Date on Capstone

3-2025

Document Type

Capstone

Degree Name

D.S.W.

Cooperating University

University of Louisville

Degree Program

Social Work, D.S.W.

Committee Chair

Rhema, Susan

Committee Member

Golder, Seana

Committee Member

Collins-Camargo, Crystal

Committee Member

Winters, Andrew

Author's Keywords

ecosocial work, social work, environmental justice, social work education

Abstract

March 31, 2025

This paper presents a study of how social work educators in the U.S. are integrating environmental justice and ecological content into social work coursework and /or curriculum. Current literature in this area suggests that educators should be incorporating deep ecology philosophy, using experiential learning techniques, and moving away from anthropocentrism towards ecocentrism. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather data on pedagogical approaches, educator knowledge and previous training, and barriers to content integration. The interviews took place virtually with social work educators from five geographical areas in the United States. The findings illustrate the importance of transformative learning approaches, engaging in transdisciplinary alliance, building programmatic success through anti-racist and anti-oppressive frameworks, and decentering the dominant Western hegemony of the importance of nature in social work coursework. While this study contributed to the existing body of literature on incorporating environmental justice and ecology into social work education, it also highlighted how much future research is needed on field seminar pedagogy integrating this content and how to abate educator overwhelm.

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