Teaching Note—Diversity and Difference Through a Rural Lens

Rural Challenges in Social Work Regulation

“…First, studies have found proportionately fewer individuals with social work degrees living in rural areas (Strolin-Goltzman et al, 2007), and this demographic situation also applies to graduate-level educated social workers (Aguiniga et al, 2013). Second, social work curricula typically do not focus on practice in rural communities, on the broad range of tasks that rural social workers perform, or on the diversity and social justice aspects of rurality (Bice-Wilgington & Morgan, 2018; Phillips et al, 2010; Riebschleger et al, 2015). The CSWE Educational and Policy Accreditation Standards do not specify competencies unique to rural practice.…”

Doing place : a framework for interpreting young adults' commitments to Appalachian Kentucky.

“…In this regard, making meaning might be considered a critical tasks of social work, in that it holds the potential to expand human relations, compassion, and the creative exchange of ideas toward sustainable justice and equity (Hawkins, 2014, p. 90). For example, understanding diversity within and among places may facilitate deeper knowledge of disparities tied to geographic location and local culture, such as in health outcomes (Akesson et al, 2017;Bice-Wigington & Morgan, 2018). But while place has been demonstrated here to be an important mediator in meaning making, it is an often neglected aspect of diversity and intersectionality, and has rarely been considered in teaching social work's seminal person-in-environment perspective (Akesson et al, 2017;Bice-Wigington & Morgan, 2018;Kirst-Ashman & Hull, 2015).…”