The Natural Environment in Social Work Education: A Content Analysis of Australian Social Work Courses

ABSTRACT

The natural environment is increasingly incorporated into social work research, policy, and frameworks for practice in recognition of the importance of ecological justice and the interconnectedness of humans with nature. However, it is unclear to what degree social work education has broadened its scope to include the natural world. Using a content analysis of 937 subject descriptions within Bachelor of Social Work and Master of Social Work (Qualifying) degrees, this article reports on the extent to which Australian social work education appears to cover content related to the natural environment. The findings from this study indicate there is an overall lack of engagement with this content. Reasons for this gap in social work education are discussed, as well as the implications for Australian social work education more broadly.

由于认识到生态正义的重要性以及人类与自然的关联性，社会工作在研究、政策以及实践框架方面越来越包含自然环境。不过，尚不清楚社会工作教育在多大程度上也接纳了自然世界。本文对社会工作本科学历和硕士生学历的学生所做的937份课程描述进行了内容分析，以了解澳大利亚社会工作教育涵盖自然环境内容的程度。作者发现，社工教育中整个缺失这方面的内容。作者讨论了缺失的原因及其对于澳大利亚社工教育影响。

KEYWORDS:

• Environmental Social Work
• Green Social Work
• Social Work Education
• Content Analysis
• Curriculum Development
• Climate Change

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the support of a Griffith University School of Human Services and Social Work Research Scholarship that supported the first author in undertaking this study.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.