BSW Programs Research Articles

A Mediating Effect of Public Service Motivation on Retention Intention Among Child Welfare Students: Task Self-Efficacy

ABSTRACT Purpose This study investigates the role of Public Service Motivation (PSM) in retaining highly skilled and qualified child welfare graduates within the public child welfare sector. Materials and methods Three entire cohorts of child welfare student social workers over three years (N = 125) in BSW and MSW child welfare programs at seven universities in a Southern state were surveyed to examine the effects of task self-efficacy achieved through the curriculum and public service motivation on retention intention among social work students specializing in child welfare practice at both the baccalaureate and master’s levels. Mediation analysis was conducted to estimate the indirect effect of self-efficacy on students’ retention intention. Results The self-efficacy of child welfare students, operationalized as their confidence in performing competencies, significantly influences their intention to remain in the field of child welfare. Furthermore, self-efficacy among child welfare students has a statistically significant effect on their PSM. PSM, in turn, significantly impacts their intention to persist in child welfare work. Discussion The findings indicate that PSM partially mediates the relationship between students” self-efficacy and their intent to remain in child welfare work, even when controlling for educational background. We recommend that child welfare agencies recognize and nurture workers” PSM by incorporating practices that promote PSM.

Findings from an Evaluation of a Distance BSW Program

ABSTRACTOver the past two decades, the number of online and distance social work programs has grown rapidly. The COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted interest in online options from both students and instructors. As programs grow, it is important to recognize the need for retention strategies, especially for students with marginalized identities. The goal of this study was to identify strengths and areas for growth in an online BSW program designed to meet the needs of students living in rural and Tribal communities. To that end, we conducted a cross-sectional survey with current students. Based on their responses, we have identified several recommendations for similar programs, such as: offering employment-based practice; extensive onboarding and practicum support; prioritizing goodness-of-fit when recruiting and retaining program instructors; and supporting students in their pursuit of further education.

Embedding SDGs in social work education: insights from Zimbabwe and Portugal BSW and MSW programs

ABSTRACT Social work has positioned itself as a profession with a crucial role for attaining desired outcomes of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The aim of this article, based on secondary literature, is to use the lens of Portuguese and Zimbabwean social work education trends and dynamics to question the embedding of SDGs in social work academic curricula. Either one of the two countries represents a unique Global South and Global North socio-economic trajectory. The article relies on document analysis focusing on reviewing applied action research studies commissioned by state and non-state actors, journal articles, and reports by governmental and non-governmental actors to establish how the conceptual underpinnings of SDGs are being grounded in these two countries’ social work education. The article’s conceptual framework is informed by how social work has been transformed to become a decolonized and global profession in scope, and in harnessing SDG themes in social work training, it becomes a fusion of Global North and Global South knowledge bases. The article concludes by proposing pathways that support social work educators and students alike to be reflective on how to guarantee that SDG themes become dominant narratives in the curricula, impacting social work practice, from interpersonal interventions to community development.

Trauma-informed and Equipped for the Field: Implementing a Trauma Studies Curriculum in a BSW Program

It has long been recognized that there is a high prevalence of trauma exposure in client populations served by social workers. The recent (current) pandemic underscores the universality of trauma exposure, not only for clients but for generalist practice social workers. Experiencing trauma impacts the client-worker relationship and client outcomes, which makes it critical to address at an early point in social workers’ education. Implementing a trauma-informed care (TIC) model is becoming the standard of care, despite many social workers not receiving comprehensive, explicit education about trauma until reaching their master’s level education courses. By equipping the baccalaureate level social worker with trauma-specific education, they are better equipped to respond to clients and to be prepared for the impact of their clients’ trauma on their own lives. Offering trauma-courses at the baccalaureate level for social work students offers them opportunity to better serve their clients, recognize organizational practices that support trauma-informed care, and manage their own self care practice. In this paper, the author examines the rationale for, and outlines the creation and implementation of three trauma-specific courses at the baccalaureate social work education level.

Transphobia in Class, Anti-trans Legislation at the State: A Commentary on Navigating Harm and Hope in a Social Work Education Program

EG (they/them): I was misgendered on day one of my BSW program; isolation and transphobia continued for two years. While I did my best to advocate for myself, I learned that you can't fight institutionally entrenched oppression alone.

