Aisha Ibrahim
Pronouns: She/Her
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 4
Presenter: 2
Abstract
Faculty in Schools of Social Work has the important task of educating graduate students for future Social Work practice and/or future research in the field. There are limited studies investigating faculty’s confidence in their teaching abilities surrounding Social Work content. This study will investigate faculty’s attitudes towards content that they reported feeling the least confident teaching and whether this has any association with their sex, race, and academic rank. Therefore I propose to examine whether faculty’s teaching confidence of Social Work content varies from differing sex, race, and academic rank. Two-hundred fifty-eight faculty members from across the United States in Schools of Social Work participated in the Faculty Attitudes Survey, an online survey that examined faculty’s attitudes towards content in School of Social Work programs. Specifically, the question we will thoroughly examine is the responses to, “In which areas regarding diversity, human rights, or social and economic justice content do you feel the least confident teaching?”. Participants responded to this open-ended question with teaching content they felt the least confident in teaching. Using qualitative content-coding of responses to open-ended questions and cross-tabulations with chi-square tests, we will be able to examine this question and how it may vary within the different race, sex, and academic status of the participants. This study suggests that the Areas of Multicultural Content MSW faculty feel the least confident teaching does not vary by their sex, race, or academic rank. Also, the results revealed a specific area in MSW multicultural content that faculty felt the least confident teaching. Specifically, findings revealed that content surrounding Other forms of Systemic Oppression (Not race) is an area in which many faculty of different sex, race, and academic rank felt the least confident teaching. Another content area that was most commonly identified by faculty was Critical Social Theories & Frameworks.
Authors: Aisha Ibrahim, Lorraine Gutierrez
Research Method: Data Collection and Analysis
