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The profession of social work emphasizes social justice in its service delivery, yet there is a paucity of literature on how to teach clinical practice from a social justice perspective. This qualitative study with Canadian social work educators (n=12) suggests the following ways in which educators taught clinical social work from a social justice perspective: (1) integrating critical social theories in conceptualizing clinical practice, (2) engaging in transformative pedagogies, and (3) navigating professional commitments. While addressing various forms of social injustices is a mandate for all social workers, enactment of social justice within clinical practice remains an area of concern. Results suggest concrete ways in which social work educators can engage students in developing their commitment to social justice.

Although the importance of engaged listening in intergroup dialogue (IGD) is recognized, we know relatively little about when or why participants in IGD actually listen or what they gain from listening. Using qualitative analyses of interviews conducted with undergraduates who had recently completed a race/ethnicity or gender focused IGD course, this study examines what participants said about moments of engaged listening in IGD. We found that engaged listening was associated with specific dialogue activities, reactions to speakers, and dialogue topics. We also found a number of differences in listening between race/ethnicity and gender dialogues that suggest that participants in race/ethnicity IGDs recall more moments of engaged listening and may have gained a more complex understanding of structural inequality from engaged listening than participants in gender IGDs did. The article concludes with a discussion of the findings, possible implications, and some areas for future inquiry. (Contains 1 table.)

Intergroup Dialogue (IGD) is a model of dialogue which engages my knowledge, awareness and skills in group work, social justice education, and psychodynamic practice. In this article, I discuss the ways that I link group work and social justice in a course that I developed and teach. I discuss the importance of locating oneself and share an activity I use to support this goal. I also examine group dynamics, particularly communication skills (i.e. the building blocks of dialogue) that participants learn in IGD and the ways participants across identities are encouraged to bring in their voice and perspective. I end by discussing the layers of facilitation, facilitating yourself, others, and the group. My narrative illustrates how Intergroup Dialogue is an effective tool for linking group work and social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clinical social work educators have a critical role in defining clinical social work and conveying their understanding through their teaching. While there have been a few conceptual articles that have defined clinical social work, there is little empirical research conducted on this topic. In this study, we asked 15 social work faculty teaching advanced clinical social work practice how they defined clinical social work, particularly what core concepts, principles, and theories or frameworks that guided clinical social work. The results indicate that participants conceptualized clinical social work drawing upon the concept of person-in-environment and the therapeutic relationship. Furthermore, participants identified teaching a range of psychological theories but emphasizing a psychodynamic orientation. Furthermore, participants identified multi-level analysis and a commitment to diversity and social justice as important concepts that they wanted students to recognize about clinical social work. This article, through the voices of clinical social work faculty, challenges the field of clinical social work to define what their commitment to social justice means and reflect on how we are responding to criticisms and moving forward as a field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutions are key sites of oppression. Institutional oppression is defined as the mistreatment of people of a particular group that is enforced by society and its institutions. It is a system of invisible barriers that emerge from institutional laws, customs and practices, thus producing inequities for particular groups across race, gender and class. Woven together, the web of institutional oppression is vast, cumulative and multi-faceted, including both overt and covert discriminatory practices and behaviors. Based in a critical review of the literature, the authors of this article introduce and describe four characteristics of institutional oppression that specifically impact the lives of Black Americans. Furthermore, we provide a case vignette that illustrates these characteristics of oppression. The article concludes with recommendations on dismantling institutional oppression and highlights the roles that social workers can play in collaboration with educators and other professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the review of the year's publications for 2003. The search for this year's review began by using key words to search 2003 books from the online catalog of all catalogued books. They followed as many leads as they could and worked throughout the Spring 2004 semester. Having read titles or abstracts for the many books that were generated by this search, the reviewers made a selection of titles to pursue, based on our collective judgment of the range of social justice education subject matter that would enable readers to consider research and writing that addresses racism, sexism, sexual orientation, ageism, religious/ethnic prejudice, or disability from a social justice perspective. They also drew upon the many books that were sent to our editorial office from publishers, either unsolicited or by request, because of the interest from other sources.