Evaluating Experiential Teaching Methods in a Policy Practice Course

Predictors of Feminist Activism among Social Work Students in the United States

“…With injustice frames being essential to protest activities, clearly social work programs should try to motivate activism by revealing the discriminatory and exploitative nature of many United States institutions (systematic sexism, racism, classism, heteronormativity, ageism, etc.). Moreover, there is some evidence that students are more politically active after they take a class on sexism (Abram et al, 2001;Black, 1994;Lincoln & Koeske, 1987;Vinton, 1992) or any form of oppression (Morrison Van Voorhis & Hoestetter, 2006;Rocha, 2000;Van Soest, 1996). Similarly, with activist identities being important in most cases, professors must reveal the connections between client well-being and injustices in families, agencies, and political arenas.…”

“…Greater educational attainment often leads to greater levels of feminist activism for all citizens (Henderson-King & Stewart, 1999), with the effects of education being the strongest when classes directly focus on gender inequities (Duncan, 1999;Nelson et al, 2008). Among social work students, some studies contend that exposure to feminist content in classrooms fosters a greater commitment to feminist activism (Abram, Schmitz, Taylor, Tebb, & Bartlett, 2001;Black, 1994;Lincoln & Koeske, 1987;Munson & Hipp, 1998;Vinton, 1992), while other studies suggest that participation and completion of certain academic courses inspires many sorts of political activism (Butler & Coleman, 1997;Fahs, 2012;Morrison Van Voorhis & Hoestetter, 2006;Rocha, 2000;Van Soest, 1996). However, a few studies cautioned that finishing a course on oppression did not lead to higher advocacy intentions (Van Soest, 1996;Weiss & Kaufman, 2006) even while it may serve a clear consciousness-raising role (Fahs, 2012).…”

“…Some studies have also found that men in social work were more likely to accept traditional gender roles (Black, 1994), less desiring of gender equality (Spivey, 2006), and more oblivious to male privilege than their female counterparts (Taylor, 1994). However, gender differences might be less pronounced among social workers because there may be a higher proportion of feminist-identified men in this profession (Han & Chun-Chung Chow, 2010;Ritter, 2008;Rocha, 2000;Vinton, 1992).…”

“…Equally important, students should be given an opportunity to have first-hand experiences in meeting governmental officials, attending political meetings, knocking on doors, chanting at protests, or doing some grassroots fundraising. In fact, some studies argue that political activism among students increases after colleges offer policy practice experiences outside of the classroom (Rocha, 2000). Finally, the profession as a whole can modify its curriculum.…”

“…The much-cited resource model of political science guides this study's theoretical conceptualizations (Brady, Verba, & Scholzman, 1995), as does the empirical literature on feminist activism among the general US populace (Ayres, Friedman, & Leaper, 2009;Henderson-King & Stewart, 1999;Liss, Crawford, & Popp, 2004). This work also taps the nascent literature on general activism among social work students (Davis, Cummings, & MacMaster, 2007;Han & Chun-Chung Chow, 2010;Rocha, 2000;Weiss & Kauffman, 2006) and employed social workers (Hamilton & Fauri, 2001;Ritter, 2008).…”