Damn! I would have been really interested to see how Iowa faired in removing social work licensure requirements.

I think social work licensure is a racket. It is a system set up to make people pay large sums of money to hold a license that provides minimal title protection, very little consistency across practice, and often privileges a specific definition of social work practice (i.e. clinical practice).

Unlike teachers, lawyers, doctors and nurses, the practice of social work it not a unique set of skills that are held by a specific profession. That is not to say that social workers don’t do great work, but social work does not provide a unique training to practice despite claims or requirements of state legislation, NASW, CSWE, or ASWB. This is evidenced by many other disciplines or majors that are often qualified and hired to provide social services. This includes degrees in psychology, human services, healthcare administration, or other behavioral sciences. See “social services” is the work around the “social work” title protection.

Removing the licensing process would save colleges and universities and social workers some money. In order to be eligible for a licensure, students need to graduate from a CSWE accredited program. This means that colleges and universities that want to offer license eligible social work programs must be accredited by CSWE. Unsurprisingly, CSWE does not publish the cost of accreditation but the process requires colleges and universities to pay a multitude of fees for accreditation including submission and site visit costs. New graduates need to pay initial fees for the ASWB test, background check, and initial license then are sometime required to pay for supervision for the first few years of practice before advancing to a next level of license with another round of testing and fees.

I would love to see some thoughtful conversation about the benefits and limits of licensure and the system that has been created as a result of licensing requirements. Who is protected by licensure and how? Where is it required for billing and why? How does licensure impact education and practice? Instead, I often see people dig in on how licensure is what makes social work a profession. And I’m just not buying it.

Supporting students from a class perspective

December 23, 2012 ErickaLeave a comment

An interesting article in today’s NY Times: Poor Students Struggle as Class Plays a Greater Role in Success (alternatively titled as “For Poor, Leap to College Often Ends in Hard Fall”)

I write about class a lot because it’s one of the few things I feel secure in my knowledge. When we think about class in terms of college, we often think about the financial aid piece. Universities have made great progress in meeting the financial needs of low-income student, but there are still nuances about growing up poor that are forgotten. It’s beyond the ability to pay for college. This article does a good job discussing the complex socio-economic influences in our lives. There is this cultural difference that exists between classes which people often forget or deny. As academics, it’s important that we are aware of these differences and able to support students coming from low-income families.

From the article: Annette Lareau, a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania, argues that the affluent also enjoy an advocacy edge: parents are quicker to intervene when their children need help, while low-income families often feel intimidated and defer to school officials, a problem that would trail Melissa and Angelica in their journey through college.

“Middle-class students get the sense the institution will respond to them,” Professor Lareau said. “Working-class and poor students don’t experience that. It makes them more vulnerable.”

This is a critical statement in understanding the experiences and needs of many students who come from low-income families. I’m sure there are many reasons students may not ask for help. For me, I often didn’t know what kind of help existed or that it was ok to ask for help. There was also overwhelming feelings of shame in needing help or the idea of being a bother.

I don’t know what the solution is or how to ease the transition to college, but I think it’s something we need to keep thinking and talking about. A start might be to move away from this idea of “first generation college student” to actually acknowledging class differences. There are many older academics who are “first generation college students” but mostly like from middle class families. Especially any of those academics who graduated college prior to the 1990s. If you are 60 years old and a first generation college student, you probably come from a middle class background. The poor kids went to Vietnam. So, your experiences as a first generation college student are probably quite different than your students. Trying to identify with them in those terms misses the point. As a person who comes from anti-oppressive practice point of view, I intentionally discuss class in the same ways I intentionally discuss race, gender, and sexual orientation. I hope this serves several purposes. First, to highlight some of the nuances of class that middle or upper middle class people may not get. Second, to indirectly share with students who may be from low income families that I may be someone who understands their struggle. Finally, I hope it gets people talking about class in the ways that we talk about other experiences of oppression within the context of academic experiences and successes.