McDermott Courtney, Stafford Jewel D, Johnson Sharon D
School of Social Work, University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis, MO USA.
Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO USA.
J Hum Rights Soc Work. 2021;6(1):14-20. doi: 10.1007/s41134-020-00155-9. Epub 2021 Jan 18.
Racial equity which, at minimum, is defined as the state in which health, social, and economic outcomes are no longer predicted by race has become a critical issue for social workers who work with and advocate for the rights of marginalized communities. Despite its importance, it remains to be seen if field instructors and the agencies they work for understand racial equity as a human rights issue. Through an anonymous survey, we assessed field instructor's racial equity awareness, knowledge, and understanding and examined actions agencies have taken to address and advance racial equity. It was hypothesized that field instructors who view racial equity as a human right would report promoting and advancing these important concepts with their students and organizations. A total of 170 field instructors accessed the survey through an emailed link in this exploratory effort. Descriptive analyses found that field instructors believe that racial equity is a significant human rights issue and that their agency's culture views racial equity as important; however, issues with time, resources, funding, and expertise to promote racial equity initiatives create obstacles to bring about change. The discussion emphasizes the importance of building capacity among field educators to address racial equity through a human rights lens, which is integral to advancing the collective social work goals of social justice and dismantling systemic oppression.
种族公平至少被定义为健康、社会和经济结果不再由种族来预测的状态，这已成为与边缘化社区合作并为其争取权利的社会工作者的关键问题。尽管其很重要，但实地指导教师及其工作的机构是否将种族公平理解为人权问题仍有待观察。通过一项匿名调查，我们评估了实地指导教师的种族公平意识、知识和理解，并考察了各机构为解决和推进种族公平所采取的行动。据推测，将种族公平视为人权的实地指导教师会报告称在与学生及组织共同促进和推进这些重要理念。在这项探索性工作中，共有170名实地指导教师通过电子邮件链接参与了调查。描述性分析发现，实地指导教师认为种族公平是一个重要的人权问题，且其所在机构的文化也将种族公平视为重要问题；然而，促进种族公平倡议方面存在的时间、资源、资金和专业知识问题为带来变革制造了障碍。讨论强调了培养实地教育工作者通过人权视角解决种族公平问题的能力的重要性，这对于推进社会正义和消除系统性压迫的集体社会工作目标至关重要。
