Social Work Education Research Articles

Impact of Simulation on Social Work Students’ Attunement and Self-Awareness Skills

ABSTRACT Simulation as a pedagogical tool has been well-established in health care yet, it is emerging as a means for educating social work students. This multi-method exploratory study examines the impact of a simulation experience in an MSW program in a large Midwestern city. Students participated in an asynchronous screen-based simulation with an avatar and a synchronous remote client session with a trained actor. Before participating, students received a one-hour recorded training on interpersonal attunement skills using the Facilitating Attuned Interactions (FAN) tool. They were instructed to use interviewing skills and attunement as they interacted with the actor in the remote simulation. Qualitative findings from student reflection papers (n = 180) included themes around improving attunement and self-awareness, the importance of using a strengths perspective, and the value of simulation in providing a low-stakes environment in which to develop skills. Quantitative results demonstrate significant improvement in attunement by students after the simulation experiences (n = 57, p = .003). Implications of these findings for the use of simulation in social work education and for future research are discussed.

The Green Social Work: Understanding the Impact of Social Work Education on the Environment

In today's world, green social work is becoming increasingly important as we face significant ecological issues like climate change, pollution, and depletion of resources. Social workers play a vital role in tackling these issues and fostering sustainable practices within their communities. Green Social Work is an idea that merges environmental consciousness with social equity. It acknowledges the interconnection of humans and the environment and aims to foster a healthy and sustainable relationship between them. By exploring this topic, we can get a deeper understanding of how our actions affect the environment and learn how to create positive change. Human behavior has an important effect on the location, and it is crucial that we understand the consequences of our actions. Our daily activities such as driving cars, using plastic bags, and industrial emissions, contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and pollution, which in turn harm the environment. The impact of these actions extends widely and influences not just the environment but also human health and overall well-being. Climate change, air pollution, and water contamination are just some of the issues caused by human behavior. It is essential to understand that we must take responsibility for our behaviors and implement modifications to lessen our adverse effects on the environment. Social workers are essential in advocating for eco-friendly practices and lessening the harmful effects of human actions on the environment.

"Our Work is Shaped by Culture": Understanding Social Work Practice in Nigeria Through the Influence of Local Traditions and Norms.

Social work practice in Nigeria is profoundly shaped by local cultural norms, while formal education and ethics remain grounded in Western paradigms. This disconnect creates a significant gap between academic training and field realities. The study investigates how Nigerian social workers navigate tensions between professional values and indigenous traditions in their daily practice. A qualitative approach using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was employed to explore the lived experiences of 15 social workers from schools, hospitals, and community centers in Enugu Metropolis. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews and analyzed thematically to understand how practitioners interpret and respond to cultural influences in their work. Findings reveal that social workers face tensions between global professional ethics and local cultural expectations particularly around family authority, spirituality, communal decision-making, and traditional conflict resolution. Participants described ethical dilemmas including pressure to adopt informal practices such as cutting corners. Nevertheless, many found that culturally rooted approaches enhanced engagement and outcomes in community settings. The study underscores the need to decolonize Nigerian social work education by incorporating Afrocentric theories, indigenous knowledge systems, and critical reflections on Western models. Recommendations include revising social work curricula, developing culturally responsive ethical guidelines, and promoting advocacy-oriented training. These reforms are essential for producing practitioners who are both ethically grounded and culturally competent, capable of delivering transformative social work within Nigeria's complex cultural landscape.

Culture Wars in the Classroom

Social work educators engage with students from diverse political and personal backgrounds, often facing culture wars within the classroom. The Council on Social Work Education emphasizes academic freedom in higher education. This study surveyed 35 social work educators to examine their perceptions of culture wars' effects on programs, students, and faculty. Using a nonexperimental, causal-comparative design, it compared these perceptions between faculty at public and private institutions. Demographic data were analyzed using crosstabulations and descriptive statistics. Public institution faculty (M = 3.64, SD =.58) reported lower faculty scores than private institution counterparts. Private institution faculty felt their institutional culture conflicted more with NASW policies but had more positive perceptions of culture wars. Findings indicate significant implications for teaching where social work values clash with institutional values or political influences.

The Lived Experience of Compassion Fatigue and Burnout in Social Workers

Compassion fatigue and burnout evoke a professional and often personal crisis. This interpretative phenomenological analysis explored the lived experience of these phenomena for twelve social work professionals who self-identified as having an episode of compassion fatigue and/or burnout. While the literature is replete with many of the tangible factors that can lead to compassion fatigue and burnout, such as a toxic workplace, emotionally challenging clients/client stories, and personal vulnerabilities, few studies have explored the qualitative lived experience. During data analysis, two salient themes emerged from the stories of the participants: moral distress and shame. These concepts are explored in order to deepen the understanding and complexity of compassion fatigue and burnout. The implications of this study suggest that social work education, self-care, and supervision may not adequately prepare or buffer social workers from these phenomena.

