Challenging the Lack of Faculty Diversity in Higher Education and the Resulting Impact on Underrepresented Students: A Social Justice Perspective on Social Work Education and the Role of Social Work Educators

Understanding how students learn and the significance of from whom they learn can provide educators insight into how to approach their work. Creating inclusive social work programs that are informed by an understanding of the impact of culture and climate on students can also have implications for social work practice. Although the number of Black and Hispanic/Latino/a/x students enrolled in social work programs is increasing, social work faculty remain predominantly White despite a growing understanding of the importance of faculty diversity in higher education and the benefits such diversity provides to students.

At a time when the population of the United States is growing more diverse, social work programs remain embedded in institutions that are failing to make progress in diversifying academia. This significant social injustice directly impacts students. The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics calls for social workers to act in the face of social injustice, and social work educators should be at the forefront of challenging the failure of higher education to diversify sufficiently.

This presentation will examine the state of research into faculty diversity, its impact on students, and how the Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) provided by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) allow social work programs to remain complicit in institutional failures to diversify the faculty. Understanding the challenge of creating significant change at educational institutions, the presentation examines one way that social work programs can support underrepresented students in the absence of congruent faculty.