Integrating Practice Research into Social Work Field Education in Canada

ABSTRACT Given the increasing value placed on research among social work practitioners, and that field education is primarily responsible for the integration of social work values, knowledge, and practice, it is essential that research skills be incorporated into BSW and MSW field practica. In 2020, a team of faculty co-investigators and students explored the integration of research activities into Canadian BSW and MSW field practica through the review of online field education materials of all accredited programs. We make the argument that not only is it essential for professional social workers to receive training in practice research, but also that there is much room for us to integrate such research into field education. We begin with a review of the literature regarding social work student attitudes toward research, widely known to be hesitant and even hostile, before discussing the limited international literature (English and French) on the experience of integrating research into field education. After describing our methods, we then present our findings in terms of BSW and MSW programs at Canada’s anglophone and francophone universities. We conclude with a discussion of the implications in terms of ways to increase the role of research in field practica.

Educating Bilingual Social Workers for the Child Welfare Workforce

Spanish/English bilingual (SEB) speaking social workers are in high demand, particularly in the area of Child Welfare. Most require training and institutional support to increase their cultural and linguistic competence, yet the majority receive no specific education or support. As a result, many encounter inequities in the workforce. Research points to several elements that are essential to the education and development of SEB social workers. They include professional terminology, supervision in Spanish, and the opportunity to integrate theory and practice. To respond to the needs of a growing Spanish-speaking population, the UConn BSW Program has added a Child Welfare and Protection (CWP) track. CWP is designed to provide BSW SEB speaking students with specialized knowledge and experience to meet the needs of Latinx families served by the Connecticut Department of Children and Families (CT DCF). This paper describes how the UConn BSW program and DCF collaborated to re-envision social work education for SEB students and contribute to distributive justice for client and worker. The CWP Track prepares BSW students to work with a range of Spanish-speaking clients while facilitating institutional support including incentives to create a much-needed workforce pipeline for SEB social work students interested in child welfare.

#Resist: Utilizing Racial Justice Teach-ins to Challenge Anti-Black Racism

ABSTRACT Across the United States, racist, hate-filled rhetoric, attitudes, and behaviors are daily occurrences. Events like officer-involved shootings of unarmed Black men, women, and non-binary individuals, along with the increase in white supremacist and nationalist groups, have cumulatively created a climate of fear and mistrust. This fear and mistrust are exacerbated when police officers operate with impunity in predominantly Black communities and constitutional rights to peaceful protest are being maligned as unpatriotic or denied through violence. In response to these and related events, a BSW program, situated within a predominantly white rural setting in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, developed and implemented a racial justice teach-in grounded in critical race and postcolonial theories. The goals of the teach-ins are to provide experiential educational activities, opportunities for in-depth discussion beyond the classroom, and exposure to anti-racist practice tools in order to help students identify, and combat, racial injustice and white supremacy. This article will explore the social work department’s development and implementation of racial justice teach-ins as a supplemental opportunity for faculty to more meaningfully demonstrate their commitment to diversity and difference in the BSW program and to support the department’s goal of incorporating anti-racist practice throughout both the implicit and explicit curriculum.

Challenging Anti-Black Racism in HBSE: Using Critical Race Theory to Interrogate Traditional Developmental Paradigms

ABSTRACT How do we challenge anti-Black racism within the social work curriculum? As a requirement of all BSW and MSW programs, Human Behavior and the Social Environment (HBSE) coursework provides students with foundational knowledge about human development that is essential to theory-driven social work practice. Traditionally, conceptions of human development center the experiences of white, heterosexual, cis-gender young people and label other identities as “divergent” or “diverse,” thereby devaluing the lived experiences of marginalized populations and reducing disparities to a misjudged application of “equal opportunity.” Centering the tenets of critical race theory (CRT) within HBSE course curricula enables us to examine the impact of race and racism upon human development and to challenge anti-Black racism. This article will expand commonly used frameworks (e.g., ecological systems theory, life course theory) to consider how CRT helps us understand the impact of race and racism on human development, and specifically on the development of Black youth. We explore recent frameworks that center Black youth’s experiences and highlight the impact of racial stress and trauma on development from infancy to adolescence. Five social work educators of an MSW HBSE course offer examples of class activities and assignments that enabled students to apply CRT to HBSE topics.

Students’ Experiences of Participating in a Dual-Language English–Spanish MSW Program Component: A Qualitative Study

ABSTRACT There are a small number of MSW and BSW programs in the U.S. that have specialized tracks to train social workers to work with Spanish-speaking clients. This qualitative focus group study reports on the experiences of 25 students who participated in a new English-Spanish dual-language component in the final year of an MSW program in a Northeastern U.S. city. Themes that emerged include how the interactive dual-language nature of the class increased students’ effectiveness and confidence to work with Spanish-speaking clients, and how the class empowered Latinx students and served as a support system for them. Challenges identified include difficulties integrating the dual-language classes with the students’ field experiences and problems engendered by varying Spanish-language proficiency levels of the students.

