Identifying the “Isms”: Enabling Social Work Students to Confront Their Biases

Abstract Four approaches may be used to reduce prejudices in students: Exhortation; providing information; intergroup contact; and development of cognitive sophistication. The paper describes a teaching model which focuses on the last approach—development of cognitive sophistication—as a means of preparing social work students for culturally sensitive practice. Developed by the author, the model was offered as a three-hour class unit, descriptively named “Identifying the ‘Isms’”. The unit content was presented in three stages: (a) Bias was defined in a manner such that all students willingly admitted that they were biased against some category of persons, (b) the functions of bias were discussed, and (c) a series of vignettes were given to the class for analysis as to whether bias existed in the situation described and, if it existed, what function it served. Feedback from students suggests that the model is effective in encouraging students to admit and to confront their own biases and in developing students' critical thinking skills when examining their and others' biases. The paper concludes with a discussion of the model's applicability to other class settings.