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Defining social workers for the purposes of research is not as straightforward as it sounds. To date, researchers who have examined social workers as a group have used a variety of sampling methods. Multiple methods speak to the variety of options for defining social workers. Understanding membership within the profession is a precondition to understanding research about the behavior of those within the profession. This research note explores these sampling methods in detail. Each has its advantages, but none are without their own disadvantages, some of which bias their view of the profession. As researchers who have considered the political behavior of social workers, we consider six methods for sampling social workers that have been used to understand their behavior in this specific domain. Importantly, the sampling methods examined here can be applied to research about social workers outside of politics. These include sampling (1) members of professional organizations, (2) licensed social workers, (3) social work students, (4) graduates of social work programs, (5) social work faculty, and (6) members of social work-related occupations. After reviewing the advantages and disadvantages of each, we provide scholars a table for reference. The authors recommend that the Council on Social Work Education, National Association of Social Workers, and several other professional associations pull together members to explore a unified definition of social work through integrated practice and refrain from focusing on what makes us different.

Despite the detrimental effects of incivility in the workplace, relatively little research examines peer-level incivility in social work education. Incivility literature from multiple countries has...

This article examines political empowerment related to voting. The profession of social work requires practitioners to consider the social political roots of problems and to work to remediate them through micro and macro interventions, informed by political empowerment. Political empowerment involves having the power, ability, critical awareness, and sense of group identity to take action in order to create change in a political system. Findings from a qualitative study are presented to explore how recipients of food assistance benefits, enrolled in community college make decisions about voting. Data collected provides rich and contextual insight into how the decision to vote or not vote corresponds with an academic understanding of political empowerment and suggests that choosing not to vote may represent a type of political empowerment. Social work interventions related to voting for this population could include reducing stigma around government assistance, voter engagement, and work with systems to recognize the political power of those who are often left out of the process.

Political social workers and other policy practitioners frequently lack explicit guidance from the NASW Code of Ethics as to how to navigate difficult ethical choices. This secondary analysis of qualitative data explores ways in which social work students encounter ethical challenges when practicing in a political setting. Secondary analysis was conducted with data from interviews with social work students. Interviews took place after students concluded an immersive field placement in a Southern part-time state legislature. Transcripts were coded deductively, with the NASW (2017) Code of Ethics’ six core values as an agreed-upon coding schema, using latent thematic analysis. Data also were examined to identify teleological or deontological approaches to ethical decision-making. Themes emerged relating to each of the profession’s core values. These include four themes related to social justice and to competence, three themes related to the importance of human relationships and to integrity, and one theme each related to service and to dignity and worth of the person. Both the absolutist deontological and the morally relativistic teleological approaches were evident in transcripts, with students tending to prefer one. Social work education must better prepare students and practitioners for the ethical challenges of practice in political and policy-making spaces. Challenges that emerge in practice of a political nature should be considered during the next Code of Ethics revisions.

Healthcare delivery systems frequently require interprofessional collaboration between members of several health and social care professions. In the United States, two of the largest are nursing and social work. How these two professions address incivility between faculty members is not well understood. This paper describes the results of an examination of Faculty-to-Faculty Incivility (FFI) by both social work and nursing educators. National surveys of U.S. social work faculty (n = 216) and nursing faculty (n = 588) indicate common concerns between the two groups. Nursing and social work educators experience similar rates of behaviors that may be considered FFI, but social workers are more likely to identify these behaviors as uncivil. Data suggest that there are differences between nursing and social work faculty in their beliefs about the causes of FFI, and also in their reported barriers to addressing FFI in the workplace. The discussion highlights concerns that are common between the groups, contextual aspects that differ between the two professions, and ways in which interprofessional collaboration between nurses and social workers in academia and healthcare can help to address this problem among both groups.

This policy analysis examines key aspects of two policies fundamental to work with terminal cancer patients: the Medicare Hospice Benefit and Medicare policy in palliative care. End-of-life care, affected by these policies, should address physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering for all vulnerable groups. Using Gilbert and Terrell’s framework, social allocations, social provisions, service delivery, and financing are examined to better understand each policy’s effects on equality, equity, and adequacy for terminally ill cancer patients. In practice, each has substantially socially unjust effects for cancer patients. Disproportionate advantages result for those who are white, have family caregiving support systems, those with higher socioeconomic status, and individuals with stable insurance coverage. The Medicare Hospice Benefit and Medicare coverage for palliative care need to be better understood by policy practitioners and all practitioners in health care settings. Advocacy can contribute to improved equity in end-of-life cancer care.

