Abraham Flexner contended that "something more than a degree or claim" is needed to make a profession. He further asserted that the definitions of a profession require recasting over time. This article critically considers recasting licensing as something more for social work. Analysis of past and present discourse on licensing in social…

Competent social work practice includes the use of advocacy to promote equal opportunity and justice for all individuals, particularly those living in vulnerable circumstances. Group role-play exercises are an innovative teaching method that can promote advocacy skills guided by social work values and the code of ethics. Group role-play exercises…

Social work ethics oppose discriminatory practices and policies, yet little is known about social work students' awareness of such discrimination. In some U.S. states, education policies discriminate against undocumented youth and recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, by limiting access to higher education or imposing prohibitive…

Accurate and timely dissemination of critical information while facilitating reciprocal communication channels is critical during times of crisis. The Graduate Student Leader (GSL) program is a peer-based leadership and mentoring intervention that proved helpful in addressing the needs of a large and diverse student body of approximately 1,300…

In this exploratory study, the professional socialization of 23 clinical social workers based in New England is examined. Building on a landmark framework for understanding professional socialization, this article extends the conversation to assess professional identity among the study participants as well. Findings suggest that clinical social…

Skilled, ethical use of social media can advance social justice, impact policy, engage and educate the community, and elevate social workers. To assure that MSW students develop these skills, we created an assignment that required students to use a professional social media profile to advocate for a cause or policy based on findings from a needs…

Policy advocacy is a professional competency in the Council of Social Work Education's (CSWE) Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards. Therefore, preparing social work students to engage in political arenas is an integral part of social work education. This study presents an evaluation of the policy advocacy course using a pre/posttest…

Social work ethics education models have not effectively engaged social workers in practice in formal ethical reasoning processes, potentially allowing personal bias to affect ethical decisions. Using two of the primary ethical models from medicine, a new social work ethics model for education and practical application is proposed. The strengths…

Although the human rights philosophy has relevance for many segments of the social work curriculum, the latest version of accreditation standards only includes a few behaviors specific to human rights. This deficit can be remedied by incorporating innovations found in the social work literature, which provides a wealth of material for…

The Policy Advocacy and Social Change course is a specialized practice course offered in the Master of Social Work Program (MSW) at the University of Southern California Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. The course is designed to introduce MSW students to a variety of policy frameworks (i.e., Kingdon's policy window, political model of…

Research on the integration of content about intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in the MSW curriculum indicates that social work students may not be adequately prepared to work with this population. This is despite the high prevalence of IDD and the frequency that individuals with IDD and their families present for services in…

In addition to direct practice skills, social work students need to become familiar and competent with macrolevel approaches to addressing youth and transgender youth homelessness. Service-learning courses provide an effective approach for students to learn the necessary knowledge and skills. In two sections of an upper-division social work…

The National Association of Social Workers and the Council on Social Work Education identify social justice as a guiding principle of the social work profession, yet there is little consensus in the field of what the term actually means and how it can be achieved. Master of Social Work programs are likewise struggling with how to educate students…

The call to promote social justice sets the social work profession in a political context. In an effort to enhance social workers' preparedness to engage in political advocacy, this article calls on educators to integrate a broad theoretical understanding of power into social policy curricula. We suggest the use of a multidimensional…

This article discusses the limited yet important literature on the contributions of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to students and the profession of social work. The vital role of HBCUs in social work education and their mission to advocate for social and economic justice for disenfranchised populations is also discussed. A…