mixed methods approach and revealed that students reported a significant increase in knowledge in the policy courses. In the community practice courses, students reported a significantly increased sense of importance for macro social work. Themes from qualitative results centered on student difficulty with the ambiguous nature of community practice, increased perception of community practice, and the value of learning through community relationships. Lessons learned promote faculty and community partnerships and encourage educators to embrace creative approaches to community-centered assignments for policy and community practice courses.