We Are What We Read
Assessing Bias in the Implicit Curriculum of a Social Work Program
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18060/24064Keywords:
Implicit Curriculum, Diversity, Assessment, Race, GenderAbstract
A school of social work devised a process to assess the implicit curriculum by auditing the required readings to identify the race and gender of the authors. As a profession, we espouse a strong commitment to social justice and diversity. Yet we know that there are limitations to our objectivity and that auditing is a valuable tool that can reveal biases. The concrete data provided by an audit can help reveal and disrupt entrenched patterns. The audit was conducted by reviewing the syllabi for required BSW and MSW courses. For each text, we collected the names, gender, and race for each author. Across all programs, authors were disproportionately White as compared to the general U.S. population, professional authors, professional social workers, and students in the programs. Similarly, men were over-represented as compared to all of the benchmarks, except for the authors in the BSW program, which was more feminized as compared to the U.S. population. This assessment process adds to the existing toolset by measuring current levels of representation—including over and underrepresentation. It is hoped that auditing will prove an effective tool for doing antiracist and anti-oppressive assessment, however an audit can only reveal where work is needed.
References
Abrams, L. S., & Moio, J. A. (2009). Critical race theory and the cultural competence dilemma in social work education. Journal of Social Work Education, 45(2), 245-261. https://doi.org/10.5175/jswe.2009.200700109
Bell, J. M., & Hartmann, D. (2007). Diversity in everyday discourse: The cultural ambiguities and consequences of "happy talk". American Sociological Review, 72(6), 895-914. https://doi.org/10.1177/000312240707200603
Berdahl, J. L., Cooper, M., Glick, P., Livingston, R. W., & Williams, J. C. (2018). Work as a masculinity contest. Journal of Social Issues, 74(3), 422-448. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12289
Berry, D. B. (2020, July 3). They overcame police dogs and beatings: Civil rights activists from 1960s cheer on Black Lives Matter protesters leading new fight. USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2020/07/03/civil-rights-black-lives-matter-protesters-build-1960-s-movement/5356338002/
Bogo, M., & Wayne, J. (2013). The implicit curriculum in social work education: The culture of human interchange. Journal of Teaching in Social Work 33(1), 2-14. https://doi.org/10.1080/08841233.2012.746951
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2006). Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in the United States. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Bonilla-Silva, E., & Baiocchi, G. (2001). Anything but racism: How sociologists limit the significance of racism. Race and Society, 4(2), 117-131. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1090-9524(03)00004-4
Brown, S. (2016). Auditing diversity: An interest in assessments is rising as officials strive to show they are committed. The Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/auditing-diversity/
Byrd, W. (2017). Poison in the ivy: Race relations and the reproduction of inequality on elite college campuses. Rutgers University Press. https://doi.org/10.36019/9780813589398
Carnevale, A. P., Van Der Werf, M., Quinn, M. C., Strohl, J., & Repnikov, D. (2018). Our separate & unequal public colleges: How public colleges reinforce White racial privilege and marginalize Black and Latino students. Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. https://cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports/sustates/
Corley, N. A., & Young, S. M. (2018). Is social work still racist? A content analysis of recent literature. Social work, 63(4), 317-326. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/swy042
Council on Social Work Education [CSWE]. (2017). Statistics on social work education in the United States: Summary of the CSWE annual survey of social work programs. Council of Social Work Education. https://www.cswe.org/Research-Statistics/Research-Briefs-and-Publications
CSWE. (2015). 2015 Educational policy and accreditation standards for baccalaureate and master’s social work programs. https://www.cswe.org/Accreditation/Standards-and-Policies/2015-EPAS
Crawford, C. E. (2019). The one-in-ten: Quantitative critical race theory and the education of the 'new (white) oppressed'. Journal of Education Policy, 34(3), 423-444. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2018.1531314
Data USA. (2018). Writers and authors: Diversity. https://datausa.io/profile/soc/writers-authors
Espinosa, L. L., Turk, J. M., Taylor, M., & Chessman, H. M. (2019). Race and ethnicity in higher education: A status report. American Council on Education: Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education. https://www.acenet.edu/Research-Insights/Pages/Race-and-Ethnicity-in-Higher-Education.aspx
Garcia, N. M., López, N., & Vélez, V. N. (2018). QuantCrit: Rectifying quantitative methods through critical race theory. Race Ethnicity and Education, 21(2), 149-157. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2017.1377675
Gillborn, D., Warmington, P., & Demack, S. (2018). QuantCrit: Education, policy, 'big data' and principles for a critical race theory of statistics. Race Ethnicity and Education, 21(2), 158-179. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2017.1377417
Grady, M. D., Powers, J., Despard, M., & Naylor, S. (2011). Measuring the implicit curriculum: Initial development and results of an MSW survey. Journal of Social Work Education, 47(3), 463-487. https://doi.org/10.5175/jswe.2011.200900119
Harper, S. R. (2012). Race without racism: How higher education researchers minimize racist institutional norms. The Review of Higher Education, 36(1), 9-29. https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.2012.0047
Hart Research Associates. (2015). Bringing equity and quality learning together: Institutional priorities for tracking and advancing underserved' students' success. Association of American Colleges and Universities. https://www.aacu.org/sites/default/files/files/LEAP/2015AACUEquityReport.pdf
Healy, L. M. (2008). Exploring the history of social work as a human rights profession. International Social Work, 51, 735-748. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020872808095247
Hurtado, S., Griffin, K. A., Arellano, L., & Cuellar, M. (2008). Assessing the value of climate assessments: Progress and future directions. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 1(4), 204-221. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014009
Jack, A. (2019). The privileged poor: How elite colleges are failing disadvantaged students. Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674239647
Kendi, I. X. (2019). How to be an antiracist. Penguin Random House.
