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The profession of social work faces a perfect storm of increasingly complex practice contexts, intensifying demands, and escalating burnout. This crisis requires immediate, critical, and substantive action by social work education. Social work programs function to prepare competent practitioners who can navigate these demands and complexities with efficacy, while sustaining themselves. For too long, practitioner well-being has been significantly neglected. This article promotes a basic tenet: Social work education has a pivotal responsibility and pragmatic role in providing serious, credible attention to the well-being of practitioners. Social work curricula must integrate teaching of self-care as a professional competency. This article provides philosophical rationale and practical strategies for doing so. Through comprehensive attention in implicit and explicit curricula, social work programs can prepare practitioners who can enact social work's long-standing mission of human rights, social justice, and human well-being. Everyone (e.g., faculty, field supervisors, administrators) has a role and responsibility. The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) has particular effect in setting standards for social work programs, and, by extension, the profession itself. Thus, the article concludes with a call for CSWE to include self-care in the accreditation standards core competencies required by all social work programs. The profession's future compels taking proactive, preventative action now. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being a social work faculty member in academe can be challenging. Evidence suggests that faculty members, in general, experience high levels of stress and occupational burnout. Furthermore, harassment, bullying, and mobbing are commonplace. These problematic circumstances may be compounded for females, junior faculty, and under-represented (e.g. peoples of color) faculty groups. Engaging in adroit self-care practices is one way to assuage these problematic employment circumstances. Yet, there is a dearth in the literature that examines self-care practices among social work educators. This exploratory study examined the self-care practices of social work faculty (N = 124) at Council on Social Work Education accredited institutions in one southeastern state in the United States. Overall, data suggest that social work faculty do engage in adequate self-care practices, when compared to studies of general social work practitioners. Data also suggest differences in self-care by academic rank and professional licensing. After a brief review of literature, this paper will explicate results and identify salient discussion points and implications for social work education. This is the first paper known to the authors to explore self-care among social work faculty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Writing is a skill that spans many competencies. The Council on Social Work's Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards promotes a holistic view of competence informed by knowledge, values, skills, and cognitive and affective processes. This teaching note contributes to the scholarship of teaching and learning by describing a professional writing course that uses a holistic pedagogical approach. We provide pragmatic strategies and assignments that can be readily adapted by other faculty and programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abraham Flexner contended that "something more than a degree or claim" is needed to make a profession. He further asserted that the definitions of a profession require recasting over time. This article critically considers recasting licensing as something more for social work. Analysis of past and present discourse on licensing in social work revealed three overarching themes: (a) advocacy and rationale for licensing, (b) scrutiny and critique of licensing, and (c) the disconnect and dissonance between professional licensing and social work education. Moving forward, we suggest recasting social work's professional paradigm in the common framework of competency, with licensing part of the continuum of professionalization. This recasting can promote critical congruence between social work education and ongoing professional competency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Licensing has been a dynamic tension for the social work profession for many years, specifically in social work education. Increasingly, social work programs are using factors related to social work licensing (pass rates, number of test takers, etc.) as an indicator of programmatic success. Yet few, if any, published papers examine curricular innovations designed to prepare students for social work licensing exams. This article describes the initiative that one MSW program implemented to address licensing preparedness. After a brief overview of social work licensing, this article describes the contextual rationale, implementation, and evaluation of the Licensing Preparation Initiative (LPI). Since its inception in spring 2011, LPI data suggest that students are more knowledgeable about the process for applying to sit for the exam and the content areas of the exam, more prepared to take the social work licensing exam, and more confident in their ability to pass the social work licensing exam once they graduate. This article concludes with specific strategies and resources for designing a curricular initiative to address licensing preparedness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to increasing global changes, this article proposes that social work education add meta-practice to traditional micro-, mezzo-, and macro-practice curriculum areas. Drawing on pertinent literature, the authors conceptualize meta-practice as a necessary paradigm shift for competent and relevant social work practice. Further, the authors offer an initial articulation of how meta-practice uniquely addresses interdependent global concerns, particularly in the framework of sustainability. The article provides an example of how this integrative practice dimension is implemented in a MSW curriculum and concludes with critical consideration of the Council on Social Work Education Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards competencies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article describes one MW program's innovative and informed response to the pervasive problem of inadequate professional writing skills. We articulate the rationale, implementation, and assessment of our systemic response, which includes (a) requiring a professional writing course, (b) implementing curricular infusion of a standard writing rubric, (c) using sequential papers and peer reviews, (d) incorporating writing assessment into admissions decisions and culminating projects, (e) collaborating with the university writing center, (f) offering a writing coach, and (g) mentoring students for professional scholarship. This curricular case example provides specific and comprehensive strategies for other programs to address this ubiquitous educational concern, demonstrates adherence to CSWE's (2008) Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards in multiple dimensions, and contributes to literature on curriculum development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective social work education that promotes social justice requires expanded curricular models and creative pedagogical approaches. This article presents a curricular case study demonstrating the use of current events to enhance both implicit and explicit curricula. How the cultural crisis of Hurricane Katrina was used to engender transformative learning for both students and teachers is described. Practical tools and resources that can be adapted by educators to incorporate other current events into their teaching-learning are provided. A critique of the process and suggestions for future implementation are discussed. Student perspectives illustrate the effectiveness of this pedagogical approach to provide transformative learning that promotes social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five themes of subtle and systemic sexism emerged in a content analysis of the Journal of Social Work Education, 1998-1999: discrepancies in pronoun usage, sexist language, inconsistent attention to gender as a variable or construct, and inattention to gender as a framework in understanding topics. The analysis also discovered a preponderance of nongender language, which raises questions about the implicit messages of gender-blind language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly, social workers recognize the importance of self-care to practice. However, research examining self-care among social workers is nominal. Of particular paucity are works that explore self-care in international contexts. This exploratory study examined self-care among social workers (N = 200) in Slovakia. Findings indicate that participants engaged in moderate levels of self-care. Moreover, data indicated significant differences in self-care by health status, and number of weekly hours worked was a significant predictor of self-care. After a review of literature, this article explicates findings, identifies discussion points, and concludes by identifying implications for social work education, research, and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social work practice is regulated in all the 50 USA, 10 Canadian Provinces, Great Britain, and Australia, to name a few. Though practitioners, educators, and researchers are increasingly attentive to regulatory dynamics, there remains a dearth in the literature related to social work licensing, specifically within the context of social work education. This exploratory study examined the US graduate social work students’ (N = 223) general knowledge and perceptions about social work licensing. Data suggest that though students value and have a desire to be licensed, some ambiguity and ambivalence persist around the topic. This paper explicates key findings and discusses implications derived from this study. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article describes how to develop a comprehensive teaching philosophy from articulation through implementation to evaluation. Using literature and teaching-learning experiences, we discuss pragmatic steps for using a teaching philosophy to inform, engage, and evaluate teaching-learning. We promote an integrated teaching philosophy to ensure competent practice in social work education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]