Practitioner Voice Informed Survey Instrument Development: School Social Workers, Race, and Racism

Background and purpose

Structural racism creates multiple detrimental experiences for PK-12 students of color, across academic, interpersonal, socio-emotional, and behavioral dimensions. School social workers (SSWs) are uniquely trained and ethically bound to promote social justice. Their location within schools positions them to intervene with students, educators, curriculum and policy and evidence demonstrates their capacity to promote racial equity in areas like punitive discipline. Yet antiracist SSW is not happening at needed levels. Practitioners demonstrate a tendency to engage in passive and micro-interventions that do not stand to effect change, and report limited confidence in their ability to promote racial equity within schools, even after training. This situation’s urgency is intensified by the current national racial climate, which has impaired DEI efforts. Further, social work educators report limited training that could help them prepare candidates for this challenge.

Our team therefore developed, and will share at SSWR, a survey to gauge SSWs’ learning and support needs related to race and racism. Beyond this paper’s scope, our project will culminate in empirically-informed, antiracist professional learning for SSW candidates and practitioners, positioning them to respond to racial bias and structural harm.

Methods

To develop a sound instrument, we obtained SSW input at multiple points. We conducted focus groups with an ethno-racially and geographically diverse set of eighteen SSWs, recruited through our professional networks. Their SSW experience ranged from 1-25 years. We asked about areas of practice where they noticed race or racism, how they responded, and what learning experiences and supports helped with this work. Using Onwuegbuzie’s approach to focus group transcript analysis, we identified themes that we then shared with a group of 60 SSWs from diverse school settings, who endorsed and elaborated on those themes. We then drafted a survey and conducted expert review with SSW practitioners and scholars.

Results

This project’s “result” is a 103-item survey. Participant input led us to expand areas of inquiry about where SSWs noticed race and/or racism. We included areas of practice (e.g., special education), participants also discussed school functioning beyond their clinical work (e.g., school security policy) and the quality of staff interactions with and about racially minoritized students and parents. Participants’ descriptions of negative experiences with racism in schools (e.g. peer behavior) led us to add a survey section that gauged SSWs’ encounters in this area, as well as items from Byrd’s School Racial Climate Survey.

Focus group participants’ described and demonstrated range of comfort with race talk reinforced the importance of assessing SSWs’ learning experiences related to race. They also led us to ask about multiple dimensions of SSWs’ response to perceived racism in schools: comfort, skill and time capacity.

Implications and Conclusion

Practitioner feedback opened up critically important areas of inquiry related to encounters with racism, different dimensions of their response to it, and how practitioners experience school racial climate. While cognitive interviewing and pilot testing ask practitioners to interact with an already-formed instrument, our approach will provide richer, more useful data because of practitioner engagement from the inquiry process’ beginning.