Teaching Race and Racism in Social Work Education: A Thematic Analysis of Social Work Educators' Experiences and Attitudes

Abstract

Race and racism are central ideas in the conceptualization of social justice in the US and thus topics of fundamental importance within the social work discipline. Accredited social work schools must include race and racism education in their curricula. Social work pedagogical literature has historically lacked critical, consistent attention to these issues. This exploratory study applied a cluster sampling strategy to distribute study invitations across 10% of randomly selected accredited US social work schools to access the study’s target population of social work educators. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to interpret educators’ written responses to six qualitative survey questions on their perspectives teaching race and racism-centered themes to social work students. The study was guided by three research questions: how educators conceptualize race and racism pedagogy; how confidence and doubt are contrasted in their experiences; and the consequence of educators’ own racial identity. Critical Race Theory (CRT) and oppression theory were guiding theoretical frameworks. Each question generated 31 to 48 responses. In total, 10 themes were developed in response to the research questions. Highlighted findings illustrate a variation in how educators conceptualize race and racism pedagogy: ethics training, antiracist praxis development, and through a CRT framework. Educators also experience doubt in their teaching abilities, such as in managing students’ responses to race and racism-centered learning. Educators’ racial identity also shapes their perspectives on race and racism pedagogical experiences. Further research is indicated, such as how educators understand antiracist practice; their pedagogical training on teaching these subjects; evaluative studies on social work schools’ support to educators; and the influence of racial identity on teaching and learning these complex topics.