Teaching Note—Integrating a Social Justice Assignment Into a Research Methods Course

Abstract

Although social justice is a core value of social work, it can be more difficult to integrate into a research methods class. This article describes an assignment developed for a BSW one-semester research class that served the dual purpose of educating students about social justice as well as qualitative research. Students were instructed to identify a social norm and then breach it for 1 hour. They then wrote about their experience and their insights in a paper using thick description, analyzing themes and reflecting on insights into social justice.