Teaching Note—Working Toward an Inclusive, Antiracist, and Antioppressive Research Methods Pedagogy

Abstract

ABSTRACT Social work research has adopted the scientific method rooted in the hard sciences as the gold standard for understanding human behavior and creating interventions and policies for both individual and systemic change. Current methodologies are rooted in White supremacy that lack the subjectivity needed to provide space for the effects of racism and oppression to be included in studies and evidence-based practice. Social work cannot be antiracist and anti-oppressive unless it creates an inclusive research methods class that is critical of what is considered scientific rigor. This teaching note presents the current evolution of a social work research methods class to promote critical thinking around what is believed to be the gold standard of scientific research.