From Education to Action: The Immediate and Long-Term Results of Intergroup Dialogue on BSW Students' Social Justice Activity

Abstract

This article examines the effect of intergroup dialogue (IGD) on BSW students’ levels of social justice activity a year after completing the course. Twenty- seven undergraduate social work students on two campuses of a sectarian college completed surveys that ranked their levels of activity along the McClintock Action Continuum immediately after and a year after participating in an IGD program. Students self- reported a significant increase in social justice actions a year after IGD participation. Implications for research and social work education are discussed.

Preparing Social Workers to Confront Social Injustice and Oppression: Evaluating the Role of Social Work Education

“…These desires may reflect the needs of a generation of students who have matriculated into social work programs in an era marked by an increased recognition of systemic inequities, including health disparities, mortality rates, and class inequity (Bilal & Diez-Roux, 2018;Putnam, 2015). Most recently, scholars have recommended providing students additional training on racial microaggressions in social work practice (Otuyelu, Graham, & Kennedy, 2016) and using intergroup dialogue as a method to increase students' advocacy related to social justice (Lopez-Humphreys & Dawson, 2014). Future research may need to explore methods to increase social justice advocacy in a larger sample, and in schools of social work in rural and urban educational settings, to better understand necessary curriculum changes that may better address these needs.…”

Making science communication inclusive: an exploratory study of choices, challenges and change mechanisms in the United States from an emerging movement

“…The authors of this paper are especially interested in the use of critical dialogue as a way to foster social justice [Zúñiga, Lopez & Ford, 2012]. Also described in literature as intergroup dialogue, critical conversations, or dialogue across difference, the concept has been studied in formal education settings related to, for example, gender studies [Zúñiga et al, 2012], disability studies [Woiak & Lang, 2014], queer theory [Gunckel, 2009], writing [Knaus, 2009], social work [Lopez-Humphreys & Dawson, 2014], diversity studies [Gurin-Sands, Gurin, Nagda & Osuna, 2012], and sociology [Valiente-Neighbours, 2015], as well as in community contexts such as interfaith groups [Garfinkel, 2004] and leadership programs [Saloma & Price, 2019].…”