Undergraduate Barriers and Incentives to Engaging in Social Justice

Background

Social justice is one of six professional values for social workers (NASW, 2021) and a core competency for social work education (Council on Social Work Education, 2022) yet little is known about how social work education can promote engagement in social justice. Developing the knowledge, values, and skills associated with implementing change through a justice lens can be a challenge as instructors have a responsibility to ensure not just that social justice is taught but also that students learn how to engage in social justice as well (Benner et al., 2019). As a result, this study sought to understand the barriers and facilitators for undergraduate students to engage in social justice.

Methods

Participants included 166 undergraduate students at a large, Southeastern university enrolled in an introductory social work class (SW 124 – Introduction to Social Work and Diverse Populations). In an effort to understand awareness of engaging in social justice, students completed an open-ended response to questions prior to lecturing on social justice in an effort to inform preparation and discussion for that lecture. Questions reflected the four domains of the Social Justice Scale (Torres-Harding et al., 2012). Specifically, students were asked to respond to:

• To what extent do you believe that current social structures adequately address issues of discrimination and inequality?
• What are some barriers to engaging in social justice behaviors in your own life? In other words, what makes it difficult or less likely for you to promote social justice?
• What messages about social justice have influenced you and where did they come from?
• In the next six months, do you intend to engage in or support social justice efforts? Why or why not?

Results

Several themes emerged from student responses regarding facilitators and barriers. Themes related to facilitators included interest in others and awareness of need to continue efforts for social justice. Barriers were significant and included perceptions of others and fear of interpretation of motives related to engaging in social justice. Specifically, students expressed perceptions of being excluded from some efforts where if not “leftist” enough then would not be welcome. Students also spoke of feeling like efforts would not change outcomes for others and how social media could misconstrue efforts.

Conclusion

The responses from this assignment helped shape instructor awareness of student influences, understanding, and intent to engage (or not) in social justice, thus helping to inform the lecture and discussion with students. The demonstrated level of awareness of social justice within students as well as the barriers and incentives to engage social justice were informative in the class and could be provide a foundation for other educators to develop and implement strategies for students to engage in social justice.