Leadership at the clinical practice level: Do schools of social work prepare all social workers to be leaders?

Abstract Social work education has shifted to an anti-oppressive approach, prioritizing the skills and tools necessary to recognize systemic inequalities and disenfranchisement. However, social work curricula within the USA may be lacking in providing the proactive leadership skills necessary for social workers to empower clients and other stakeholders, particularly in specializations focused on work with individuals and families (referred to as clinical or ‘micro’-level practice). The purpose of this exploration is to examine how social work educators perceive leadership as a necessary part of their curriculum. Educators (n = 102) completed a survey focused on their perceptions of the inclusion of leadership content throughout Master of Social Work curricula and were asked to identify specific courses they felt currently contained leadership content. Analysis revealed a relationship between positions and perceptive of leadership content inclusion; qualitative analysis revealed that macro-level courses are most frequently identified as containing leadership content over micro-level clinical courses. The results of this study may allow for a move towards understanding leadership as part of the overall social work and set the foundation for understanding leadership on a national and global level.

Rethinking Reliance Upon Written Assignments

Written assignments in social work education are often relied upon as tools to demonstrate knowledge gained in coursework, although evidence of their effectiveness is inconsistent. While more institutional effort and resources are being poured into detecting plagiarism on written assignments, especially in the era of artificial intelligence like ChatGPT, educators could consider whether there are alternative assignments that could be more meaningful in preparing social work students for practice. In this conceptual paper, a collective of social work students and an educator from a Human Behavior in the Social Environment BSW course share their experiences with switching from written to alternative assignments during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic—a change made from necessity and curiosity. Reflections about the meaning of alternative assignments are discussed from a student and educator standpoint. Topics addressed include: 1) promoting creativity as self-care in potentially triggering educational environments, 2) redefining rigor, 3) promoting social justice, and 4) increasing relevance with implications for the field of social work education.

Understanding the COVID-19 Impacts on Social Work Learning Through the Lens of Planned Behavior Theory

COVID-19 was a global pandemic that caused higher education to enter emergency distance learning. Students experienced a myriad of emotional and psychological stressors during this pandemic. While the demand for online learning has been steadily increasing, even in the field of social work, it has nonetheless lagged behind other disciplines due to concerns about limited interpersonal interactions. We attempted to understand students’ intentions, behaviors, and outcomes related to the distance learning method during the COVID-19 pandemic through the lens of Planned Behavior Theory. We used a cross-sectional qualitative study containing some quantitative questions. Study data was drawn from 13 interviews conducted at two Hispanic serving institutions (HSI)s in North Texas. Findings of our study included three major themes: challenges and stressors; attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control that increased intentions and adaptive behaviors; and resource gaps that interfered with adaptive behaviors. Exploring students’ perceptions and behavioral responses to learning provides identification of new or hidden pedagogical obstacles and novel approaches to address the challenges in Social Work education. The study findings can contribute to improving resources and addressing gaps in the curriculum as we continue to think critically and creatively about virtual education in the future.

Transformational leadership in social work organizations: Associations with job autonomy, professional commitment, and turnover intentions among Chinese social workers

Abstract Leadership has long been underemphasized in social work education and practice. This study investigates how transformational leadership influences turnover intention among Chinese social workers—an urgent and persistent challenge facing the profession in China. Drawing on a sample of 667 social workers from Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Shanghai, the study employs structural equation modeling to examine the mediating roles of two key work attitudes: job autonomy and professional commitment. The results reveal that transformational leadership is negatively associated with turnover intention, and that this relationship is partially mediated by both job autonomy and professional commitment. By clarifying the psychological mechanisms linking leadership and retention, this study advances the limited scholarship on leadership within Chinese social work. Beyond the Chinese context, the findings offer broader insights into how internal organizational leadership may support social worker retention, especially in settings where financial and structural challenges are prevalent. Practical implications for strengthening leadership capacity in social work organizations are discussed.

Improving Hiring, Retention, and Promotion of BIPOC Faculty

Social workers are responsible for dismantling systems of oppression, promoting equity and inclusion, and creating and implementing just systems. Yet the structural inequities that disadvantage historically marginalized populations, including BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) populations, continue to be embedded into the very thread of social work practice, education, and research. Using critical race theory, we discuss how race and racism lead to the undervaluing of BIPOC scholarship and how BIPOC scholars with intersecting identities are doubly undervalued. We provide empirical evidence and case examples illustrating undervalued BIPOC scholarship and how it continues to oppress and disempower BIPOC scholars within academia, focused on the hiring, retention, and promotion of BIPOC faculty. We end with recommendations for addressing these areas of oppression, such as convening a multi-university effort to re-think promotion criteria for scholars engaged in diversity, equity, and disparity work. Such an effort could have implications for promoting social work scholars, many of whom are BIPOC. We hope this paper initiates a timely and essential discussions, leading to new, anti-racist practices of hiring and retaining BIPOC faculty and evaluating BIPOC scholarship and related teaching and service.

