“In someone else’s shoes:” Utilizing reflection to challenge poverty attitudes and develop critical consciousness

Abstract

The development of a critical consciousness around issues of poverty is an essential goal of social work educators. Teaching students about poverty requires that they evaluate their preexisting attitudes to assess compatibility with professional social work ethics and values. Recognizing the meaning that students give to their prior attitudes, course experiences, and personal reflections can help social work educators better understand how shifts in poverty attitudes may occur. In this paper, the authors discuss the use of student journaling immediately following experiential learning activities as a useful process for developing empathetic understanding of issues of poverty. Keywords: Poverty, pedagogy, journaling, critical consciousness, experiential learning