Suchergebnisse

Severe racial inequity has characterized the incorporation of ethnic minorities' contributions to U.S. history and advancements (Sandoval et al., 2016). These disparities are inextricably connected to White Supremacist ideologies and practices, and are perpetuated in higher education through textbooks, pedagogy, and research. Social work, like many disciplines, teaches about its early roots with a whitewashed historical lens. Indeed, review of the social work literature reveals the scarcity of attributions to Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC). Without a more racially diverse perspective on social work's history, social work scholars promote and sustain White Supremacy. The implications of this are crucial since social work education is predominantly populated by privileged White students who adopt this mentality, unaware of Black, Brown, Latino, Asian, Native or Other ethnic "Jane Addams" who have massively promoted the social welfare of communities for decades without historical recognition or the privileged positions of Addams and Richmond. Historical distortions also potentially discourage BIPOC social work students' self-efficacy and future efforts to contribute and excel in the discipline. To properly address this issue, social work history must be refaced with a more equitable and just lens. This review seeks to address the gap in the literature pertaining to the need for a greater integration and infusion of racially diverse social work historical contributions in several ways. Recommendations will be made for future research in this area to dismantle racist perspectives in social work history, and strategies will be offered to help social work educators and researchers address this critical issue.

As an ongoing collective trauma event, the COVID-19 pandemic has produced varied experiences and narratives among diverse populations, which have implications for meaning-making and healing post-pandemic. This study examined narratives from six social work students to better understand how individuals make meaning out of the pandemic experience. Holistic content analysis was utilized to identify a core pattern, comprised of a single in-vivo quote, and key themes within each case. Two participants utilized imagery or metaphor to describe emotional impacts of the pandemic; two emphasized the social responsibilities and roles they were challenged to perform during the pandemic, particularly the role of being a parent; and two conveyed how they endured the pandemic through the use of self-care and grounding strategies. Participants' inability to perform their professional and community service roles during this event created a sense of internal conflict between one's felt need to help and the internalized master narrative of social work as a serving profession. Findings illustrate how individuals find meaning through storytelling, grounding, identity navigation, and research participation through a collective trauma and indicate potential strategies for individual and collective processing and healing.

As social work educators and students, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted our teaching and learning in challenging ways. We embarked on a qualitative research study to better understand the ways in which the pandemic was affecting the social work students in our program. Three faculty mentors worked collaboratively with five social work students across BSW, MSW, and PhD programs to interview 66 BSW and MSW students about their experiences, challenges, and hopes during the early months of the pandemic. BSW and MSW students led the analysis and early dissemination for the project. This essay describes the unique experiences of social work students by using a research poem to capture the emotional and experiential aspects of the students we interviewed.