Addressing Identity Disruption and Displacement Through a Culturally Responsive Ecological Model of Trauma Assessment

Identity is complex and embodies cultural, social, and place identity. These three parts of identity connect to an individual’s sense of belonging in the world. Identity disruption or identity displacement can occur when trauma happens related to one’s culture. Current methods of assessment fail to recognize the role of disruption or displacement among marginalized populations. Furthermore, current validated trauma assessments are often not generalizable to racial and ethnic minorities. The primary aim of this conceptual paper is to provide guidelines for the inclusion of identity-based factors in culturally responsive trauma assessment. The secondary aim is to discuss culturally responsive trauma assessment approaches, which include an exploration of identity disruption and displacement as a dimension of adverse experiences. A culturally responsive, ecological approach to trauma assessment is then introduced with implications for social work education, practice, policy, and research.

Re-Imagining Social Work’s Role in Suicidology

Suicide continues to impact individuals and communities at alarming rates, with many vulnerable populations being at a disproportionately higher risk. As a profession, social work is well matched to address the comprehensive and intertwined risk factors that perpetuate acute and chronic risk for suicide. This conceptual article introduces a developing practice model that social workers may adopt to address suicidality for some vulnerable populations. Within this model, external processes beyond intrapsychic functioning are notable, and social workers can prioritize integrating additional systems into intervention planning. A case scenario illustrates an example of embracing an ecological systems approach that emphasizes various roles within social work practice. Introducing an applied approach to conceptualizing suicidality offers social work education and research an opportunity to advance its positionality in suicidology.

Substance Use Disorder is a Disease, But Not Everyone Who Has a Substance Use Disorder Has the Disease

Social workers commonly work with individuals, families, groups, and communities to support substance use disorder recovery. Substance use disorder is prevalent in many social work settings, including child welfare, criminal justice, healthcare, policy advocacy, and, of course, clinical social work. Therefore, schools of social work and students must be prepared to treat substance use disorder through multiple avenues using contemporary science to guide practice. This conceptual article supports the work of social work educators and student learning by highlighting the key symptoms of substance use disorder as a brain disease and emphasizing that not everyone who has a substance use disorder also has the brain disease. Additionally, guidance is provided on when social workers should recommend abstinence or harm reduction as the recovery goal in clinical treatment planning. Examples of abstinence and harm reduction clinical treatment plans are provided, and schools of social work can incorporate these examples into their curricula, which is especially important for schools that offer concentrations in substance use and mental health disorder treatment. The article ends with implications for social work and suggestions for future research to advance the evolving science of substance use disorder recovery.

The Impact of Social, Legal and Medical Transition on Psychological Distress for Transgender Persons

Psychological distress is a major health concern for transgender persons going through the transition process. The purpose of this secondary data analysis of the United States Transgender Survey (USTS) compiled by the National Center for Transgender Equality was to explore the relationship between the three stages of transition (social, legal, medical) and levels of psychological distress. While much of the current social work research focuses on risk factors related to psychological distress, particularly around discrimination, this study explores how each stage of transition can serve as a protective factor to increase overall well-being. Independent sample t-tests, ANOVA, and regressions were completed to determine if social, legal, and/or medical transition had a significant effect on psychological distress. Findings indicated that improving access to services supporting transition can reduce psychological distress. Implications for social work education and practice are provided.

Engaged Scholarship through Community Social Labs

The indigenisation of social work education in Africa is a response to the limitations of Western-centric approaches to addressing complex local social issues. This paper explores the role of engaged scholarship and community social labs in indigenising social work education in Uganda. The study analyses data from four focus group discussions, and student WhatsApp conversations, to examine how these approaches facilitate meaningful community engagement and the integration of local knowledge into the social work curriculum. The results show that community social labs can help with cultural sensitivity and problem-solving that is relevant to the situation. They also demonstrate that institutional constraints and power dynamics may hinder this transition. Despite these issues, the study suggests that engaged scholarship through community social labs has significant potential to make social work education and practice in Uganda more culturally sensitive and responsive to local realities. Even with these challenges, the study suggests that engaging scholars in community social labs has a lot of potential to make social work education and practice in Uganda more sensitive to local cultures and needs.

