Susan Sarnoff

GUEST EDITORIAL: THE ROLE AND STATUS OF WOMEN IN SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION: PAST AND FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS

Survival is not an academic skill. It is learning how to stand alone, unpopular and sometimes reviled, and how to make common cause with those others identified as outside the structures in order to define and seek a world in which we can all flourish. It is learning how to take our differences and make them strengths. (Lorde, 1984, p. 112)

Central Appalachia–Still the Other America

SUMMARY This paper celebrates the 40th anniversary of the publication of Michael Harringtons The Other America, which is recognized as a critical catalyst to the development of the War on Poverty. It focuses on Harringtons observations about Central Appalachia, noting the degree to which the characteristics Harrington observed in 1962 persist there these forty years later.

Linking Social Work Students to the Wider World via an Asynchronous Learning Network

Abstract Many course websites and much of the literature about them address the delivery of distance education. However, course websites are also useful for bringing the world to campus-based social work students, as well as for communicating between classes and making up for missed sessions. Course websites can incorporate synchronous or asynchronous features, but the latter are far more appropriate to social work education, because students face such diverse time demands from their field internships. Asynchronous websites permit students to access posted material whenever convenient, without having to mesh their schedules with those of faculty, fellow students, or others. These websites need not be elaboratethey need only to fit the course content they will contain. However, they must be technologically sophisticated enough to prepare students to use technology in their careers; and must also reflect social work values. These include requirements that websites are accessible to students regardless of di...

Ensuring that course Websites are ADA compliant

SUMMARY This paper explores how social work course websites can meet recommendations for ADA compliance. It addresses the current and expected rules for compliance, the types of disabilities that require accommodations and the accommodations that each requires. It discusses the software and hardware features and options available to students with disabilities. It also discusses software available to web authors to create accessible websites and identify noncompliant features. Following these guidelines will enable students with disabilities to fully benefit from online courses-and will offer benefits to users who do not have disabilities, as well.

“Sanctified Snake Oil”: Ideology, Junk Science, and Social Work Practice

This article explores the pervasiveness of the form of junk science known as advocacy statistics, and its danger to the practice of social work. Using domestic violence statistics as exemplars, the article documents how misinterpretation and refusal to believe data that does not conform to ideology can lead to inaccurate assessments, faulty treatment recommendations, and misallocation of resources. Such practice, which clearly violates the NASW Code of Ethics, reflects poorly on the profession and, most significantly, makes it impossible to understand the true nature of the problem.

Sarnoff Responds to Faller

To the Editor: Dr. Faller misunderstands the point of my article: the effects of junk science on the field of social work. My purpose was never to convince readers about the existence of junk science, which has been done quite effectively by others, but to focus on how it harms perceptions of the field and our perceptions of clients. Furthermore, because the article analyzes social policy, it draws on a range of information sources, selected not because they meet social-work standards of significance, but because they reflect either the information sources used by the public or those frequently used in court, which constitute legal fact.