Developing Gender-Inclusive Simulations in Social Work Education

This teaching note describes a spring 2025 classroom-based simulation activity facilitated at one New England School of Social Work. Simulation-based learning has become a critical teaching tool in MSW education, supporting students in developing core competencies outlined by the Council on Social Work Education. We reflect on our process of adapting a case vignette involving a parent mandated to attend counseling for suspected child neglect and how this process expanded our curriculum to better represent the lived experiences of gender-diverse standardized patients (SPs) and parents involved in the child welfare system. This work underscores the importance of centering a social justice lens in MSW education and amplifying marginalized voices—particularly those of gender-diverse, transgender, and nonbinary individuals whose experiences and perspectives are invisibilized in our sociopolitical context—through simulation-based learning. Additionally, this teaching note illustrates the longstanding collaboration between social work faculty and a regional medical school’s SP acting program and explores future directions for interprofessional partnerships in advancing inclusive, simulation-driven pedagogy in social work education.