Travelling virtually to Nepal: an innovative pedagogical approach to delivering social work education abroad amid the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT This article shares findings from a research study that sought to evaluate the strengths and challenges of a virtually delivered, short-term international social work group study program (GSP) to Nepal that took place in Spring 2021 and 2022. This GSP entitled Community and Sustainable Development: Collaborative Field Study in Nepal was delivered virtually, in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic travel restrictions. Despite the obvious drawbacks of not traveling to Nepal, the instructors embraced the challenges as an opportunity to redevelop the course virtually and engage local practitioners, non-governmental organizations, instructors, and students meaningfully by drawing from an anti-oppressive and anti-colonial pedagogy, with an aim to promoting inclusivity, cultural humility, and sustainability. The GSP was led by two instructors from the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary in Canada in partnership with the Department of Social Work at the Southwestern State College in Nepal. This article reviews the relevant literature, describes the methods, details the findings evaluating the model based on the voices of both Canadian and Nepali students and instructors who participated in the GSP. It outlines future implications for social work educators and researchers interested in offering sustainable, inclusive international education.

Earth-based spirituality and social work

ABSTRACT Current social work literature has yet to explore the implications of earth-based spirituality on social work practice and education. Here, we present findings from our analysis of interviews with 33 practitioners of earth-based spiritualities and the implications of these for the profession. Data are drawn from a larger dataset (2018–2020) from an ongoing project titled “Spirituality and the Modern World” led by Dr Clive Baldwin. Seven themes were identified: journeys and transformations, actions and repercussions, the sacredness of the earth, standard earth-based spirituality practices, the importance of the community, problems in the community, and marginalization. The study findings invite social workers to challenge the exclusiveness of dominant Western religious traditions and create more accessible and nondiscriminatory services for the public. Because spirituality is often part of service users’ identities, making space for marginalized identities can reduce experiences of oppression and uphold core social work values of self-determination and social justice. The paper concludes by encouraging the social work profession to adopt narrative-based social work approaches to provide culturally and spiritually relevant services to practitioners of marginalized spiritualities.

Supervision of minoritized Arab social work students overshadowed by the 7 October 2023 war: Challenges and coping strategies

Abstract This study joins recent research focusing on social work’s colonial legacies and the structural implications of political violence. This approach provides us with important new directions on how to rethink and reshape social work education in contexts influenced by colonialism. The study investigated challenges faced by minoritized Arab social work students, supervised by Jewish supervisors, mainly in Hebrew-speaking Jewish practicum settings, and examined coping strategies employed to address those challenges. Qualitative research derived data from in-depth semi-structured interviews with fourteen Palestinian–Israeli students. Two main challenges were described: (1) biased training demoting Arabic in favour of the Hebrew language that did not adequately serve the Arab service users’ needs. (2) Supervisors promoting controversial interventions tainted by politicization and nationalism. The interviewees described three coping strategies, according to the students’ understanding of the balance of power in their relationship with their supervisor: transferring responsibility to academic faculty to address their complaints; forming coalitions with the practicum institution’s staff to support their position; or gathering courage to directly confront supervisors. Social work qualification institutions should ensure politically-informed training in times/zones of conflict and war.

Reflections of a Jewish faculty member at a School of Social Work

ABSTRACT This article examines the experiences of a Jewish faculty member at a School of Social Work, highlighting challenges related to identity, inclusion, and the evolving discourse on Israel and Zionism in academic spaces. Through personal reflections, the author discusses incidents of discomfort and marginalization faced by Jewish and Israeli students, exploring broader themes of academic freedom, cultural sensitivity, and institutional responses to antisemitism. The article also considers the complexities of social justice activism, contrasting institutional reactions to different forms of discrimination. The author reflects on efforts to address antisemitism within the school, emphasizing the need for open dialogue, balanced discourse, and institutional accountability. The article invites critical reflection on the role of social work education in fostering truly inclusive environments. Ultimately, it advocates for meaningful engagement that acknowledges diverse perspectives while upholding principles of equity and mutual respect.

The Rapid Social Immersive Learning (RaSIL) framework: bridging the gap for MSW students without prior formal social work training

ABSTRACT The Rapid Social Immersive Learning (RaSIL) framework is an innovative pedagogical intervention aimed at rapidly fostering critical competencies in social work students with no prior formal social work training. The RaSIL framework integrates experiential learning through intensive 12-hour immersive fieldwork, enabling students to engage directly with marginalized communities and confront real-world social challenges. Grounded in Kolb’s theory of experiential learning, the framework emphasizes the development of compassion, social intelligence, and professional readiness in a compressed time frame. The study employed a single-arm pre-post design to assess the impact of the RaSIL framework on 37 first-year Master of Social Work (MSW) students in India. Social intelligence and compassion were measured using the Tromso Social Intelligence Scale (TSIS) and Compassion Scale (CS) before and after the intervention. Results demonstrated significant improvements in social intelligence and compassion scores, with multiple regression analyses highlighting key socio-demographic factors influencing these outcomes. The findings suggest that the RaSIL Framework can effectively cultivate essential competencies in social work students, contributing to their professional development within a constrained educational timeframe. This study offers valuable insights for educators and policymakers seeking to innovate social work education through experiential and immersive approaches.