Walk the Talk of Power, Privilege, and Oppression: A Template Analysis

Social justice is a hallmark of social work practice. The call to end oppression and discrimination are voiced in the Grand Challenge, Achieve Equal Opportunity and Justice, the National Association of Social Work Code of Ethics preamble, and the Council on Social Work Education Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards. However, none of these operationalize how social workers develop the capacity to fulfill this goal. This study sought to develop a framework for how social work educators assess power, privilege, and oppression learning via course assignments. Data were collected from assignments (N=94) in core foundation and required concentration courses (N=40). Template analysis was employed over four cycles of coding. Findings identified four levels of social justice content: implicit; low-explicit; medium-explicit; high-explicit.