MSW Student Perspectives on Facilitators and Barriers in Learning About Social Justice in Social Work Practice

ABSTRACT

Social work is a practice-based profession with social justice as a core value and ethical principle. Social work programs incorporate social justice into both the explicit and implicit curricula. However, there has been a longstanding divide in how to address social justice at systemic levels while fostering socially just and competent practice. The aim of this qualitative study was to examine how MSW students describe their learning about social justice and social work practice. To explore this area of inquiry, we conducted three focus groups (N = 16) with current MSW students or recent MSW graduates from Canadian social work programs. Participants described the following five themes that either facilitated or created barriers in their learning about social justice and social work practice: 1) reflection on practice, 2) negotiating discomfort, uncertainty, and safety, 3) learning from lived experiences, 4) learning how to embody social justice in practice, and 5) receiving support, supervision, and coaching. We discuss the implications for social work education and practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Social work education
• social justice
• pedagogy
• MSW students
• Canada

Acknowledgments

We are grateful for students’ participation in this research study.

Disclosure statement

There are no relevant financial or non-financial competing interests to report. The paper has not been submitted elsewhere and is not under consideration by another journal.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (PI: Eunjung Lee, Grant # 435-2020-0153).