Transforming Social Work Curricula: Institutional Supports for Promoting Sustainability

Abstract

Due to the centrality of human rights and social justice in the profession, social work must collectively take a stand on ecological degradation and the climate crisis. Overall, social work education's engagement with issues of sustainability and an expanded ecological justice perspective has been peripheral and piecemeal. It is crucial that social work education expand opportunities to prepare social workers to respond to the global environmental crisis. This conceptual paper considers strategies for integrating environmental content in social work curricula and addresses the essential role of institutional supports for curricular change and professional development focused on sustainability. The role of institutional supports to advance curricular change to respond to environmental crises and promote sustainability is highlighted, along with specific examples from the authors' home institution, including (1) institutional commitment and culture, (2) curricular supports and guidelines, and (3) interdisciplinary faculty development.

Keywords::

• Curriculum Development
• Environmental Social Work
• Sustainability
• Ecological Justice
• Deep Ecology
• Social Justice
• Human Rights

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Emily Sanders and Mark Melekis for their assistance in reviewing drafts of this manuscript, as well as the UVM Department of Social Work Sustainability Subcommittee members: Susan Comerford, Fiona Patterson, Susan Roche, Brenda Solomon, and Jessica Strolin-Goltzman.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.