Jordan Hunter
Pronouns: she/they
Research Mentor(s): Lorraine Gutierrez, Professor
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Psychology and Social Work, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Presentation Date: Thursday, April 22, 2021
Session: Session 2 (11am – 11:50am)
Breakout Room: Room 6
Presenter: 7
Abstract
Faculty in graduate schools of social work have a critical role in shaping the future of social work through their role in training and teaching new social workers. This study aims to examine how, if at all, the American geographical regions in which social work educators teach affects their views on the importance of including content on racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia/cissexism, ageism and classism. Using several one-way ANOVAs, this study investigates whether a faculty’s geographical location contributes to a difference in how strongly they believe content on a specific type of oppression should be included in the curriculum they teach. Findings revealed that faculty attitudes on what content of oppression to include were not homogenous throughout the country. Further investigation showed that there is not one topic that any social work educator would deem not important to include in their teaching. Given that MSW students believe that the social work profession calls for them to challenge all forms of oppression (Goode et. al, 2020), it is critical that their instructors educate them on these systems. Faculty attitudes on the importance of including content on oppression in their curriculum can impact not only what they teach, but how prepared future social workers feel to do what the profession calls for them to do. Therefore, it’s important to analyze potential factors that would shape how important social work educators feel it is to include content on different forms of oppression.
Authors: Lorraine Gutierrez, Jordan Hunter
Research Method: Data Collection and Analysis