Social workers are challenged by the profession’s Code of Ethics to engage in social and political action to create social change, and social work education is challenged by our Code and accreditat...

Social workers have an ethical responsibility to be engaged in policy change, regardless of their practice area or specialization. Voter engagement and the importance of political power through voting is often overlooked in the literature as a valid and important component of social work practice. Creating a culture of nonpartisan voter engagement in practice settings can help empower individuals who have been historically and intentionally disenfranchised from our electoral system. Training for field instructors, faculty, and field staff is a key aspect of voter engagement in social work education. Unfortunately, social work education is unlikely to include substantive content on voter engagement or its connection to social work practice and impact. This article presents one component of a model for integrating voter engagement into social work education: the provision of training for field instructors on nonpartisan voter engagement at two universities over two years. Evaluation findings suggest that pre-existing levels of political efficacy affect the reaction of field instructors to nonpartisan voter engagement training. Furthermore, findings indicate that field instructors who receive voter engagement training are more likely to serve as resources for their students and to consider voter engagement as part of their own practice. We offer evidence on the important role field educators can play in the success of the larger national effort to integrate voter engagement in social work education. Increasing awareness of what social workers, nonprofit, and public agencies are allowed--or even required--to do is a critical first step.

Political participation to create social change is considered a professional and ethical imperative for social workers. Although researchers have examined overall political participation by social workers, little is known about how clinical social workers participate and the broader societal factors that influence their political participation. A critical phenomenological methodology was used with a sample of 23 clinical social workers from New England states to (1) identify how socio-political forces influenced their political activity; and, (2) understand how the concept of power affected individuals’ level of engagement or inclination toward the political process. This article describes one of the study’s major findings. Female participants described themselves as unqualified and/or unknowledgeable in the political sphere, with low levels of ambition and confidence to engage in political processes. Many female participants also described the challenges of achieving a work-life balance between their careers and traditional gender-based roles with little time left for political engagement. Social work education and policy advocacy can affect change that will increase the internal and external efficacy of social workers and create a policy environment that allows more options for all social workers in balancing the demands of professional and personal lives.

This study explores faculty-to-faculty incivility in schools of social work, which has implications for the implicit curriculum and modeling professional values. A total of 243 social work faculty ...

Voting provides an opportunity for citizens of a democracy to exercise their power to effect social change, but for a variety of reasons the populations typically served by social work do not vote at the same rates as more privileged groups. The strategy described here, the Power of Three, is an ethical, effective, and sustainable method for engaging undergraduate students early in their BSW careers in voter outreach. The case study described assigned BSW students the task of engaging members of the community in voting and registering a minimum of three people to vote. Findings indicate that this strategy was effective in increasing students' involvement in various voter engagement activities and increasing students' understanding of the importance of voting to social work practice.

Training social workers for leadership roles in electoral campaigns and political offices increases the profession’s effectiveness in promoting public policy that reflects our professional values and commitment to social justice. This research describes and evaluates an educational experience in the US that prepares social work practitioners and students to run for elected office; to work in leadership positions at the local, state, and federal levels; and serve as effective advocates for social change. Participants’ plans for future political engagement before and after the training were compared. Following the training, participants are more likely to plan to be politically active in general. Their intentions to work on campaigns, run for office, and engage with elected officials increased. These results can inform education in other social work settings.

Social work plays a key role in engaging with clients and communities directly affected by housing insecurity and homelessness, and advocating for the right to safe and affordable housing. This art...

Because social workers are called to challenge social injustices and create systemic change to support the well-being of individuals and communities, it is essential that social workers develop political efficacy: belief that the political system can work and they can influence the system. This study explored the impact of an intensive political social work curriculum on political efficacy and planned political engagement among social work students and practitioners. The findings suggest this model of delivering a political social work curriculum effectively increases internal, external, and overall political efficacy, and that increasing political efficacy has promise for increasing future political engagement.

University–community partnerships provide key opportunities for schools of social work to establish mutually beneficial collaborations with the communities that host them. This article explores how a student-led philanthropic initiative can expand and strengthen these partnerships. A new student philanthropy model at an undergraduate social work program that has been implemented over the past 4 years is described. Community agencies were surveyed to evaluate this program's impression on the community. Results point to the program's potential for supporting and strengthening university–community partnerships.

