41P
Teaching about Racial Disparities in the Child Welfare System: Progressive Theoretical Approaches
There is widespread agreement that social work education must continue to confront and eliminate racial/ethnic disparities that exist in society. In child welfare research on disparities, race/ethnicity is often reduced to a simple demographic variable. While this may be an expected circumstance for purely quantitative analyses, it should not be the case for social work education. This presentation argues that social work educators need to draw from a more comprehensive and well-stocked wheelhouse to inform how we conceptualize, discuss, teach, and engage with students around this topic. This presentation will explore challenges and approaches that relate to a particularly salient question that may arise for child welfare educators, which asks, how can we teach in a way that moves beyond typical approaches that compare groups to make the underlying question “how do African Americans compare to Whites?”
Methods
This review utilized online journal databases available through the University of California, Berkeley libraries to examine the theory and conceptual frameworks employed in studies of racial disparities in child welfare. Specifically, Social Service Abstracts and Social Work Abstracts were searched, as they are core social work databases that provide search information for all CSA Illumina Social Science databases. Additional searches of the online databases J-Store, ERIC and Google Scholar were conducted. The University of California Melvyl book and article database was searched as well. Preliminary keywords used included “child welfare” or “foster care” and “disparit*” or “disproportionality.” Keywords utilized in subsequent searches included “child welfare, disproportionality and theor,*” “foster care, disproportionality and theor,*” “child welfare, disparit* and theor,*” “foster care, disparit* and theor,*” “child welfare, disparit* and conceptual framework” “child welfare, disproportionality and conceptual framework” “foster care, disparit* and conceptual framework,” “foster care, disproportionality and conceptual framework.”
Results
Results indicate that research on disparities in the child welfare system is generally characterized by lack of theoretical grounding. Conceptual gaps in the literature may pose barriers to progressive approach to social work education on disproportionality and disparities in child welfare. In response, this presentation discusses key concepts from Critical Race Theory (CRT), a relatively recently emerging theory with distinct potential as a lens through which the complex issues of racial disparities in child welfare can be viewed. Specifically, the following key concepts are highlighted along with practical examples in the child welfare context:
- Centering in the margins
- Critical consciousness
- Ordinariness
- Praxis
- Primacy
- Race consciousness
Implications
The concepts presented address a gap in the social work theory base and can be used to enrich instruction on the topics of racial disparities, race, racism, bias and similar constructs that typically present higher education programs with complex challenges. A pedagogical approach that incorporates key tenets of critical race theory may be instrumental to educators and researchers who intend to go beyond merely documenting and describing disparities. Exploring progressive approaches to teaching on such topics can contribute to advances in curriculum development and related research, and in turn enhance the quality of services provided to the most vulnerable children and families.