An Integrative Pedagogical Model for the Teaching of Diversity and Social Justice in Social Work Education: The Integrative Sociopolitical and Psychological Analysis Model

Abstract

Social work students need to learn how to synthesize sociopolitical and psychological theories into an integrative practice approach if they are to become effective agents of social change and social justice. Academic resources used to scaffold these skills oftentimes implicitly presume that the social worker is white and the client is “other”—Hispanic, African American, and so forth. The integrated sociopolitical and psychological analysis model, ISPA, presented and applied herein to the analysis of societal racism, provides an integrative framework for the teaching and practice of social work and social justice. The model promotes the decolonization of social work educational spaces, while providing Hispanic and African American social work students with an integrated framework that decenters “whiteness” and examines its individual and societal effects.