Human Rights in Social Work Curriculum: From Concept to Action

Overview: This presentation reflects on the development and initial implementation of a human rights course for MSW students at a public Midwestern university. We focus on how instructors facilitated students’ activism to perform a solidarity action for human rights. We end on considerations to incorporate human rights activism in the curriculum.Proposal text: This presentation reflects on the development and implementation of a new human rights course for MSW students at a public Midwestern university. Specifically, we focus on how instructors facilitated students’ activism to perform a solidarity action for human rights and incorporated the solidarity action within the curriculum and lessons learned. Aligned with the belief that social work is fundamentally congruent with the aims of human rights (International Federation of Social Workers, n.d.; Reynaert et al., 2019) and the increased emphasis on human rights in the draft versions of the 2022 EPAS, this generalist course lays a human rights-centered foundation for students’ graduate social work education, elevating the pursuit of social, economic, and environmental justice as a core dimension of social work practice. The course familiarizes students with the global human rights framework and exposes them to key human rights challenges in the current landscape. Central to this course is catalyzing students to take responsibility to act as members of a global community committed to the dignity and worth of every person. Consistent with this aim, students are required to design and carry out an action to advance human rights and social, economic, and/or environmental justice. Students must choose an area for advocacy important to them, identify roles for allies and collaborators, and develop a plan to affect change. After consultation with their instructor, students then implement their solidarity action plan during the course of the semester and present on their process and outcomes to their peers in the final class session. Student reflections during the final class session serve as a key dimension of their learning.

Each of the three presenters and contributors to this presentation taught a section of this course during the Spring 2022 semester. Within this presentation, we will 1) outline the rationale and impetus for the development of this course, especially as it relates to social work’s values and ethics; 2) discuss the ways in which the solidarity action fits within and uniquely advances the course objectives and how the other components of the course prepare students for taking action; 3) examine the variety of ways in which we facilitated students’ activism while still allowing students to take lead, including choosing an area for advocacy, developing a plan, and identifying and engaging the community; and 4) offer concluding reflections and lessons learned from these experiences on how social work educators may best support student activism for human rights, while situating reflections within the broader literature on engaged pedagogy (hooks, 1998). This work fills a noted gap in social work education to promote human rights-based skills and advocacy (Gatenio Gabel & Mapp, 2020).