Addressing Our Own Biases: Social Work Educators' Experiences with Students with Mental Illnesses

Background and Purpose

The National Association of Social Workers’ Code of Ethics and the American Association of Social Work and Social Welfare’s Grand Challenges urge the profession to work toward justice for oppressed populations, including those with psychiatric disabilities.  Social work educators thus need to prepare students for anti-oppressive practice with people with mental illnesses, who experience microaggressions and other forms of discrimination—including by mental health service providers.  Further, some authors advocate for people with mental illnesses to become social workers because they may possess knowledge and insights that uniquely equip them to help others achieve recovery goals.  To prepare students to engage in anti-oppressive practice, educators can endorse cultural humility, which involves a commitment to critical self-reflection, challenging inequalities, and developing egalitarian partnerships with clients.

Because many social work students report having mental illnesses, the educational setting is ideal for modeling cultural humility toward people with mental illnesses.  Unfortunately, a dearth of information exists about educators’ treatment of students with mental illnesses.  This study helps to fill this gap by addressing two research questions:  (1) Do social work educators report classroom climates and personal reactions reflecting (unintentional) microaggressions toward students with mental illnesses?  (2) Do educators practice cultural humility in the classroom and during other interactions with these students?

Methods:

Qualitative data were collected via an online survey of U.S. social work educators, identified using a list of CSWE-accredited programs.  Approximately 20% of those contacted via email began the survey, with nearly 77% of survey initiators completing the questionnaire (N=294).  The majority of the sample was White (78%), female (77.3%), from public institutions (69.7%), and teaching mental health content (68.1%).  Respondents had been in faculty positions an average of 12.42 years (SD=9.11) and half identified as either personally having or having a family member with a mental illness.  Responses were analyzed using a directed content analysis method informed by the constructs “microagressions” and “cultural humility,” representing deductive category application.  To enhance rigor, data were coded by the researchers independently; disparate coding was resolved through peer debriefing.

Findings:

Data analysis indicates classroom climates and personal reactions suggesting invalidation microaggression—particularly symptomizing—in addition to assumptions of inferiority and fear of contamination.  Further, interactions embodying the microaggression shaming of mental illness were found. 

Evidence of practicing cultural humility included supportive responses to classroom disclosure, discussing historical and contemporary oppression of people with mental illnesses, and fostering students’ critical self-reflection of their biases.  In addition, challenging inequalities was demonstrated in descriptions of normalizing disclosure, a practice that can remove the taboo of discussing mental illnesses.

Conclusion and Implications: 

Participants engaged in both cultural humility and (unintentional) mental illness microaggressions.  The presence of microaggressions in education may be one factor contributing to microaggressions by professional providers and may discourage students in recovery from entering the profession.  By practicing cultural humility, educators might learn how to avoid microaggressions by, for example, facilitating the development of supportive classroom environments, particularly when students disclose; encouraging critical self-reflection; and addressing systemic discrimination.