Development and Assessment of a Social Work and Social Justice through Sport Course

Introduction/Purpose: Sport social work is an emerging specialization within the field of social work. Topics of interest to social workers and other disciplines alike include access and equity, public concern for player welfare, mental health among athletes, coaching and organizational neglect, equal pay, and advocacy for exploited athletes. Moreover, athletes are using their voices to enact and demand social change in organizations that have long upheld and reinforced white supremacy. To date, few courses in social work exist to educate, train, and prepare practitioners to work in athletic organizations or in partnership with athletes around topics of social justice.

Method: The purpose of this study was to develop and assess the learning outcomes associated with a Social Work and Social Justice through Sport course. The course was designed to provide foundational knowledge and skills to 25 social work undergraduate students interested in pursuing social justice through sport. We sought to enhance student learning across the nine CSWE social work competencies. To assess the course, we created a self-report assessment measure guided by competencies proposed by our course textbook, Sport Social Work. The self-report measure had 29 items comprising a total of nine subscales. At the end of the course, students were asked to rank their perceived knowledge and skill level on a 5-point Likert scale. We also included three open-ended response questions and qualitatively explored learning outcomes using data from students’ final papers. All quantitative data were prepared and cleaned using SPSS Version 26. Descriptive statistics were to explore the means and standard deviations of each item and subscale on the measure. We also utilized NVivo to conduct thematic analyses with students’ qualitative survey responses and perceptions of learning within their final papers.

Results: Students reported the highest knowledge and skill levels across three main social work competencies: (a) engage diversity and difference in practice; (b) engage in policy practice; and, (c) engage with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. In addition, qualitative findings indicated student learning centered upon enhanced knowledge of the vulnerabilities of athletes. Students also demonstrated greater awareness of inequities in sport including a lack of mental health supports in sport, risks for international and parenting student-athletes, injustices associated with player pay (i.e., name and likeness), and issues related to trauma-informed coaching, clinical practice, intersectionality, and structural racism. We found students learned about social work jobs in sport through our guest speakers who were all leaders within the Alliance for Social Workers in Sport.

Discussion/Implications: Now more than ever, mental health supports and social justice action for athletes are at the forefront of conversations in sports. This study provides educators with tools for assessing and developing a sport social work course. Our findings contribute to a greater understanding of how to educate, train, and prepare social workers for employment in sport. Implications shed light on the ways the social work profession can contribute within athletic organizations, including the delivery of mental health services and adherence to practices and policies that protect and address the vulnerabilities of athletes.