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Full-Text Articles in Social Work

Creating A Culture Of Voting In Direct And Generalist Practice: Training Field Instructors, Shannon R. Lane, Katherine Hill, Jason Ostrander, Jenna Powers, Tanya Rhodes Smith, Mary E. Hylton Jan 2019

Creating A Culture Of Voting In Direct And Generalist Practice: Training Field Instructors, Shannon R. Lane, Katherine Hill, Jason Ostrander, Jenna Powers, Tanya Rhodes Smith, Mary E. Hylton

School of Social Work Faculty Publications

Social workers have an ethical responsibility to be engaged in policy change, regardless of their practice area or specialization. Voter engagement and the importance of political power through voting is often overlooked in the literature as a valid and important component of social work practice. Creating a culture of nonpartisan voter engagement in practice settings can help empower individuals who have been historically and intentionally disenfranchised from our electoral system. Training for field instructors, faculty, and field staff is a key aspect of voter engagement in social work education. Unfortunately, social work education is unlikely to include substantive content on …


Clinical Social Workers, Gender, And Perceptions Of Political Participation, Jason Ostrander, Janelle K. Bryan, Shannon R. Lane Jan 2019

Clinical Social Workers, Gender, And Perceptions Of Political Participation, Jason Ostrander, Janelle K. Bryan, Shannon R. Lane

School of Social Work Faculty Publications

Political participation to create social change is considered a professional and ethical imperative for social workers. Although researchers have examined overall political participation by social workers, little is known about how clinical social workers participate and the broader societal factors that influence their political participation. A critical phenomenological methodology was used with a sample of 23 clinical social workers from New England states to (1) identify how socio-political forces influenced their political activity; and, (2) understand how the concept of power affected individuals’ level of engagement or inclination toward the political process. This article describes one of the study’s major …