Policy Education in U.S. Social Work Programs: Results of a National Study

ABSTRACT Using data from the Council on Social Work Education’s Annual Survey, this study captures a baseline snapshot of policy practice education in U.S.-based bachelor of social work and master of social work programs. Results indicate that the nature of students’ preparation to incorporate policy change into practice depends on which program they attended. This first study of policy practice education across U.S. BSW and MSW programs examines policy-related coursework, instruction, field-based learning, and hands-on educational experiences. The study finds substantial program variation, including the type of faculty teaching policy courses and their direct policy practice experience, as well as in the inclusion of field-based and hands-on policy learning opportunities. Implications for strengthening policy education in the United States are discussed.

Community Based Fieldwork during Covid 19 Pandemic

Yashwantrao Chavan School of Social Work offers BSW and MSW programs and is affiliated to Shivaji University, Kolhapur, and Maharashtra. During MSW II year institute offers three specializations Human Resource Management, Urban and Rural Community development (URCD) and Medical and Psychiatric Social Work. During Covid 19 pandemic URCD specialization students carried out fieldwork in their native place, native place was considered as their fieldwork agency. Students carried out various learning activities by applying methods, techniques and tools of social work in their native communities and tried to learn about their community in depth with social work perspectives. It was observed that even though students were staying in their native since their birth but was not having in depth understanding and knowledge about their native place.11 students studying in URCD during semester III and IV were from Palghar district of Maharashtra State, it is one of a tribal district of Maharashtra State where Konkana, Varli, Thakar tribes are found, our students from Palghar district also belongs to these tribal communities, they were assigned fieldwork tasks to document the cultural practices followed by these tribes, types of unique vegetables especially found during rainy season, herbal medicines and traditional health practices followed by tribal communities, sources of employment throughout year, agricultural activities, government programs and schemes implemented for tribal development. Students made a good documentation of these components. Other students belonging to rural area were also assigned similar tasks. Since students were living 24/7 in their native during Covid 19 pandemic they could concentrate on all the components of fieldwork more sincerely.

Exploring Language and Cultural Disconnects: Learning From BSW Students and Faculty Within an English as a Medium of Instruction Environment

English as the medium of instruction (EMI) is a growing global phenomenon that impacts social work educators who are teaching in second-language environments. This study used action research to explore barriers to EMI learning and teaching among students and faculty in a BSW program at a <a></a>United Arab Emirates (UAE) college. Cognitive load theory provided a lens to understand these obstacles. Participants included five students and seven faculty. Findings indicated communication deficits among students and faculty, which were further influenced by the cultural environment. This study contributes to an understanding of the obstacles encountered in social work programs that use EMI.

We Are What We Read

A school of social work devised a process to assess the implicit curriculum by auditing the required readings to identify the race and gender of the authors. As a profession, we espouse a strong commitment to social justice and diversity. Yet we know that there are limitations to our objectivity and that auditing is a valuable tool that can reveal biases. The concrete data provided by an audit can help reveal and disrupt entrenched patterns. The audit was conducted by reviewing the syllabi for required BSW and MSW courses. For each text, we collected the names, gender, and race for each author. Across all programs, authors were disproportionately White as compared to the general U.S. population, professional authors, professional social workers, and students in the programs. Similarly, men were over-represented as compared to all of the benchmarks, except for the authors in the BSW program, which was more feminized as compared to the U.S. population. This assessment process adds to the existing toolset by measuring current levels of representation—including over and underrepresentation. It is hoped that auditing will prove an effective tool for doing antiracist and anti-oppressive assessment, however an audit can only reveal where work is needed.

Anti-Racism Working Group

Institutions of higher education fail to address ongoing systemic racism within their classrooms, boardrooms, and commons when university personnel and students are not prepared to discuss racism and structural inequalities that exist within the campus community. To address this at a public, Predominantly White Institution (PWI), a group of students, staff, and faculty developed an action-oriented community to increase awareness and advocacy efforts against systemic and micro-level racism. Founded by faculty in the university’s BSW and MSW programs, the Anti-Racism Working Group (ARWG) is composed of faculty, staff, and students from multiple university departments. The goals of ARWG include education and awareness, and dialogue about race, ethnicity, bias, power, and privilege; cultivating interdisciplinary faculty and student relationships, and inspiring anti-racist actions. This paper discusses and disseminates research about ARWG’s inaugural year and early assessments of the program. Data includes responses from students who attended ARWG workshops and found them useful in their conceptualization and self-awareness around race, privilege, and taking anti-racist action. ARWG members benefited around three themes including skill development, relationship building, and the increased awareness and ability to engage in productive discussions around race, power, and privilege. We share these results with other universities and organizations to encourage the creation of similar programs and to facilitate learning from our experiences.

