Infusing Aging Content Into a Research Course: A National Organization and University Partnership

ABSTRACT

Gerontology and research are two areas that are often resisted by undergraduate social-work students: “Why do you need to know how to do research as a social-work practitioner?” “Why would anyone want to work with older, sick and frail individuals when it is impossible to make a difference in their situation or in their lives?” These statements are not uncommon to undergraduate social-work faculty or field placement staff. From 1998 to 2004, to strengthen the capacity of the social-work profession to meet the needs of a growing aging population, the Council on Social Work Education's Strengthening Aging and Gerontology in Social Work project (SAGE-SW) worked on a national initiative to infuse aging content throughout the social-work curriculum. This was to be done both at the undergraduate and graduate levels, which include developing resources for faculty that will infuse gerontology throughout the curriculum (funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation of New York). This paper adds a curriculum resource by providing an example of infusing gerontology into a research course via a service-learning project, as well as infusing research into a gerontology field placement. In addition, the project exposed the social-work research students to the field of gerontology and the operations of a national organization. It also gave students the opportunity to attend a national gerontology conference.

We acknowledge the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education, the Gerontological Society of America, the National Institute on Aging, and James Madison University, Department of Social Work, especially their graduates, Kerry Becker, MSW and Jessica Hotz, BSW.