Julie E. Miller-Cribbs

Liberal and Conservative in Social Work Education: Exploring Student Experiences

Claims of ‘liberal bias’ in higher education raise unique concerns for social work education in the United States. In a time of increasing conservatism in mainstream America, students who identify as political or social conservatives may find themselves particularly challenged by the perspectives, values and ideas they encounter in the social work classroom. This paper explores student perceptions of a ‘liberal’/‘conservative’ conflict in the social and educational environment of their MSW program. Drawing on Bourdieus concepts of ‘habitus’ and the social ‘field’ as a framework for interpreting student interview data, we discuss perceptions of ‘liberal bias’ at the nexus of individual experience, educational processes, and broader socio‐political climate.

Violence in the Lives of Rural, Southern, and Poor White Women:

Poor White single mothers and their children in non-urban communities in the American South experience high levels of domestic violence. We report selected findings from a life history study among White, low-income, unmarried mothers in South Carolina. Here, we examine how domestic violence in both childhood and adulthood may inhibit asset development by diminishing low-income single mothers’ accumulation of human and social capital, thus compromising their well-being as adults and parents.

Thinking about Think Tanks: Strategies for Progressive Social Work

Conservative think tanks have socialized and trained a fleet of media-ready advocates and pundits and linked their conservative agenda directly to the public via the media. Promoting ideology over science, conservative think tanks have lowered expectations around rational and empirically validated policy choices while demonizing individuals and communities, justifying the drastic funding cuts and ideologically based policies and programs that further marginalize oppressed groups in the United States. This article details the strategies of conservative think tanks and their role in influencing public policy and considers the smaller impact and influence experienced by the progressive movement. Implications for progressive social work practice, education, and research are highlighted.

Same-Sex Marriage Policy: Advancing Social, Political, and Economic Justice

This article serves as an informational and resource tool on the policy topic of same-sex marriage. The authors begin by distinguishing between benefit levels of marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships. Chronological and global overviews of same-sex marriage history along with a review of applicable U.S. Constitution amendments that apply to marriage recognition are included. The social, political, and economic impacts of same-sex marriage exclusion are discussed relative to advancing justice for these individuals and families. The authors conclude with advocacy strategies relative to advancing the rights of same-sex families to access federal marriage.

Changing the culture of a medical school by orienting students and faculty toward community medicine.

Oklahoma’s health status has been ranked among the worst in the country. In 1972, the University of Oklahoma established the Tulsa branch of its College of Medicine (COM) to expand the physician workforce for northeastern Oklahoma and to provide care for the uninsured patients of the area. In 2008, the Tulsa branch launched a distinct educational track, the University of Oklahoma COM’s School of Community Medicine (SCM), to prepare providers equipped and committed to addressing prevalent health disparities. The authors describe the Tulsa branch’s Summer Institute (SI), a signature program of the SCM, and how it is part of SCM’s process of institutional transformation to align its education, service, and research missions toward improving the health status of the entire region. The SI is a weeklong, prematriculation immersion experience in community medicine. It brings entering medical and physician assistant students together with students and faculty from other disciplines to develop a shared culture of community medicine. The SI uses an unconventional curriculum, based on Scharmer’s Theory U, which emphasizes appreciative inquiry, critical thinking, and collaborative problem solving. Also, the curriculum includes Professional Meaning conversations, small-group sessions to facilitate the integration of students’ observations into their professional identities and commitments. Development of prototypes of a better health care system enables participants to learn by doing and to bring community medicine to life. The authors describe these and other curricular elements of the SI, present early evaluation data, and discuss the curriculum’s incremental evolution. A longitudinal outcomes evaluation is under way.

The Durham Community Land Trustees

This study examined the possible impact of the Durham Community Land Trustees (DCLT) on home-owner-occupied rates and median rent in Durham since 1990. Establishing causality in community-based interventions is difficult due to the pragmatic barriers. However, by matching the DCLT census tract to other tracts and comparing them to Durham, the DCLT census tract changes were better isolated. This study used the Neighborhood Change Database to explore the neighborhood characteristics of the DCLT and similar neighborhoods and to test for differences in key housing variables. The results enhance knowledge of CLTs and ways they might contribute to community change.

A simulation and video-based training program to address adverse childhood experiences:

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are 10 categories of childhood abuse and maltreatment, which have a dose–response relationship with common adult health concerns seen in primary care including health risk behaviors, chronic disease, and mental illness. Many of the ACEs-associated biopsychosocial risk factors are modifiable. However, physicians may not address these issues for fear of opening “Pandora’s Box”, that is, a source of extensive problems for which they are not sufficiently prepared with training, resources, or time. Residents need training in how to conduct trauma-focused conversations within the limited scope of an office visit. To address this need, a 4-hour simulation and video-based training program was developed for primary care residents about how to conduct brief interventions connecting their patients’ current health concerns with their experiences of ACEs. Resident participants have evaluated this program as preparatory for real-life encounters and as being designed to allow for educational mastery. This article describes a workshop presenting this training program which was given at the 37th Annual Behavioral Science Forum in Family Medicine. Five skills targeted in the program were presented and a demonstration was made of the components, that is, didactics, provider and patient videos, simulated patient encounters, trainee feedback, and facilitated discussion that encompasses targeted skills, clinical implementation, and self-care. Companion tools were shared, including the syllabus, evaluation rubric, and provider and patient resources. Participants practiced trainee feedback and discussed the challenges in implementation.

“First Train Out”: Marriage and Cohabitation in the Context of Poverty, Deprivation, and Trauma

There has been a steep rise in the proportion of children born to and living with unmarried parents. Unmarried parents are increasingly likely to cohabitate, especially low-income couples, placing their children at elevated psychosocial risk. This life history study of poor, White single mothers suggests that the current focus on differences between married and cohabiting poor women may overstate underlying similarities in factors associated with their partner formation and dissolution and that poor womens decisions about marriage and cohabitation must be understood in a developmental context that reflects the stacking, over time, of multiple forms of vulnerability to unstable partnerships, single motherhood, and continuing poverty into adulthood.