Journal of Social Work Education 

Abstract: Preamble Social work practice promotes human well-being by strengthening opportunities, resources, and capacities of people in their environments and by creating policies and services to correct conditions that limit human rights and the quality of life. The social work profession works to eliminate poverty, discrimination, and oppression. Guided by a person-in-environment perspective and respect for human diversity, the profession works to effect social and economic justice worldwide. Social work education combines scientific inquiry with the teaching of professional skills to provide effective and ethical social work services. Social work educators reflect their identification with the profession through their teaching, scholarship, and service. Social work education, from baccalaureate to doctoral levels, employs educational, practice, scholarly, interprofessional, and service delivery models to orient and shape the profession's future in the context of expanding knowledge, changing technologies, and complex human and social concerns. The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) promotes academic excellence in baccalaureate and master's social work education. The EPAS specifies the curricular content and educational context to prepare students for professional social work practice. The EPAS sets forth basic requirements for these purposes. Beyond these basic requirements of EPAS, individual programs focus on areas relevant to their institutional and program mission, goals, and objectives. The EPAS permits programs to use time-tested and new models of program design, implementation , and evaluation. It does so by balancing requirements that promote comparability across programs with a level of flexibility that encourages programs to respond to changing human, professional , and institutional needs. The EPAS focuses on assessing the results of a program's development and its continuous improvement. While accreditation is ultimately evaluative, in social work education it is based on a consultative and collaborative process that determines whether a program meets the requirements of the EPAS.

Abstract: Cultural competence is a fundamental tenet of social work education. Although cultural competence with diverse populations historically referred to individuals and groups from non-White racial origins, the term has evolved to encompass differences pertaining to sexuality, religion, ability, and others. Critics charge that the cultural competence model is largely ineffective and that its tendency to equalize oppressions under a "multicultural umbrella" unintentionally promotes a color-blind mentality that eclipses the significance of institutionalized racism. In this article we argue that critical race theory (CRT) can be used to address some of these noted problems with the cultural competence model. We define the major tenets of CRT and analyze its benefits and limitations for social work pedagogy around race, racism, and other oppressions.

Abstract: Based on data from a survey of 121 baccalaureate and master of social work students at a western university, this study explores students' perspectives of "safe" and "unsafe" classroom environments. The majority reported that being in a safe classroom changed both what and how much they learned. Students offered a wide range of instructor, fellow student, personal, and classroom characteristics that contribute to the creation of safe and unsafe spaces. Responses about such characteristics were relatively consistent across genders, race (measured as being White or of color), and program level. Implications for social work education and research are offered.

Abstract: This article examines six criteria for conducting qualitative research and evaluating qualitative research reports in social work: (1) identification of the chosen philosophy/epistemology, (2) identification of audience and objectives, (3) specification of the study method, (4) identification of biases, (5) maintenance of social work ethics, and (6) assurance of consistency between conclusions and study philosophy, objectives, and presented data. Throughout, the author emphasizes the need to examine potentially disconfirming data in all qualitative research. These criteria are intended to guide qualitative researchers, inform the teaching of qualitative research methods, and aid review of qualitative research reports.