Trigger warnings have become a hotly contested practice in higher education, including within the field of social work. Learning to become a social worker can be a demanding process that requires in-depth study about often socially taboo and traumatic topics. The learning process can, understandably, cause discomfort that may result in a…

Teaching and learning during disasters presents challenges and opportunities. The COVID-19 pandemic and concomitant social and economic devastation altered almost every aspect of daily life. Subsequent police brutality, racial injustice, and environmental disasters disproportionately affected historically marginalized communities. Within this…

The objective of this teaching note is to further discussion, application, and research on trauma-informed educational practices in social work. Trauma has a pervasive effect across social work service sectors. Both generalist and specialized education about trauma could reduce misinterpretation of coping strategies and retraumatization of…

This article introduces an innovative model of social work course development, teaching, and implementation. Using the principles of antioppressive education and community-engaged learning, the authors (a former student and faculty member) codeveloped and subsequently taught a course that explored writing, voice, social justice, and the…

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 resulted in major disruption for social work education, as many teachers and programs shifted from on-campus classes to remote or blended teaching using digital technologies. Social work educators have an opportunity to apply the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic to meet the needs of students and communities…

Given the human costs of psychological trauma, social workers should be well versed in trauma-informed care (TIC). This framework helps guide the efforts of systems, organizations, and practitioners toward reducing trauma or mitigating its effects. The field has created TIC principles, although they have yet to be fully realized as practical…

The social work profession has articulated commitments to acknowledging and affirming how diversity and culture shape the human experience and to developing social workers who can competently engage in research-informed practice and practice-informed research. However, there remains a need in social work education for more widespread use of…

This article illustrates the types of situations that U.S. uniformed social workers have experienced in combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan with the purpose of preparing current and future social workers to effectively serve military and veteran clients in either military or civilian settings. Vignettes demonstrate the application of the…

Multiple issues that are unique to child welfare social work practice in rural areas markedly affect workforce recruitment and retention, yet little attention is given to the proficiencies needed to equip emerging social workers for this growing area of the field. Curriculum content is needed that provides students with the opportunity to master…

There is a growing imperative to prepare MSW social work students for trauma-informed evidence-based practice. Given strong recommendations and promising developments within social work education and practice in this regard, a clinical elective for the advanced-year MSW student that combines the guiding principles of trauma theory and…

This article presents an approach to human behavior curriculum that requires students to achieve the purpose outlined in the Council on Social Work Education's 2008 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards to "distinguish, appraise, and integrate multiple sources of knowledge, including research-based knowledge." It emphasizes and allows for…