In the United states, we are currently living in a human rights-oriented generation. With the use of social media and the internet people have become empowered to voice their opinions. Events related to social justice and inequality are quickly available for the public to see and critique. Because the United States elected an African American President in 2008, it appeared to be that the country was moving forward towards a liberal ideal. The country thought racism was socially shamed and conservative views appeared to diminish. On November 8, 2016, when Donald Trump a wealthy republican was elected president, it became clear that the majority of our country identified as an affiliate of the Republican party. Political and religious views are currently popular topics of conversation across the county. These topics are also common in social work class lectures and in the overall social work profession.
Because the National Association of Social Work code of ethics aligns more with the ideals of liberalism, it is expected that all of student’s values align with those as well. Although it has come to light that most Americans still hold conservative views, there is a perception that students in social work program do not. The current context of our political system is promoting strong opinions about war, abortion, immigration, and much more.
There is an unspoken assumption that social work students have very liberal standpoints in different topics. Implicit biases imbedded in the social work program’s curriculum affect the development of a student’s practice approach. A master’s program of Social Work should be one in which students from all backgrounds and beliefs feel comfortable working through their biases. Students with conservative views on topics like abortion, sexuality, religion, and military have felt shamed by class discussions and/or by class lectures. Feelings of shame and guilt can hinder a student’s ability to learn new practices and approaches. If students are not provided with a safe place to explore and reflect on their own experiences, there is a greater chance that they will not adequately provide that for their clients in the future.
There is a need for continuous evaluation of educational programs. If findings show that there are individuals who are not comfortable expressing their views because they are part of the minority opinion, then it suggests that the program needs to make changes and strive for more inclusive curriculum. The study will provide data that can be used to enhance the social work program and its curriculum delivery. Students should be able to use their program to explore practices and grow as a social work professional, but those goals are inhibited if the social work student does not feel supported during his or her educational career. Student have needs that should also be met and the study will serve as an advocate for minority groups within the social work program.
The purpose of this study is to measure students’ comfort level and support when discussing diverse values in the master’s program of social work. This study will test whether all the political views, religious views and other principles are supported by the programs curriculum and staff.
There is a Students in the social work program who have conservative views are less likely to feel comfortable sharing their opinion compared to the students whose values align with those of a liberal.
Definitions of variables/key words (conceptual or operational)
- Safe- protected from judgement, not likely to be proved wrong, not likely to lead to emotional harm.
- Support- providing emotional help, reassurance
Statement of assumptions embedded in the study. Because the researcher is a student of the social work master’s program, there are assumptions already made about the program. Researcher created this study because of firsthand witnesses in the classroom. There have been observations made of the class lectures and the professors before the study was conducted. There have also been discussions on the topic of the study between the researcher and students who will possibly be surveys for the study.
Discussion of limitations of the study. Because some core values may tie in to an individual’s life experience and religion, this topic can be a vary sensitive one. A student might not feel comfortable enough to answer all the questions truthfully in a classroom setting. Surveys are administered in the student’s social work classrooms which can be a conflict of interest. The accuracy of the answers can be affected by the proximity of the seating in the classroom. Comfort levels might also differ due to other factors like temperament that are not included in the study. Lastly, the researcher will not be able to reach every single student in the program to get an accurate representation of the student population.
In the study Social work Education: Systematic Ethnical Implications (Otters, 2013) they identified teaching as a service. Professors in the field are providing a service to students who will soon practice in the same field. Part of the service should include inclusion and validation. Providing a reflective practice in the classroom will aid students in developing their own practices. If a student has difficulty understanding concepts because of personal biases it is the professors’ duty to guide the student. Another important point that Otters (2013) highlights is that professors serve as models for best approaches.
Acceptance and understanding are approaches that should be practices and demonstrated in the classroom, even during controversial discussions, because the same topics might arise when working in the field with clients. In a study by Ringstad (2014), they found that in a liberal learning western state, one third of participants in a survey showed moderate political standpoints. The other two thirds of the students categorized themselves as liberal. This indicates that although students might reside in a liberal learning state, there could still be a large number of students that have conservative views in some areas. California was identified as a democratic state in the 2016 election meaning that although there are more liberal views in the state, this study might still find strong values.
A study by Valutis (2016) differentiated personal values from professional values and thus implying that students can use their knowledge of the professional social work values to navigate their work. The question this study will address is whether or not the curriculum is doing a good job in teaching how to balance both. There are studies that show the need for a supportive learning environment in social work programs. In his article, Marson (2010) identifies affirmative domain as one of the key components of learning in social work programs. He explains that affirmative learning includes personal development in areas like values and attitudes. This perspective ties in with the cognitive learning theory. (Moss, 2005)
Grady’s (2011) study shows students feel the delivery of curriculum strongly depends on the quality of the professor. In this same study they found that the environment the professor creates contributes to the comfort lever students feel in sharing their standpoints. Studies highlight that professors fear that a student’s religious views will affect their social work practice (Moss, 20105). The study Student Views on Good Practice in Social Work Education (2010) found that students recognized support of the program staff as a vital characteristic of learning good practice skills.
Other studies showed that students can have difficulty when professional values differentiate from personal values (Woods, 2015). In the same study student’s approaches were viewed as inappropriate practices but in the study, professors were able to explore the reasoning behind that. That is an ideal all social work programs should aim for. Programs, staff, and students need continuous evaluation in order to stay updated with the context students are living in. Also, supervision as a vital component of the professional identity is social work students (Levy, 2014) . Field supervisors are not direct hires of the social work program. This is an issue because staff in the program should be able to provide reflective supervision in order to shape well rounded social workers.
This will be a quantitative study that identifies if students of diverse views are feeling supported by staff and the social work program overall. In-person surveys will be administered once in every practice class section of the social work master’s program at Sacramento State. Students will be in a classroom setting of their program. The study will include two graduating classes including, social work class of 2019 and class of 2020. The surveys will be offered in person and on paper. There will be an attempt to reach every student in both master’s level classes, but it will not be required. To protect students’ identity, no form of identification will be asked form participating students. The only required criteria to participate in the study is to be a current student in the Master of Social Work program at Sacramento State.
The tool that will be used to measure the deliverance of the social work curriculum is the Implicit Factors survey. The survey was developed by faculty members in an academic university. The tool was reviewed and accepted by the university’s institutional review board before administering it to students. In the original tool there are six categories, but this study will only utilize four of them; those are Academic Experience, Diversity, Faculty Advising, and Overall Master of Social Work Program Community Experience. The survey consists of statements like “My professors created a safe learning environment.” and “The MSW (Master of Social Work) made me feel that my opinions were not respected.” The statements will be provided with a spectrum where they can choose their lever of agreement to the statement. Data will be analyzed with different Chi-Tests. The chi tests will test whether there is a significance between the students with diverse views and experiences with academic curriculum, faculty advising and overall program community experience.