“Peeling Back the Layers”: Understanding Student Perceptions of Anti-Oppressive Practice Development Using a Socioecological Lens

Abstract This study responds to calls for explicitly antiracist social work practice by examining how racial identity shapes professional development and practice among White MSW students. In a profession historically dominated by White practitioners, it explores how students understand and cultivate anti-oppressive skills. A purposive subsample of 21 students from the Midwestern United States participated in virtual semistructured interviews. Innovative data collection and analysis techniques were used to comprehensively investigate development of anti-oppressive capacities across levels of one’s ecological context. Guided by a socioecological framework, data were thematically analyzed using structural coding to identify perceived barriers, facilitators, and opportunities for anti-oppressive skill development. Four key themes emerged: (1) effective cognitive strategies, (2) processing emotional reactions, (3) opportunities for diversity exposure, and (4) external supports to growth. Findings highlight the cyclical relationship between cognitive and emotional processes that are impacted by external factors including exposure opportunities and growth supports. These insights underscore the need for emotionally responsive learning environments that foster empathy and address negative racial affect—particularly racialized fear and shame—among social workers in training. Findings have important implications for professional education and training systems for social work and in other helping professions.