Robbie W. C. Tourse

The university/community partnership: transdisciplinary course development.

This paper describes the process of expanding the knowledge base and clinical practice for students in professional preparation programs in social work, nursing and education. Through a partnership of university faculty and administrators of a private school for students with learning and behavior problems, a transdisciplinary course was designed to address the need for providing future professionals an opportunity to understand multiple perspectives in the design of clinical interventions. The process of defining the course content, identifying appropriate required reading, and building connections to field work was a collaborative effort and less problematic than the logistics of implementation. Negotiating the administrative barriers to interprofessional collaboration involving curriculum innovation was more challenging. Discussion also includes the need for a shared vision and responsibility for improving practice, the practical implications of university funding and the benefits and challenges of transforming current treatment paradigms into one focused on interprofessional care.

A COLLABORATIVE MODEL OF CLINICAL PREPARATION: A MOVE TOWARD INTERPROFESSIONAL FIELD EXPERIENCE

This article proposes a model for interprofessional collaboration within the context and process of field experiences in public schools. The model evolved out of a collaborative venture between the schools of social work and education at Boston College. The placement of pairs of social work and education interns in urban schools provided an opportunity to identify the nature of collaboration that is transdisciplinary and not parallel practice. This transdisciplinary practice model is based on a common goal, discipline-specific objectives, and co-facilitated activities. The discussion includes issues of project design and implementation as well as the advantages and challenges of interprofessional field work.

Bridging the Gaps: An Interdependent Model for Educating Accountable Practitioners

Abstract This article presents an Interdependent Model that integrates field instruction with the clinical and research curricula to educate students to become accountable practitioners. It describes the application of this model in teaching single-system evaluation to social work students with support from faculty, field advisers, and agency practitioners who provide field supervision. The merits of using this model as compared to other more common, less comprehensive approaches to social work education are examined. Issues relating to the implementation of the Interdependent Model are also discussed.

From Problems to Personal Resilience

SUMMARY This paper reviews data on select areas relevant to the status, functioning, and general well-being of African American Youth. Practitioners in both policy and clinical intervention must assert a greater role in helping these adolescents grow, develop, and become prepared to take their rightful place in American Society. Attention is afforded the African American Family, particularly Black youth and the threats, both historical and contemporary, which confront their ability to survive, cope, and sustain a resilient presence. Conflict theory is used to understand how this population interfaces with oppression, and a resilience framework, coupled with group as a method are presented as strategies for working with Black adolescents. The authors proffer that a justice-based model is useful in supporting this resilience framework within a group approach.

Recruiting and counseling people of color at Western universities

This article focuses on the recruitment and retention of students of color in Western universities. It highlights concepts and strategies which have been effective in recruiting and counseling students who are racial minorities. The content is based on the authors experience in practice over the past six years and is supported by literature, empirical data, and interviews. Vignettes related to work done with students of color are incorporated within the body of the paper.Although the article is derived from work the author has performed at an American university, the implications and conclusions of that work should be of interest to all Western institutions of higher learning that recruit and want to retain students of color in their respective academic environments.

Racial Scaffolding: Conceptual Overview

This chapter provides an overview of the focus of the book—the scaffolding that supports systemic institutional racism. It provides a brief explanation of the paradox presented by the coexistence of a declaration that “all men are created equal” and the persistent inequality between whites and people of color in the United States. The chapter gives a contemporary example of racial oppression, describes types of racism, and provides the authors’ definition of racism. It also introduces concepts used throughout the book to explain institutional racism: social construction, oppression, racial scaffolding, and institutional web, and notes the active and complex nature of these concepts within the American societal infrastructure. In addition, social construction is discussed as it relates to perceptual differences between racial groups and as the basis for racial oppression within the infrastructure of American society. This chapter culminates by presenting concept that constructs racial scaffolding (poles and rungs). The concept of scaffolding is used throughout the book to provide an understanding of the various components of the society that contribute to and promote the continuation of racism in American society.

Deconstruction of Racism

There has always been a struggle of resistance against racism and race-based social injustice. This chapter discusses in depth the deconstruction of racism through activism. It reviews major concepts presented in the book (social construction, oppression, institutional web, intersectionality, privilege, and scaffolding) and examines activism in relation to these major concepts: The chapter describes and analyzes in depth two contemporary grassroots activist movements that illustrate these major concepts and uses these examples to deconstruct the elements of the scaffolding (with emphasis on the poles: powerlessness, violence, exploitation, cultural imperialism, and marginalization) which supports the ongoing operation of racism in the USA. The chapter reviews styles and models of activism and explains the synergy of activist movements throughout the history of the United States. Finally, the chapter considers the relevance of future activist resistance to institutional racism.

Institutional Legalization of Racism: Exploitation of the Core Groups

The institutionalization of racism in the United States happened over a period of hundreds of years during which time a variety of treaties, laws, and other legal mechanisms were used to endorse and support racial discrimination. This chapter focuses on the legalization of racism during the formation and expansion of the United States. It briefly describes the historical context for building the scaffolding that supports institutionalized racism. This chapter then traces the evolution of legalized discrimination, which is directly tied to the history of four core groups: First Nation Peoples, Africans, Mexicans, and Chinese. These four groups then historically were the initial targets of oppressive racial discrimination in the Unites States. Each group is discussed in terms of how components of the scaffolding, particularly the legal structures rung, established and maintained their subordinate position. Their lives were, and the lives of their ancestors are, molded through formal and informal institutional decisions within the white American societal. The chapter traces the history of each group and discusses how their positions in society were institutionalized by numerous treaties, laws, and other legal mechanisms that systematically exploited and subordinated each group.

The Infrastructure of Racism: The Institutional Dimensions

The infrastructure of racism is perpetuated by structural dimensions that affect individuals, groups, organizations, and society as a whole. Institutionalized racism transcends the individual level and is supported by scaffolding in American society. This chapter focuses on entrenched systemic racism that operates to create and maintain racial inequalities at the broad societal level. It examines poverty and accumulated wealth as examples of racial disparities that illuminate the operation of this structural form of racism. It also discusses the invisibility of structural racism and describes the interlocking institutional web that, along with the racial scaffolding, assists in supporting the perpetuation of racism. Using a systems theory framework, the chapter describes and discusses the operation of institutional racism on three hierarchical levels—individual, organizational, and societal. The rungs of the racial scaffolding are conceptualized as societal level inputs that contribute to the outcome of racial inequality in the society at large. The chapter also presents and describes organizational racial equity and organizational racial tolerance and gives illustrative examples of how these factors are manifest in employment within an organization/company.

The Infrastructure of Racism: The Psychic Dimensions

The individual psyche is an important component of the societal infrastructure that assists in maintaining racism in the United States. The internalization of racism is an intrinsic part of who we are and is the outcome of centuries of acceptance and reinforcement of societal norms that reflect an unequal society. This chapter focuses on internalization of societal cues that help to form one’s racial identity. A case scenario to illuminate the impact of racial identity on people of all races is used. It explains that societal cues affect the formation of a racial sense of self for people of color and for whites. It also compares and distinguishes between ethnicity and race. Personal and environmental events are rooted in a racist society in America. Racial discrimination is analyzed with a model, based on distancing and oppression that assists with understanding internalized racism. Finally, the chapter presents and discusses Cross’ Racial Identity Development Model and Helms’ Identity Models, presenting scenarios to illustrate different stages in racial identity development.