Bridging the Gap Together: Utilizing Experiential Pedagogy to Teach Poverty and Empathy

ABSTRACT

In light of community changes and curricular deficits, it is essential for social work educators to find ways to teach social empathy and poverty content to students who may or may not have had much direct contact with economically diverse households in their formative years. Our framework and research pick up where well-intended policy efforts leave off. Because social empathy may serve as a pathway to close the gap between lived realities, we work toward bridging the divide of socioeconomic difference through social connection. In our experiential learning event, Bridging the Gap Together (BTGT), we partner with a local agency to have a dinner and an interactive question and answer session aimed at humanizing both groups’ lived realities. Experiential learning through intentional social connection may provide an opportunity for social work educators to bridge both sociocultural and curricular gaps.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Seaman, Brown, and Quay (2017) noted that experiential learning theory developed out of human relations theory in the late 1940s and early 1950s when it was applied to workplace training.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jennifer M. Frank

Jennifer M. Frank is an assistant professor,

Laura Brierton Granruth

Laura Brierton Granruth is an assistant professor and DSW program director, and

Heather Girvin

Heather Girvin is an associate professor at Millersville University of Pennsylvania.

Anna VanBuskirk

Anna VanBuskirk is a recent BASW graduate from Millersville University of Pennsylvania.