The lack of macro content in social work curricula, particularly for undergraduate students, prepares them poorly for future leadership roles in human service organizations and contributes to the dearth of social workers serving as executives in human service organizations. The innovative experiential philanthropy model described here gives undergraduate social work students the opportunity to engage in macro practice through philanthropy. The model has resulted in students disbursing $60,000 to address urgent social problems in their community. Skills developed by these students in philanthropy, budgeting, and resource management will inform their future social work practice as leaders within human service organizations.

Political social work is most effective when it has a clear vision, set of goals, and strategy. Strategic planning must be a thoughtful process that takes into account an assessment of the context in which you are working. This chapter introduces and explains five steps of political strategy development, including: 1. Determining the specific purpose of the political change effort; that is, what specifically you are trying to change 2. Assessing the internal (organizational) and external (environmental) context 3. Identifying the change effort’s goals 4. Selecting the specific targets of the political change effort 5. Selection of tactics that are likely to influence the target or targets.

Political social workers practice in many contexts. They use their social work skills, values, and knowledge of the political context to navigate power dynamics. This process allows them to influence policy and the political process on behalf of clients, communities, organizations, and the social work profession. This chapter provides an in-depth discussion of professional political social work roles to guide readers in thinking about contexts in which you might incorporate political social work into your social work practice. These contexts include practice at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels. While there are many ways to engage in political social work practice, this chapter highlights practice in the five different domains introduced in Chap. 1: (1) expanding the political power of underrepresented clients and constituencies; (2) influencing the policy agendas and decision-making of candidates and policymakers; (3) holding professional and political staff appointments; (4) engaging with campaigns on behalf of, or in opposition to, candidates, ballot initiatives or referenda; and (5) seeking and holding elected office. Throughout this chapter, you will engage in interactive, reflective activities about the various political contexts within which you may practice.

Political social work generally takes place in electoral campaigns, public agencies, or nonprofit agencies. How we manage and spend money in each of these contexts should be aligned with our strategic planning and is a critical consideration in furthering our policy goals. This chapter builds from Chap. 11’s discussion of raising revenues, focusing instead on managing these revenues once they have been received. As with the prior chapter, we provide an overview of the rules at the time of this writing and resources to help you research budgeting rules in your own political context. However, when dealing with political finances, we encourage you to always consult experts who can help you make sure that you fully understand and follow all relevant financial laws.

In this chapter, we build from the five-stage process for developing political strategy introduced in Chap. 5, and adapt it to take you through the process of planning an electoral campaign. Electoral campaigns are those that focus on convincing voters to cast their ballot for or against a particular candidate or issue. They “represent the core of representative democracy” (Rackaway, 21st century political science: A reference handbook. Sage, 2011). In fact, “the quality of a democratic society can be easily linked to the quality of its election campaigns” (para 1).

Is victory at the polls or successful passage of a law the only way to evaluate a campaign? This chapter considers other ways that a political strategy may be viewed be successful, such as building candidate name recognition, facilitating the election of other candidates on a ticket, gaining credibility, and developing relationships. This chapter builds evaluation skills for advocacy and electoral campaigns through selecting appropriate metrics and methods to evaluate political social work efforts. Evaluation plans should be developed alongside your other strategic planning efforts, with benchmarks in pace before your efforts start. This helps to ensure that your evaluation efforts can inform and increase the effectiveness of your work while also ensuring that you collect the relevant data to assess the outcomes of your effort. We emphasize the ways in which evaluation can be used throughout a campaign, through both formative and summative evaluation, to assess progress and refine your strategy for success. Finally, the need for attention to monitoring implementation after a political success is discussed.

Being able to communicate your message is key in political social work. Here we focus on best practices of persuasive political communication, including tailoring messages and communications to your audience. This chapter includes overall communication skills, such as framing, strategic use of language, and importance of being clear about your “ask”—what you want your target to do, support, or learn. Traditional media topics include definitions and benefits of various types of media, news hooks, selecting faces and visuals for a campaign, creating soundbites, and key terms such as on the record, off the record, and on background. Social media topics include the variety of available social media platforms and audiences, benefits, drawbacks, and communication strategies for each, as well as ways to keep abreast of emerging social media platforms and abilities. Interpersonal communication topics include public speaking, effective writing, and legislative testimony. Readers will develop a message, create media messaging, and practice “staying on message” as a candidate.

