Social work faculty attitudes towards diversity and oppression content in MSW curricula

ABSTRACT

The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) has mandated teaching both multicultural diversity and oppression content since the first decade of the 21st century. Yet, little research examines social work faculty’s attitudes toward the content they teach. A national online survey of faculty teaching in accredited MSW programs across the United States was conducted to investigate faculty’s attitudes toward content related to diversity, oppression, and social and economic justice. This paper examines (a) faculty’s attitudes toward diversity and oppression content, (b) faculty’s perceived importance of content on social groups (e.g. different social classes) compared to content on oppression (e.g. classism), and (c) the factors that predict faculty’s attitudes. Findings revealed that faculty are generally supportive of most diversity and oppression content, with some notable exceptions. However, results indicated that faculty perceive content on diversity as more important than its corresponding oppression content. Lastly, faculty who indicated that their school had more resources on diversity and oppression reported higher perceived importance of including this content in their courses. The current study reveals there can be a discrepancy between how faculty think about this content and the CSWE curriculum policy. Findings have implications for education, workshops and training for social work faculty.

KEYWORDS:

• Diversity
• oppression
• faculty
• attitudes
• MSW curriculum

Acknowlegement

We thank the members of the Multicultural Praxis lab for their support in the collection of this data, as well as the members of the Faculty Allies for Diversity Committee for their feedback on previous drafts.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Andrea S. Mora

Andrea S. Mora is a PhD candidate in the joint doctoral program in Social Work and Developmental Psychology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Carl D. Greer

Carl D. Greer is a PhD student in the Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis department in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Jordan Hunter

Jordan Hunter is an undergraduate student majoring in Sociology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Lorraine Gutiérrez

Lorraine M. Gutiérrez is a Professor and Associate Dean for Educational Programs in the School of Social Work at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.