Little is known about if and how social work programs are preparing students to work with people experiencing homelessness or in homelessness-related macro and policy spaces. This study identified 18 programs that offer a BSW and/or MSW homelessness course, which yielded 22 unique course syllabi. Using content analysis, the primary aim was to understand how homelessness is taught across programs, including the course objectives used, topics and populations addressed, and to what extent courses focused on micro, macro, and policy topics. Course objectives most often addressed background knowledge on homelessness and related service offerings. The most common topics addressed in course descriptions and sessions/modules were non-housing-specific policy issues; describing the size, scope, and nature of homelessness; and services, service delivery, and service models. Topics receiving the least attention included race/racism, oppression, and social justice. Recommendations include reflecting on how an existing or potential course fits within the program’s curriculum, aligning course content with the new CSWE competencies, and ensuring consistency between descriptions, objectives, and session/module topics.
Menstrual health equity and period poverty create barriers to attendance at work, school, and social events, in addition to serving as barriers to menstruating with dignity, autonomy, and choice. Social workers need to accurately understand the impact of inequitable menstruation and period poverty on the lives of their clients who live with these experiences of social injustice. Current literature on these topics in the United States does not center research in a social justice lens, nor does it accurately represent the population of menstruators within this country. This scoping review aims to answer the question: Based on current research, what is known about menstrual health equity and period poverty as it relates to social justice within this country? A thorough literature search warranted 17 articles meeting the inclusion criteria for the scoping review. Themes found across the literature include taboo and stigma, menstrual health management (MHM) and menstrual hygiene, systems of oppression, health equity and period poverty, and intersectionality and menstruation. Recommendations for creating menstrual health equity for all American menstruators require the assessment of accessibility to MHM products for clients across all areas of social work practice.
Social work education and practice have maintained a dual commitment to individual change and societal reforms since the 1900s. This dual emphasis has sparked numerous intra-professional debates about the degrees to which micro- and/or macro-systemic change should be foregrounded. Such discussions also revealed the need for a unifying theoretical orientation for social work education and practice that highlighted the profession’s change and reform foci. Eventually, the Person-in-Environment model became social work’s guiding paradigm. While this model champions the interconnectedness between people and their environments, it narrowly focuses on social environments, often excludes natural and physical environments, and inadvertently raises power and language concerns. To address these concerns, the Individual-in-Contexts Model (ICM) is proposed, and its conceptual framework is detailed. This article concludes with a brief case study to illustrate the ICM’s application to social work practice, as well as a recommendation to empirically validate the model in future research projects.
We take this opportunity to thank the 160 reviewers from 105 universities and institutions, 7 countries, 42 states and territories, who completed 227 reviews of 106 submissions in 2025 and along with the authors, editors, and board, make Advances in Social Work possible. This issue contains 18 articles by 48 authors, representing both national and international perspectives. While many contributions are empirical, employing qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods, there are also pieces with scoping or systematic literature review designs, and conceptual and theoretical papers that critically examine social work education, pedagogy, and the profession’s guiding frameworks. Collectively, the articles address how social work prepares students and practitioners for contemporary challenges through innovative teaching strategies, anti-racist and decolonial approaches, and strengthened research literacy. Taken together, these contributions reflect a field actively grappling with how to align education, practice, and scholarship with social work’s ethical commitments to equity, justice, and accountability.
This paper provides a case study analysis of the Culturally Informed Responses to Grief and Loss (CIRGL) Professional Development Program, which equips school-based social workers and other professionals with skills and critical consciousness to support minoritized students in navigating grief and loss. By detailing the CIRGL program’s development, implementation, and culturally responsive evaluation (CRE), the paper outlines the process for developing anti-racist and culturally responsive approaches in social work. The case study draws on the evaluation data including quantitative surveys of participants at the start and near the end of the program, qualitative interviews with a sample of participants near the end of the program, and the critical reflexivity of the developers and evaluators throughout the process. Overall, participants met the learning goals of the program and experienced the content as relevant and meaningful. Most participants also stated they felt confident applying the content in their work settings. The paper concludes by discussing the implications for anti-racist program development in school social work, highlighting shared values, strategies for addressing White fragility, and the importance of grounding the work in anti-oppressive practices. This case study demonstrates both the feasibility of such professional development programs and the need for such professional development opportunities.
