The Integration of Human Rights in US Social Work Education: Insights from a Qualitative Study

Abstract

While social justice is an explicit value of social work, the concept of human rights has garnered more attention in social work education in the USA in recent years. This article focuses on findings from qualitative research on US-based social work educators’ efforts to incorporate human rights perspectives into undergraduate and graduate courses. The research indicates that the integration of human rights throughout the social work curriculum remains a sometimes contested and fragmented process and is often based on individual professors’ interest. Many interviewees focused on barriers to infusing human rights in the curriculum. Yet, interviewees also expressed the importance of the “human rights turn” in social work and the desire to incorporate rights-based learning and practices within the profession to reinvigorate earlier mandates for social justice work as the underpinning of social work values.