The popularity of VHS and DVD over the past two decades has greatly expanded the influence of history movies, watched by millions of adolescents in homes and classrooms. This paper examines two secondary U.S. history teachers' instructional uses of history motion pictures in their classrooms. Ray used The Patriot (2000) to teach history as stories…

As we engage our students in social studies topics--whether at the college level or the secondary level--we are charged with promoting habits of mind and thought that produce our country's citizens. If we are doing our jobs, we are insistent about finding ways to connect the democracy in our classrooms with the democracy in our culture, and thus…

Rapidly changing demographics in the United States, the 2008 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards, and recent developments in the literature that question the effectiveness of multiculturalism and cultural competence suggest social work education, research, and practice are in need of a new approach to diversity. In conceptualizing…

The philosophical basis for the federal human subject protection policy is congruent with the values of the social work profession. The pragmatics are more complicated. The purpose of this study was to explore the attitudes toward, knowledge about, and practices of institutional review boards (IRBs) across colleges and universities as reported by…

This study explores the issue of advanced standing in MSW programs in light of the new Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS). Advanced standing structures of MSW programs were studied using a purposive sample consisting of 203 MSW program directors with a response rate of 28% (N=58). The results indicate that slightly more than 15%…

An exploratory study using qualitative methodology was undertaken with recent MSW graduates (N=12) from 2 graduate social work programs to identify and describe the students' emotional reactions to experiences in field education. Significant and interrelated themes emerged including the subjective and unique definitions of emotionally charged…

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a complex social problem that social workers must be trained to address, using the best available evidence. In this article we review divergent theories, research findings, and methods that underpin debates about the role of gender in IPV perpetration and victimization. We examine the literature that…

Developing competency in diversity and assessment are key educational priorities. With Native American clients a spiritual assessment is typically required because spirituality is often instrumental to health and wellness in Native cultures. In keeping with the movement toward competency-based education, this qualitative study sought to answer the…

Student-directed projects are increasingly becoming a common phenomenon in schools of social work across the United States. Students acquire a great learning experience from these projects, which sharpen their skills in leadership, innovation, and practice. Social work practitioners who go through such a process emerge having acquired knowledge…

This article presents an approach to human behavior curriculum that requires students to achieve the purpose outlined in the Council on Social Work Education's 2008 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards to "distinguish, appraise, and integrate multiple sources of knowledge, including research-based knowledge." It emphasizes and allows for…

Educators, both novice and experienced, are presented with a formidable constellation of obstacles when attempting to teach the concepts of institutional oppression and unearned privilege. Educators must challenge years of socialization and internalized ideologies of superiority that make hierarchies of privilege appear to be the natural order. In…

In its EPAS, CSWE (2008) identifies field education as the signature pedagogy (Shulman, 2005b) of social work education. This article analyzes the field education-signature pedagogy fit. It finds congruence in selected organizational arrangements that are pervasive and routine, and disparities with respect to expectations about public student…

This article elaborates mimesis as a theory of causality used to explain human behavior. Drawing parallels to social constructionism's critique of positivism and naturalism, mimesis is offered as a theory of causality explaining human behavior that contests the current dominance of Newton's theory of causality as cause and effect. The contestation…

Over the past 2 decades the topic of spirituality and its relationship to the social work profession has taken its place as a significant and important part of the agenda for social work research, education, and practice. In this article we discuss the results of a qualitative study that addresses how a group of social work practitioners defined…

This study uses a work stress theoretical framework to examine the effects of direct and indirect client violence on a randomly selected national sample of MSW and BSW social work students from the National Association of Social Workers (N=595). Client violence variables were analyzed in relationship to fear of future violence and occupational…