Predictors of integration of environmental justice in social work education: a cross-sectional study of faculty in the United States

Abstract

ABSTRACT With the increase of hazards in the natural environment, social work organizations—Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) and National Association of Social Workers (NASW)—have urged the profession to protect those most vulnerable to hazards by addressing environmental justice issues. Social work students and practitioners have provided perspectives on environmental issues; however, the existing literature knows little about the perspectives of social work faculty on environmental justice. Surveying 477 full-time faculty from CSWE-accredited Master of Social Work programs in the United States, this study explored (1) the proportion of social work faculty that integrate environmental justice contents in their teaching and (2) factors associated with the integration of environmental justice in social work education. Findings reveal that the majority of social work faculty (58.7%) did not infuse environmental justice in their teaching. Moreover, multivariate logistic regression findings indicate that (a) training received in environmental justice (OR = 1.89, p = .005), (b) relevance of environmental justice to social work education (OR = 3.28, p < .001), and (c) feeling of preparedness to teach environmental justice (OR = 1.95, p = .004) predicted integration of environment justice in social work education. Implications of these findings for social work education are discussed.