Competition in american social work education during times of COVID-19: a midwestern case study

ABSTRACT Competition to attract students for enrollment in American social work degree programs is intense. Program attributes (e.g. minimum grade point average, maximum transfer credits permitted, institutional tuition rate, and rankings) distinguish social work education programs in the United States. Determining which program attributes appeal to potential students could help increase a program’s competitiveness in a crowded education marketplace. The COVID-19 pandemic is further intensifying recruitment of students to BSW programs. This research used a case study approach to compare admission attributes of 21 bachelor of social work programs (BSW) offered at 11 public and 10 private institutions located in one state that could be viewed as representative of American BSW programs. This paper compared attributes that differentiated these undergraduate social work programs, while exploring the potential impact of the pandemic on BSW student recruitment. Implications for social work education are discussed, including lessons learned that may be helpful to BSW faculty and staff responsible for student recruitment activities and related operations. Social work education program administrators and faculty could use this information to review recruitment and application processes and raise awareness of the burgeoning influence of reputational ranking services.

A Survey of Trauma Education in Social Work Programs in the United States and Canada

ABSTRACT In the past 2 decades, social work education has increasingly advocated for inclusion of trauma-related content in educational programming. Yet, to date, little is known about the current state of trauma education and training in social work programs. The aim of this study is to describe trauma education and training in accredited, North American social work programs. The data are from an online survey of 192 social work educators from 165 universities with accredited social work programs in the United States (n=151) and Canada (n=14). Participants were asked whether trauma-specific education is offered, and if so, to provide the formats used to deliver the content, the type of curriculum used, and evaluation efforts. Most programs (67.9%) reported integrating trauma education into existing courses, with 61.4% of BSW programs and 65.4% of MSW programs offering some form of trauma education. Results suggest that social work educators are recognizing the importance of including trauma education in their programming. However, more evaluation is needed to identify specific trauma content being presented.

"Thanks for hearing me out": Voices of social work students during COVID-19.

As social work educators and students, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted our teaching and learning in challenging ways. We embarked on a qualitative research study to better understand the ways in which the pandemic was affecting the social work students in our program. Three faculty mentors worked collaboratively with five social work students across BSW, MSW, and PhD programs to interview 66 BSW and MSW students about their experiences, challenges, and hopes during the early months of the pandemic. BSW and MSW students led the analysis and early dissemination for the project. This essay describes the unique experiences of social work students by using a research poem to capture the emotional and experiential aspects of the students we interviewed.

Lessons Learned: Developing an Undergraduate Hartford Partnership Program in Aging Education

Meeting the needs of the growing older adult population requires generalist trained social workers to deliver services, especially for home and community- based care coordination. This article describes how one BSW program adapted its existing MSW Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education (HPPAE) to prepare baccalaureate-level social workers to serve older adults. Looking at the core components of the HPPAE and the CSWE 2015 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards, this article explains the challenges that arose in developing a BSW HPPAE and how they were addressed. A BSW HPPAE model of education, patterned after the MSW HPPAE, is a viable option for needed workforce preparation and offers an opportunity for BSW programs to prepare students with important gerontological knowledge and skills while they master generalist practice.

Illustrating Human Behavior Theories in Social Work Using HBO’s The Wire

Human Behavior in the Social Environment theories are a crux of social work education. However, they are often difficult to discuss in class because theories can be abstract and elusive for students. This may be especially true when exploring macro level theories. Social work students are attracted to the field of social work because of its practical application and often because they are interested in working with micro level systems. Further, in considering social work education at the BSW and often MSW level, using Bloom's Taxonomy, theory discussions and synthesis are certainly beyond the undergraduate expectation and similarly difficult for MSW students to contextualize. However, HBSE theories are the conceptual foundation of competent social work practice. This lack of exposure can also be said of working with diverse populations. Many undergraduate BSW programs are not in urban areas, but social workers need to understand urban problems as they advocate for social policy development and work with urban client systems at various levels of practice. As such the authors of this paper have created a context for elucidating macro HBSE theories exposing students to realistic urban scenarios using HBO’s The Wire. This framework provides both explanations of common SW macro level theories and discusses the ways in which a contemporary television show can be used in class to annotate macro theories including Systems Theory, Symbolic Interactionism, Social Construction, Conflict Theory, and Rational Choice Theory