Anti-Racist Practice in the Implicit Curriculum: Auditing a BASW Application Process

Overview: This paper presentation highlights one School of Social Work’s auditing process of their BASW application practices regarding equitable and inclusive practices. The goal of this session is to explore anti-racism action steps that program directors and others within social work education can utilize to help address inequalities and social injustice.Proposal text: Higher education, historically, and currently, is “a primary force in persistent inequities” (Patton, 2016, p. 318). Social work education, which is built on core values of human rights and social justice, often falls short in its ability to fight injustice within higher education systems. Tillotson et al. (2021) noted that our accrediting body, the Council for Social Work Education (CSWE) includes updated standards regarding anti-racist practices, however, our accrediting body or Schools of Social Work often do not have the knowledge or tools to help programs address the inequalities found in our educational institutions. These social injustices within the field of social work education are due in part to white supremacist culture in our schools and programs. This lack of skills and tools causes programs and Schools of Social Work to create anti-racism initiatives, which are often performative and lack evaluative processes or follow-through to determine if these initiatives were successful at reducing inequalities. One of the reasons that these anti-racism initiatives fall short is that baseline data of current practices is often non-existent, including our admissions processes, so we cannot tell if updated or new initiatives reduced inequalities or created more just educational practices.

The CSWE 2022 Draft EPAS (2021) stated in standard 4.1.1 that “the program’s admissions policies are equitable and inclusive, with particular attention to underrepresented groups” (p. 18). However, no additional information is provided about how to ensure that admissions policies are equitable and inclusive. Patton (2016) argues that racism is easily reproduced because those in higher education settings who design the programs have been educated by these systems. Therefore, we often do not critically reflect on how these systems are currently utilized to enforce white supremacist culture, often not working to change these policies and practices within higher education. Tillotson et al. (2021) suggested auditing as a tool to help programs develop anti-racist implicit curriculum practices, such as admissions requirements. By utilizing this approach, programs are able to focus on the admissions procedures and structures that exist and work toward eliminating faculty and program director bias in the process. Auditing admissions procedures provides an opportunity to gather baseline data about how faculty reviewers rate student applications to help determine how faculty’s implicit biases are present in the review process.

This paper presentation will highlight one School of Social Work’s auditing process of the BASW application practices, specifically regarding the notion of equitable and inclusive practices. We also welcome audience members to share the actions that they have taken to minimize social work faculty’s bias in the social work education application processes. The goal of this session is to explore anti-racism action items that program directors and others within social work education can utilize to help address inequalities and social injustice in the application process.