Larson, K. E., & Bradshaw, C. P. (2017). Cultural competence and social desirability among practitioners: A systematic review of the literature. Children and Youth Services Review, 76, 100-111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2017.02.034
McIntosh, P. (1988). White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack. Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: An Integrated Study, 4, 165-169. https://nationalseedproject.org/images/documents/Knapsack_plus_Notes-Peggy_McIntosh.pdf
Mehrotra, G., Hudson, K., & Self, J. (2017). What are we teaching in diversity and social justice courses? A qualitative content analysis of MSW syllabi. Journal of Teaching in Social Work, 37(3), 218-233. https://doi.org/10.1080/08841233.2017.1316342
Milkman, K., Akinola, M., & Chugh, D. (2012). Temporal distance and discrimination: An audit study in academia. Psychological Science, 23(7), 710-717. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611434539
Murdach, A. D. (2011). Is social work a human rights profession? Social Work, 56(3), 281-283. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/56.3.281
National Association of Social Workers [NASW]. (2017). NASW code of ethics. https://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics
Olson, J. J. (2008). Social work’s professional and social justice projects: Discourses in conflict. Journal of Progressive Human Services, 18(1), 45-69. https://doi.org/10.1300/j059v18n01_04
Peterson, N. A., Farmer, A. Y., Donnelly, L., & Forenza, B. (2014). Assessing the implicit curriculum in social work education: Heterogeneity of student's experiences and impact on professional empowerment. Journal of Teaching in Social Work 34(5), 460-479. https://doi.org/10.1080/08841233.2014.955943
Phillips, L. T., & Lowery, B. S. (2018). Herd invisibility: The psychology of racial privilege. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27(3), 156-162. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721417753600
Roberts, D. E. (2002). Shattered bonds: The color of child welfare. Civitas.
Salsberg, E., Quigley, L., Mehfoud, N., Acquaviva, K., Wyche, K., & Sliwa, S. (2017). Profile of the social work workforce. The George Washington University Health Workforce Institute. https://hsrc.himmelfarb.gwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1015&context=sphhs_policy_workforce_facpubs
Shapiro, D., Dundar, A., Huie, F., Wakhungu, P., Yuan, X., Nathan, A., & Hwang, Y. A. (2017, April). Completing college: A national view of student attainment rates by race and ethnicity – Fall 2010 cohort (Signature Report No. 12b). National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. http://nscresearchcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/SignatureReport12.pdf
Smith, S. L., Choueiti, M., Pieper, K., Case, A., & Choi, A. (2018). Inequality in 1,100 popular films: Examining portrayals of gender, race/ethnicity, LGBT & disability from 2007 to 2017. USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. http://assets.uscannenberg.org/docs/inequality-in-1100-popular-films.pdf
Solórzano, D. G. (1997). Images and words that wound: Critical race theory, racial stereotyping, and teacher education. Teacher Education Quarterly, (24)3, 5-19.
Specht, H., & Courtney, M. E. (1994). Unfaithful angels: How social work has abandoned its mission. Simon and Schuster. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/40.1.134
United States Census. (2019). Population estimates program 2019. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/SEX255219
Warikoo, N. K. (2016). The diversity bargain: And other dilemmas of race, admissions, and meritocracy at elite universities. The University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.4000/sdt.8570
Williams, O., & Reidel, M. (2018, November). Power, race, oppression, and privilege: Teaching practice skills for interprofessional settings. Paper presented at the meeting of the CSWE, Orlando, FL.
Yee, J. L. (2016). A paradox of social change: How the quest for liberation reproduces dominance in higher education and the field of social work. Social Work Education, 35(5), 495-505. https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2016.1170113
Yglesias, M. (2019, April 1). The great awokening: A hidden shift is revolutionizing American racial politics—and could transform the future of the Democratic Party. Vox. https://www.vox.com/2019/3/22/18259865/great-awokening-white-liberals-race-polling-trump-2020
