Competencies

Social work educators serve as representatives of the profession, its mission, and its core values. They understand the profession’s history, the roles and responsibilities of the professoriate and commit themselves to the profession’s enhancement and to their own professional conduct and growth.  Social work education is a form of social work practice. Identifying as a social work educator means that teaching is about the transformation of learners into empowered practitioners, teachers, and scholars.

Students in this DSW Program will:

• Identify as teacher-learner demonstrating professional skills and evaluating teaching for quality improvement.
• Maintain empowering relationships with students and peers using the person-in-environment and strengths perspectives.
• Critically analyze pedagogical approaches in social work education and demonstrate the critical role that social work educators play in the academy. 

Social work educators have an obligation to conduct themselves ethically and to engage in ethical decision-making. Social work educators are knowledgeable about the value base of the profession and its ethical standards.  Social work educators recognize personal values and the distinction between personal and professional values. They also understand how their subjective experiences and emotional reactions influence their professional judgment and behavior. Social work educators understand emerging forms of technology and the ethical use of technology in social work practice and education. The same values and ethical principles that guide social work practitioners also guide the practice of social work educators. Social work educators embody these ethical principles in their work with students.

Students in this DSW Program will: 

• Manage personal values as they relate to work with students and colleagues and tolerate ambiguity in resolving ethical conflicts.
• Apply knowledge of relational dynamics, including power differentials in relationships with students, colleagues, and administrators and conscientiously manage general and discipline specific ethical dilemmas and behaviors.
• Use rights-based, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive lenses to understand and critique the profession’s history, mission, roles, and responsibilities and recognize historical and current contexts of oppression in shaping institutions and social work.

Social work educators are knowledgeable about the principles of logic, scientific inquiry, and reasoned discernment. They use critical thinking augmented by creativity and curiosity. Critical thinking also requires the synthesis and communication of relevant information.  Doctoral level thinking about social work education includes awareness and skill in navigating the complexities of various ontological, epistemological, and methodological approaches to teaching and scholarship. 

Students in this DSW Program will:

• Apply the principles of logic and scientific inquiry in the role as social work educators and navigate the complexities of various ontological, epistemological, and methodological approaches to teaching and scholarship.
• Demonstrate critical thinking skills in written and oral communication, synthesizing knowledge in research, pedagogy, and in building evidence for scholarship.

Social work educators understand how racism and oppression shape human experiences and how these two constructs influence practice at the individual, family, group, organizational, and community levels and in policy and research. Social work educators understand the pervasive impact of White supremacy and privilege and use their knowledge, awareness, and skills to engage in anti-racist practice. Social work educators understand how diversity and intersectionality shape human experiences and identity development and affect equity and inclusion. The dimensions of diversity are understood as the intersectionality of factors including but not limited to age, caste, class, color, culture, disability and ability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, generational status, immigration status, legal status, marital status, political ideology, race, nationality, religion and spirituality, sex, sexual orientation, and tribal sovereign status. Social work educators understand that this intersectionality means that a person’s life experiences may include oppression, poverty, marginalization, and alienation as well as privilege and power. Social work educators understand the societal and historical roots of social and racial injustices and the forms and mechanisms of oppression and discrimination. Social work educators understand cultural humility and recognize the extent to which a culture’s structures and values, including social, economic, political, racial, technological, and cultural exclusions, may create privilege and power resulting in systemic oppression.

Students in this DSW Program will:

• Demonstrate anti-racist and anti-oppressive social work pedagogy across the social work curriculum, highlighting strengths across cultures in work with diverse student populations, fostering inclusive learning environments with students and colleagues, and addressing student needs based on their unique backgrounds.
• Demonstrate cultural humility by applying critical reflection, self-awareness, and self-regulation to manage the influence of bias, power, privilege, and values in working with students and colleagues.
• Demonstrate a shared learning process by critically engaging with students to acknowledge differences in experience, power, and privilege.

Social work educators understand that every person regardless of position in society has fundamental human rights. Social work educators are knowledgeable about the global intersecting and ongoing injustices throughout history that result in oppression and racism, including social work’s role and response. Social work educators critically evaluate the distribution of power and privilege in society in order to promote social, racial, economic, and environmental justice by reducing inequities and ensuring dignity and respect for all. Social work educators advocate for and engage in strategies to eliminate oppressive structural barriers to ensure that social resources, rights, and responsibilities are distributed equitably and that civil, political, economic, social, and cultural human rights are protected.

Students in this DSW Program will:

• Demonstrate this practice competency in how they teach and engage in their courses, as well as in the content they identify in courses they teach across the social work curriculum to promote social, racial, economic, and environmental justice.
• Advocate for policy change that improves the lives of students and colleagues at multiple levels and advocate for human rights at the individual, family, group, organizational, and community system levels.

Social work scholar practitioners refine and advance the quality of social work practice and social work education. They synthesize and apply a broad range of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary knowledge and skills and use ethically, culturally informed, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive approaches in conducting research and building knowledge. Identity as a scholar practitioner is critical to the role that social work educators play in the academy and includes proficiency in multiple approaches to research and scholarship that enhance the credibility of the social work profession. Social work educators understand the inherent bias in research and evaluate design, analysis, and interpretation of data using an anti-racist and anti-oppressive perspective.

Students in this DSW Program will:

• Identify ethical, culturally informed, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive strategies that address inherent biases in quantitative and qualitative research methods to advance the purposes of social work.
• Use teaching and practice experiences to inform scholarly work and apply research findings in the role as social work educator.
• Evaluate different research methods and findings, assess the strengths and limitations of different research methodologies, and generate new knowledge through the research process disseminating scholarly works through peer-reviewed means.

Social work educators are informed, resourceful and proactive in responding to evolving educational, organizational, community and societal contexts. Social work educators recognize that the context of education is dynamic and use knowledge and skill to respond proactively. Social work educators must engage beyond their immediate context, program, and school and integrate with university and higher education systems in order to advance social work practice and education within the academy.

Students in this DSW Program will:

• Assess the impact of professional and university-wide accreditation on social work programming and issues of academic freedom in the roles as an advocate and social work educator.
• Critically analyze the context of higher education in the U.S. and internationally and how governmental policies impact access to education and its delivery.
• Appraise the impact of national regulatory factors, the impact of the international context, and political factors on social work education.

Social work practice includes assessment, engagement through thoughtful participation, informed action, and ongoing evaluation. Leadership in social work and social work education emanates from this core to promote the values of the profession and to motivate movement through vision, collaboration, and risk-taking. The leader takes charge in crises to achieve resolution, while balancing individual and collective needs with professional ethics and the common good.

Students in this DSW Program will:

• Embody flexibility and initiatives in leadership roles in social work education and work effectively with others in the classroom, university, and the profession, respectfully addressing issues arising within the university and the broader community.
• Assume responsibility for maintaining the integrity of the social work profession and advancing social work education.