Nexus between environmental justice and social work education: perspectives from the School of Social Work, McGill University, Canada

ABSTRACT

This paper addresses the imperative for social work educators and professionals to integrate environmental dimensions into curricula and field practice purposefully. Advocates argue that this integration is vital for the profession to effectively contribute to social and environmental justice. Despite these calls, there is a paucity of scholarly attention to the extent of environmental justice considerations in social work curricula. In response, this study employs in-depth interviews with program directors and curriculum content analysis at McGill University’s School of Social Work to assess the inclusion of environmental justice issues. The findings reveal that these issues are marginally and superficially integrated into the curriculum. Despite this, interview participants express confidence in social work students’ ability to support clients facing significant environmental challenges. This study suggests broadening the traditional ‘person-in-environment’ concept in social work education and practice to encompass the physical environment.

KEYWORDS:

• Physical environment
• social environment
• curriculum
• social justice
• vulnerable populations

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Ethical approval

Ethics approval for this study was obtained from the McGill University’s Research and Ethics board in accordance with the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans. Research and Ethics Board’s Approval number is 236–1214. This study was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards and guidelines for research involving human subjects set forth by the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans.

Additional information

Funding

The first author received financial support from the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship through the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).