Invisibility in the Promised Land: Lesbian Experience of Social Work Values Alignment and Misalignment in Pedagogy

In a field estimated to have nearly 50% of professional social workers holding at least one targeted identity other than gender, and social work attrition at 39% annually, identifying potential correlations between targeted minority experience in social work burnout is timely for education. In a 2002 study of students from 600 colleges and universities, a full 25% identified as non-normative in sexual orientation, meaning a significant percentage of social work students and their future clients will share this identity. Social work research exploring non-normative identities is limited and overwhelmingly views them as recipients of care, with minimal research into marginalized social work students. Social work educates students in values creating a shared homogenous identity, key to social work culture, yet little is offered on how social work identity formation integrates with existing intersections. This research explored through qualitative semi-structured interviews how 15 lesbian social workers from 14 universities, representing diverse geographical, cultural and class status experienced social work values in their education and practice.

Five central themes emerged: 1) A pre-existing alignment between participant values and social work values drew participants to the field, rather than students adopting social work values during their education; 2) All found misalignment between their understanding of social work values and their experiences with national organizations, schools of social work, and practice; 3) The majority of students felt unsafe self-identifying as non-normative, and the few who did suffered grave consequences; 4) Queer faculty and mentors in education were widely noted as necessary for all students to develop into competent social workers able to support both clients and peers; and 5) Participants felt betrayed by national organizations that accredit schools where these students would be removed for their identity alone, conflicting ethical positions that create values dissonance mandating invisibility, and a culture that erases this social work intersection while celebrating others.

Participants experienced that even well-meaning and thoughtful normative faculty and students were often unable to identify bias impacting their students or peers. A lack of inclusion of professional (and Queer client) non-normative identities in curricula from HBSE to advanced practice was noted. One university out of 14 offered one elective course on LGBTQ+ practice skills, suggesting that mandating coursework to educate all social workers would enhance social work practice. Field instruction that includes how to navigate the neoliberal workplace, to support minority students in learning how to deal with discrimination in their professional role, identify potential values encroachment, contract breaches and identity threat within their field placements and future employment were seen as missing skills to develop professional competence. Careful evaluation of field sites to determine if the site is appropriate to teach social work values to emerging social workers is key, noting current policy amounts to an unaddressed safety issue for LGBTQ+ social work students. Recommendations for national organizations include addressing the structural values dissonance that mandate invisibility for LGBTQ+ social workers; holding schools accountable to practice the values they teach; and celebrating the resilience and perspective that this alterity offers social work.