Teaching Ableism In the Social Work Classroom

Overview: This teaching note outlines the utilization of a game-based teaching modality partnered with a discussion-based activity to address the concept of ableism in the undergraduate social work classroom. Results of pre/post tests show significant increases in understanding of ableism and student perceptions of preparedness to tackle this problem.Proposal text:

Background: Ableism is a system of discrimination based in the, sometimes unconscious, belief that able-bodiedness is the typical or preferred state (Eisenmenger, 2019). While there has been much discussion surrounding the importance of teaching inclusivity in classrooms as well as tackling ableism on college campuses, literature outlining effective methods of teaching social work students to recognize and combat ableism remains scare. As a result, authors have called for the conceptualization of teaching strategies in the social work classroom that are centered on issues facing individuals with disabilities within current social and theoretical contexts (Shier, Sinclair, & Gault, 2011). Clearly, there is a need for a focus on ableism in the social work classroom.
Despite a lack of literature surrounding teaching about this specific problem, a wealth of literature exists to suggest educational methods for helping students to understand similar social issues, such as racism, sexism, and homophobia. For example, Phan et al. (2009) recommend teaching social work students about racism by utilizing a variety of interactive interventions that encourage teamwork and discussion. Other authors have suggested utilizing games that are familiar to students, such as the Game of Life, to help students apply their knowledge to mock real-world situations and understand complex social theories (Griffith, 2012). In this study, we outline and evaluate a similar teaching approach that was utilized to help undergraduate social work students understand, recognize, and prepare to combat ableism in practice. We provide recommendations for social sciences educators in teaching about this particularly important, yet too seldom discussed, topic.

Method: The undergraduate course, Social Justice Foundations, is designed to help students explore systems of power, oppression, and privilege and how they impact a variety of marginalized communities including people with disabilities. The course is taught from the perspective that all people deserve equitable access to opportunities, rights, and social benefits. Social Justice Foundations is taught in a face-to-face format, and includes students who are social work majors as well as students from other programs like psychology and education. The module on disability was worked through over three separate, consecutive class sessions. Each class session began with a short lecture which was followed by an interactive activity designed to teach about some aspect of ableism. Interactive activities consisted of a game based on The Game of Life, which was developed for this course, as well as an activity based on Social Role Valorization Theory that involved ranking various social roles and talking through the sources of these rankings as a large group. Prior to beginning the unit on ableism, students completed a pre-assessment to gauge their knowledge in this area. A post-assessment was completed at the end of the module.

Results: Results of univariate analysis indicated that students began with only moderate levels of knowledge surrounding ableism and moderate levels of confidence regarding their preparedness to address ableism in their future social work practice. Bivariate analyses (t-tests) were also conducted, revealing that student knowledge and perceptions of preparedness increased significantly between pre and post assessments.