Professional socialization of social work students: addressing poverty perceptions with targeted curricula

Abstract

ABSTRACT The professional socialization of social work students involves the communication of social work values. A trend in teaching about poverty as a context rather than direct content position poverty attitudes of particular concern in this socialization process. Social work educators must be cognizant about the diverse influences affecting student attitudes and work with them to develop both the requisite skills and the necessary values for social work practice. Building upon past research, this study seeks to provide additional insight into the ability of a targeted poverty curriculum to affect attitudes about poverty among first-semester college students. Here, we utilize four years of data to explore differences in poverty attitudes among social work students who completed a targeted poverty curriculum.