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Social work education's commitment to teaching inclusive social work practice must not only be evidenced in the explicit curriculum and teaching methods, it must also be present in the implicit curriculum including administrative policies, student support, and resources. Yet, accessibility and climate efforts often fall short of addressing disability and ableism as barriers to education, despite the clear call for disability to be included as part of the field of social work's commitment to social justice. A social work graduate program in the USA developed a mixed-methods disability needs assessment, completed by 586 respondents in 2016. The assessment highlighted the frequency with which students experience ableist microaggressions and lack of support they feel they have, as well as the need for a disability-focused community within the school. Results illuminated the need for education on the depth and breadth of disabilities, advocacy, principles of Universal Design for Learning, and ableist microaggressions. These findings can assist social work educators in developing tangible strategies for more inclusive social work education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a survey of 1,124 social workers in the United States, this article examines how practitioners' attitudes towards immigrants and their general knowledge of immigration varied according to the content of their social work education. Although the majority of practitioners reported receiving coursework on practice with immigrants, this showed no effect on their attitudes or knowledge. In contrast, coursework on immigration policy predicted more favorable attitudes towards immigrants. Considering the mounting anti-immigrant sentiment and retrenchment of immigrants' rights in the United States, the results suggest the need to further explore what course work content is needed to prepare social workers for the current needs of the field. We argue that social work education must expand upon existing cultural competence models of practice with immigrants, to better prepare social workers to address the deepening social exclusion of undocumented immigrants in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In response to an increasingly culturally and ethnically diverse population, accredited social work programs in the United States have been mandated to provide students with course content regarding cultural diversity as it pertains to race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, ability, and sexual orientation. Typically, social work educators transmit this content to students by way of regular didactic teaching. While useful for imparting factual and descriptive content about diversity, this method of teaching is generally inadequate in stimulating students' cultural awareness and sensitivity, which research indicates are critical to the development of cultural competence. More useful in stimulating students' cultural awareness and sensitivity is a teaching method that incorporates experiential learning activities with an interactive group format. One such experiential learning activity is the cultural genogram, which challenges students to examine the development of their cultural values, after which they critically explore these values in a group setting with other students who have different experiences and perspectives. This article describes the cultural genogram, its use in an undergraduate introduction to social work class, and a retrospective study of its usefulness in stimulating the cultural awareness and sensitivity of social work students. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]