Racism and Social Work: A Model Syllabus for Graduate-Level Teaching

ABSTRACT

This article provides a prospective model syllabus for graduate-level social work courses exploring the interactions between social work and race—both historical and present, both productive and problematic—and makes an argument for this subject matter’s relevance for a course to be implemented in the graduate-level curriculum of social work programs. Instructors can view this syllabus as a template they can customize for their own purposes and contexts, and thus it should not be viewed as fixed, comprehensive, or definitive. Due to the evolutionary nature of research, language, and terms, the syllabus, of course, will need constant revision; but it is conceived as offering a curation of resources, thereby providing a starting point for education on this important topic, at least for this moment in time.

KEYWORDS:

• graduate social work education
• race
• racism
• antiracism
• historical implications
• micro/macro practice