Beyond the Buzzwords: Concrete Examples of ADEI in Field Education

Overview: Students' development to understand Competencies 2, 3, and 5 should begin with the foundation courses and continue into the field. Instead, concentration is on field educators to assess comprehension. With an emphasis on faculty comfort and incorporating macro-focused and social justice pedagogy, field can integrate these competencies more substantially.Proposal text: Barriers exist in creating learning content surrounding Competencies 2, 3, and 5 in field education. These barriers include historical division between micro or macro practice and little consensus on social justice demonstration in the field (Austin et al., 2016; Kiesel & ABDill, 2017; McBeath, 2016). The lack of clear definition or conceptual ambiguity stems from the unresolved debate about key cultural diversity concepts (Danso, 2018). Field educators realize it is too late to teach or correct misconceptions of human rights practice or social justice terms while in the field. Instead, it must occur in prior classroom training. Social work faculty, in particular, must adopt topics into every classroom that exposes students to different social justice pedagogical content. To do this, Miller (2013) suggests that social work education embodies a three-part curricular structure that contributes to students’ professional development: (a) the explicit curriculum, which is the formal educational classroom curriculum; (b) the implicit curriculum, which is the learning environment and context; and (c) field education, which is the agency-based internship component.
This curricular partnership is evident by CSWE's recognition that implicit curriculum is equally important in preparing students for professional development (2015, p.14). Furthermore, CSWE emphasizes that implicit curriculum scaffolds a "program commitment to diversity" (CSWE, 2015, p.14). Still, Gabel and Mapp (2019) found that social justice and human rights content is regulated mainly in courses discussing diversity and policy. With a limited focus, field departments are forced to implement reactive interventions that confuse and potentially frustrate students who lack understanding of human rights violations in the field. Field education cannot be the litmus test to evaluate if a student can demonstrate diverse concepts. Instead, it should advance students' knowledge by encouraging them to analyze, and implement plans that uphold social justice and human rights in their internship.
Although CSWE requires social work departments to incorporate and define diversity content, programs have flexibility in delivering educational content in these areas. Few schools have critically examined how students and faculty understand diversity and theorize what it means for them. Additionally, more faculty shy away from social justice topics to avoid disrupting the learning environment (Bell, 2016; Matis, et.al, 2016; Mensah Moore, 2016). A model to address this gap is the intentional incorporation of social justice pedagogy throughout curriculum. This expansion in curriculum help reduce faculty discomfort in addressing human rights and allow students time for successful problem resolutions prior to field education. Students' development to understand Competencies 2, 3, and 5 should begin with the foundation courses and continue into their field placements. In field, students should be able to create action steps that bring focus to macro-practice, support social justice pedagogy, and demonstration of human rights practice.
This workshop will emphasize how field educators can help create expanded curriculum that emphasizes human rights practice, intentional discussion on diverse concepts, and the implementation of macro-focused learning activities before and within field education. Participants will work together to develop an action plan to improve students' awareness and development that support attentiveness to ADEI.