Reflections on social work education during the Covid-19 pandemic

Experiences of faculty members and lessons moving forward

Bibliographic Data

ID21724324
AuthorsWendy Haight (0000-0002-8307-5360, University of Minnesota, corresponding author), Wendy L Haight (University of Minnesota), Johara Suleiman (0000-0003-2040-2456, University of Minnesota), Shelby K Flanagan (0000-0002-3381-8883, University of Minnesota), Sookyoung Park (0000-0002-9433-4399, University of Minnesota), Laura J Soltani (0000-0002-7591-4371, University of Minnesota), William C Carlson (0000-0002-3885-8948, University of Minnesota), Jacob Otis (University of Minnesota), Jacob R Otis (University of Minnesota), Kenneth S Turck (University of Minnesota), Kenneth Turck (University of Minnesota)
Year2023
Volume22
Issue5
Pages938-955
Publication date2023-09-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueQualitative Social Work (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1473-3250 • E-ISSN: 1741-3117
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/14733250221114390
OpenAlexW4285392324
LanguageEN
References cited19

This focused ethnography examines the experiences of social work faculty members during the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted participant observations of the pivot to distance learning, research and service, and overall responses of the social work community at a Research 1, public university. This article focuses on in-depth, zoom-recorded, individual interviews with 16 social work faculty members during the first year of the pandemic with follow-up communications 1 year later ( n = 9). They characterized the pandemic as pervasive, sustained, isolating, changing, embedded within a deeply divided sociocultural context, and having a disparate impact related to faculty members’ positionality. Many described feelings of disorientation, anxiety, fear, loss, grief, fatigue, and strained relationships. Faculty members also described a strengthening of social work’s resiliency through innovative technology, embracing new opportunities to enact professional values of social and racial justice, and meaning making. They consider building on this resiliency moving forward, including in the face of future long emergencies. Their reflections on lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic suggest how we may become more resilient by tending to our collective trauma, balancing the benefits of online education with psychosocial needs, and examining how social work ethics interact with academic systems

Autoethnography · Feeling · Grief · Pandemic · Pedagogy · Political science · Psychosocial · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · COVID-19 and Mental Health · Disaster Management and Resilience · Medicine · Psychology · Social Psychology · Social Work Education and Practice · Social Work

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