In the first part of this book, you were exposed to an array of domains in which political social work can be practiced and reflected on your own ideology, political knowledge, skills, efficacy, privilege, and use of power. You learned how to apply theories, assessment skills, and models in political contexts. In the second and third parts of this book, you used these knowledge and skills to design and implement effective strategies for electoral and advocacy campaigns. In the final part of this book, you have reflected on how to monitor and evaluate success within a political context and have considered how social work ethics and values apply to political practice. In this chapter, we encourage you to reflect upon all that you have learned and consider how you will integrate these skills into your own social work practice. Whether you are a student, a practitioner, or a faculty member, we hope you will find suggestions in this chapter for ways to increase your political activity. In Chap. 1 we told you to “consider yourself asked” to get involved. In this chapter, we ask you to bring all that you have learned together to develop your own specific plan for political involvement.

How can political social workers constructively engage with power and conflict in order to promote social change? Although a commonly used word, power has a variety of uses, definitions, and connotations that are explored in this chapter. Is power something held by individuals or given through a web of structures and institutions? Is power negative or positive? Is there a finite (“zero-sum”) amount of power so that in order for one person or group to gain power, another must give up or have power taken away—resulting in conflict and power struggles? Or is power something that can be shared, grown, and created? Specific tools that political social workers can use to assess power dynamics in political contexts are presented.

National Association of Social Workers (Code of ethics of the National Association of Social Workers, 2008) Code of Ethics is central to political social work not just in terms of providing an imperative to engage in political social work, but also in terms of guiding practice. Many consider politics a “dirty business,” so we outline specific principles in the Code of Ethics that inform social workers’ decisions and actions in political social work. We discuss common ethical challenges that arise in political social work. For example, we discuss the appropriate use of opposition research of a personal nature, in view of the ethical mandate for respect of inherent dignity and worth of others. We then discuss three ethical decision-making frameworks and examine their applications to political social work practice. The chapter concludes with specific ethical dilemmas to foster discussion and reflection on ethical challenges that political social workers may face.

Political social work is a social work practice that explicitly attends to power dynamics in policy-making and to political mechanisms for eliciting social change. Political social work includes expanding political participation, influencing policy agendas, working on campaigns or in electoral offices, and holding elected office. It is a form of practice, as well as related research and theory, through which social workers fulfill their ethical responsibility to engage in social and political action for social justice and human rights.

The ability to understand, acquire, and manage financial resources is essential for electoral campaigns, advocacy efforts in nonprofit organizations, and political social work in the offices of elected officials or public agencies. This chapter and Chap. 12 serve as a pair to provide you the necessary information to begin raising and managing financial resources in political settings. Effective political strategies require political social workers to think carefully and strategically about money. As Mutch (2016) describes in regard to electoral campaigns: Money is necessary because campaigns are expensive, but money alone rarely wins elections. Think of running for elective office as like playing blackjack in Las Vegas. Having a lot of money is no guarantee that you will win, but without money you cannot even get into the game” (p. 5).

Electoral and advocacy campaigns, as well as voter engagement, depend on human capital, access to individuals who are willing to work or volunteer their time in order to support the political effort. This chapter breaks down various categories of staff and volunteer positions in political settings. The typical duties and time commitment of each are discussed, including tasks accomplished by electoral campaign workers, interns, nonprofit board members, and more. Strategies and processes for interviewing potential volunteers and staff members, assigning tasks, managing, and helping volunteers and staff advance in their careers are discussed in the pages that follow.

Community members engage in advocacy and electoral efforts in a number of ways. This chapter focuses on ways in which individuals and communities express their power through voting, and ways that social workers can use voter engagement, including voter registration, education, and mobilization, as a tool in our work. This chapter looks at the values and meanings assigned to the act of voting, the history of voting and the right to vote in the USA, and current knowledge about voter participation and key issues. We acknowledge at the outset that laws and policies that relate to voting are constantly changing, and vary significant from state to state. It is generally a good idea to check with the local election authority in your area to confirm the current laws before moving forward on projects related to voting.

This chapter builds from the five-stage process for developing political strategy introduced in Chap. 5, and adapts it specifically to the process of planning an advocacy campaign. An advocacy campaign is a political change effort focused on bringing about a specific policy change or changes. This process is most relevant to domains 1 and 2, specifically to strategies involving advocating for expanded political power, and for influencing policy agendas and policy decision-making.

