From the Editor—Anticipating Social Work Education Issues in 2024

Welcome to 2024! There has been much going on in the world and in academic settings in late 2023 and early 2024. We are contending with worldwide conflicts and navigating how we, as members of a profession, can continue to align our values and care for all human dignity and worth in the ways we speak, act, practice, teach, write, and advocate. We are also observing the many ways politics and global issues are affecting universities. At the same time, we are entering a contentious, unusual, and anxiety-provoking national election with much at stake that can affect the populations we serve and the broader world in which we live. As we dive into this year, I am reminded that self-care is part of our ethical practice as social workers and social work educators so that we can be our best for our students and for each other. Many of the emerging educational issues and possibilities noted last year (Parrish, 2023) remain today and remain ripe for social work education scholarship, including:

• novel and effective solutions for racial disparities in social work licensure pass rates (Association of Social Work Boards, 2022);

• new ideas and measures to support Educational Polices and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) Competency 3—Engaging in Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Practice (Council on Social Work Education [CSWE], 2022);

• additional discourse on paid practicum placements;

• novel approaches for educating students to engage in self-care as now ethically mandated by the National Association of Social Workers;

• ethical approaches to the growing influence of technology on social work practice and education;

• pertinent issues related to political social work in this election year;

• novel teaching strategies for weaving current events into social work education; and

• novel teaching/facilitation approaches that support respectful, brave discourse in the classroom and in academic settings.

Submissions that look at the effectiveness of novel or untested teaching approaches with more rigorous approaches, such as control groups and robust measurement, will also be prioritized and welcomed. Finally, rigorous systematic or scoping reviews that summarize our knowledge in key areas of social work education are highly encouraged. I am sure I have missed some important and novel topics or emerging issues above, and I hope you will consider submitting these ideas in the coming year.

In this issue

The first few articles have a shared focus on Competency 2 of the CSWE 2022 EPAS, which reads, “Engage Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Practice.” The lead article is titled, “Social Work Education Anti-Racism (SWEAR) Scale,” by Murphy, Conner, Weiler, Anthony, Jewell, and Venable. This very timely article reports on the validity of a scale that assesses social workers’ knowledge, skills, values, cognitive and affective processes, and professional responsibility to antiracist social work. This measure provides a potential 30-item assessment option for schools of social work evaluating antiracist social work practice competencies. The next article, by Alexander, Carter, Timbers, and Martinez, presents and reflects on experiences of adjuncts, former students, and current students who served on a Race Equity Work Team within a school of social work in “Racial Equity in Social Work Education: Experiences of Current and Former Students Serving on a Social Work Program’s Race Equity Work Team.” They also present qualitative results of data collected by students regarding the current curriculum and offer recommendations for antiracism, diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. Next, Bryson, Mehrotra, Rodriguez-JenKins, and Ilea also discuss efforts to promote racial justice within the implicit and explicit curricula and center the scholarship of Black, Indigenous, and people of color and better align their Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) curriculum with the experiences of students of color in a case study titled, “Centering Racial Equity in a BSW Program: What We’ve Learned in Five Years.”

In “Strengthening Social Work Skills and Competency Through Exposure to Diversity,” Gearing, Washburn, Savani, Mytelka, Carr, Robinson, Clark, and Robbins present results of a survey of MSW students that explores whether demographic characteristics, prior international travel, and learning abroad experience were associated with CSWE competencies, racial attitudes, and attitudes toward mental health. Next, Cook Heffron, Held, and Huslage also report on a survey of social work students that assessed factors that were predictive of student knowledge and perceptions of the risk of detention and deportation of immigrants in “Immigration in Social Work Education: Student Knowledge and Perception of Risk of Detention and Deportation.” They then provide recommendations for the integration of immigration-related content into the social work curriculum.

The next two articles focus on social work education and criminal justice settings. Copeland, Collins, Pederson, Tripodi, and Epperson report on a review of criminal justice content in Master of Social Work programs and conclude that most MSW programs do not cover this content in “To What Extent Is Criminal Justice Content Specifically Addressed in MSW Programs? A 10 Year Review and Update.” The next article, “Preparing Social Workers for Emerging Roles in Police Social Work,” by Logan, Madden, and Solak, discusses education of social workers to engage in police social work and the experiences of their social work program developing an internship program collaboratively with the local police department.

The next two articles focus on simulation in social work education. The first, by Asakura, provides guidelines for client case simulation using a critical approach to reduce stereotypical understanding of minoritized clients in “Toward a Critical Approach to Simulation-Based Social Work Education: Guidelines for Designing Simulated Client Case Scenarios.” Next, Zhang and Stepteau-Watson report on findings of a meta-analysis of the effectiveness of simulated learning in social work education with live or virtual clients in “A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Simulated Learning’s Effects in Social Work Education.”

The issue rounds out with four teaching and field notes. The first teaching note, by Mirick, reports on results of a cross-sectional survey of social work practice instructors concerning the integration of suicide content in their programs in “A Survey of Suicide Content in Social Work Programs.” Differences in content between BSW and MSW courses are presented and implications for social work education are discussed. In the teaching note “Beyond #Freebritney: Teaching Social Workers About Surrogate Decision Making Through the Spears Case,” Harris, Williams, Nyerges, and Bloomer provide a foundational description of surrogate decision-making arrangements and provide a rationale for the importance of this content for social work education. The next teaching note, by John, “Bridging the Gap: Service Learning With Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities,” describes three need-based student community service–learning initiatives offered to BSW and MSW students to community agencies serving individuals with intellectual disabilities and the results of an analysis of students’ critical reflection papers. The potential benefits of service learning are discussed, particularly for preparing future social workers to work with individuals with intellectual disabilities. The issue ends with a field note by Morris and Everett titled, “The Practicum Learning Portal: Building Resilience in Social Work Field Education During and Post-COVID-19.” They describe a new online social work practicum learning portal that was designed and used by Canadian field education faculty and community social workers and discuss the potential of this approach for periods of educational disruption.