Theorizing the Big Picture: An Overview of Macro Graduate Education & Implications for the Integration Interdisciplinary Critical Theory

Background and Purpose: Despite macro practice's obvious inclusion into social work's overall mission as well as efforts to maintain a distinct macro identity, macro social work plays a less significant role than other concentrations. Studies investigating this "macro crisis" show a decline in macro student enrollment and reports that students feel their macro education does not adequately prepare them for practice. Scholars posit that macro practice is in search of theory and suggest that developing a comprehensive theoretical base would offer more richness and relevancy to macro practice. Other scholars suggest developing a theoretical base by integrating theories from related disciplines. With this in mind, a distinction is made between explanatory theories, which address the "how," and analytic or critical theories, which address the "why." The integration of analytic and critical theory in macro education is particularly relevant at a time when new understandings of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, and class show that inequality and discrimination are not only patterned throughout policy, but throughout societal structures, systems, organizations, and social processes. In many contexts, patterns of inequality remain unchecked and understood as just the way things are particularly by dominant groups. The purpose of this project is to determine the actual extent to which critical and analytic theories from related disciplines are integrated into graduate macro curricula.

Methods: The researcher emailed the chairs of accredited graduate social work programs in the U.S. and 97 (53.3%) schools participated in the study. The chair was asked to forward the attached online survey to all graduate teaching faculty. A month later, the researcher emailed a second wave of surveys to participating faculty. Faculty reported on three graduate courses they taught in the last two years. The survey inquired about course concentration, course description, and course content, particularly types of theories. Of 488 courses, 205 (42%) classified as having a macro-focus and 144 faculty reported as teaching macro courses. Descriptive statistics were run on data and course content was coded into categories.

Results: The vast majority of macro curricula focuses on explanatory content (e.g. community organizing) rather than critical content (e.g. critical race theory). While the majority of macro education focuses on policy (40%), critical theories of race, gender, and sexuality are minimally integrated into policy education. The majority of community practice content focuses on ways in which communities may survive within oppressive structures with little focus on theories that are critical of the structures themselves and methods of structural change. Finally, despite social work scholars' arguments to focus on issues related to globalization and the environment, little content focuses on these emerging social issues.

 Implications: Social work is inherently interdisciplinary. Findings suggest an opportunity to integrate more interdisciplinary critical and analytical theory into macro graduate education offering more critical and comprehensive approaches to increasingly complex social issues.  In the same way that psychological theory and models are integrated into clinical education, the integration of sociological, organizational, economic, and political theories prove beneficial to macro practice particularly in the landscape of the 21^st century.