Fifty years after the Equal Pay Act of 1963, research continues to find disparities between the salaries of men and women across disciplines. This study examines empirical evidence about salary and gender within the social work profession from the 1960s to present day. All available articles with empirical data regarding salary and gender during the time period were included in this systematic review. Salary disparities were found between men and women in the vast majority of studies. The authors classify contributing factors into three categories (a) characteristics of the employing organizations, (b) characteristics of the position held, and (c) characteristics of the individual, and include a discussion of factors relevant to social workers in academic positions. The researchers recommend legislative policy changes, best practices in organizational policy, and proactive education within social work programs. Social workers have the opportunity to effect change in this area by promoting social justice within our society, practice, and educational institutions.

Practice incorporating policy and political social work is a key component of the social work profession and an area in which students would benefit from exposure during social work education. Field education presents a significant opportunity for students to develop policy and political practice skills; however, individual and structural barriers may prevent students from developing practice experience in this area. Based on a survey of bachelor of social work and master of social work field directors in the United States, this field note examines the current state of policy and political practice field opportunities and examines barriers to offering such opportunities more widely. Ideas to facilitate these field opportunities, including curriculum-wide education about policy practice, relationship building, creativity, and identifying diverse placement sites, are presented.

This research compared male and female elected social workers to discover whether they report the same gender differences as other elected officials. Few gender differences were found among respondents. Differing from elected officials as a whole, female and male social workers reported similar levels of recruitment, favorable views of power and the demands of office and family, and interest in and knowledge about a variety of issues, with the exception of the issue of abortion. The potential contribution of anticipatory socialization and implications for social work education, political recruitment, and reproductive rights work are discussed.

In social work, it is believed that certain knowledge and skills are learned more effectively through experience than through didactic classroom content. Members of the faculty of a school of social work have developed a Social Action Day to reinforce curriculum and translate into practice material about advocacy and ethical responsibilities for social action; show the breadth of social work practice; and enhance the school's sense of community. The authors share their experience to inspire other social work faculty, so that they are better able to foster student interest and passion for political action that may generate social change.

The political events of the last decade and the Arab Spring have made it more important than ever for Americans to understand the language, culture, and history of the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region. Study abroad is one important method that can significantly increase American students’ understanding of the Arabic language and the culture of MENA. During the past decade, the number of U.S. undergraduate students in the MENA region has increased dramatically, but there is still a great need for growth and understanding in this area. This research analyzes data from a cross-sectional survey and focus groups of U.S. undergraduate study abroad students to investigate the motivations, attitudes, and aspects of human capital that influence study abroad destination choice. These findings provide insight for policy makers, faculty, and international educators who want to expand students’ options for study abroad and for students who are considering whether this avenue is right for them.

As a profession, social work has encouraged its members to run for public office to translate the values and ethics of social work into public policy. This study of 416 elected social workers around the country provides insight into the experiences of these elected social workers in their social work education. The classes, skills, activities, field content, and information that can prepare social workers for practice in the political arena are described. Based on these findings, suggestions for political content in social work education that can prepare social workers for this arena of practice and future research in this area are discussed.

Historically, social workers have used voter registration to politically empower their clients. This paper describes the agencybased voter registration project of the University of Connecticut School of Social Work, Nancy A. Humphreys Institute for Political Social Work, including the project's implementation, and evaluation. Voter registration principles emerge from analyses of successful agency-based voter registration programs. doi:10.1300/J508v06n04_06 [Attide copies available for a fee from The Haworth Documetit Delivery Service: 1-800HAWORTH. E-mail address: Website: © 2007by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights

Political social work navigates power in policymaking and politics to elicit social change. It is grounded in core social work values and ethics, including the professional responsibility to challenge systemic discrimination and institutional inequalities through political action. Political social workers address systemic barriers to social, political, economic, and racial justice, and engage in political action to promote individual and communal well-being through policy processes and outcomes. This article discusses the five domains of political social work: engaging individuals and communities in political processes; influencing policy agendas and decision-making; holding professional and political staff positions; engaging with electoral campaigns; and seeking and holding elected office. It also examines social workers’ political activity in the United States and globally, the role of social work education, and challenges for political social work, including the profession’s legacy of supporting injustices and tensions around the role of political social work, and identifies opportunities to address these barriers.