Preparing Social Workers for Anti-Oppressive Practice: Evaluating the Role of Critical Social Work Education

Overview: Social work education is undergoing an important shift to address internal mechanisms of racism and
oppression. This session will discuss a study that examined the prevalence of critical social work educational opportunities, student attitudes, and how those factors associated with student learning outcomes with implications for social work educators.Proposal text: Background and

Purpose: Social work education is undergoing an important shift that seeks to address racism and
oppression embedded within our profession. Critical social work (CSW) is one of many approaches to social work pedagogy and
practice that provides valuable tools to dismantle internal systemic racism and oppression within the field. This session will discuss a recent study which examined the prevalence of CSW educational opportunities, student attitudes, and how those factors associated with student learning outcomes. Through this session, attendees will deepen their knowledge of CSW and collaborate to identify ways in which feminist, anti-racist, and critical scholarship can be integrated within their courses and broader curricula.

Methods: Data were collected in 2021 using an exploratory, cross-sectional online survey design at a major social work
program located in a northeastern city with both undergraduate and graduate social work students (n = 191). A mixed
methods data analysis approach was used which incorporated descriptive statistics for numeric data and thematic analysis for
open-ended items to examine the prevalence of CSW exposure and student attitudes towards CSW education. Next, a linear
regression model examined the association between dichotomous predictor variables, exposure to CSW and student intent to
use CSW, and the Diversity and Oppression Scale (DOS), which measures students’ cultural and social justice knowledge based
on several Council on Social Work Education’s (CSWE) competencies.

Results: The survey findings provided a snapshot into the current state of CSW for students at a large social work program.
Only 30.4% of participants were familiar with the term CSW prior to taking the survey. However, themes derived from the
open-ended items suggest that students were acquainted with specific concepts and tangential theories to CSW. Once
introduced to the term through a definition provided in the survey, 51% of students felt they used CSW in their field placement
and 68.6% believed some element of CSW was provided in their classes, though most students indicated it was often an
idiosyncratic unit within a course. Student interest in CSW was consistently high as 92.5% wanted to learn more about CSW in
classes, 79.5% wanted to use more CSW in field placement, and 68.1% planned to fully utilize CSW within their professional
career. Linear regression model results demonstrate that the model for social work students was significant (F[10, 158] = 4.05,
p < .001, R2=.204). Plans to use CSW in the future (B = 4.41, p < .01) and prior learning of CSW (B = 3.59, p < .01) are
significant dichotomous predictors of student knowledge on the DOS when controlling for relevant confounding variables.

Conclusions and Implications: The findings indicate that although opportunities for student learning of CSW are mixed, student interest is remarkably strong. Further, significant positive associations were found between both students’ learning CSW and students’ plans to use CSW in the future on student knowledge and attitudes of diversity and oppression. Based on these findings, this session will discuss recommendations on how to expand CSW use in the classroom and in field placements.