Social work students’ perspective on environmental justice: gaps and challenges for preparing students

Sparks, Jessica; Massey Combs, Katie; Yu, Jennifer

Abstract

The integration of environmental justice into social work education, research, and practice has grown substantially in the past decade. However, social workers still report feeling unprepared to address these challenges with their clients and communities. To understand the disconnect between education about and application of environmental justice principles, semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with graduate social work students (n = 14). Findings suggest this disconnect is catalyzed, in part, by the environment’s meta nature and a lack of facilitated education on the dynamic feedbacks between the physical environment and social justice issues. Implications for social work educators are discussed.

Citation

Sparks, J., Massey Combs, K., & Yu, J. (2019). Social work students’ perspective on environmental justice: gaps and challenges for preparing students. Journal of Community Practice, 27(3-4), 476-486. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705422.2019.1655124

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 23, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Aug 15, 2019
• Publication Date: Aug 15, 2019
• Deposit Date: Jul 31, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 16, 2020
• Journal: Journal of Community Practice
• Print ISSN: 1070-5422
• Electronic ISSN: 1543-3706
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 27
• Issue: 3-4
• Pages: 476-486
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10705422.2019.1655124
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2363152
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10705422.2019.1655124
• Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Community Practice on 15.08.2019, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/10705422.2019.1655124
• Contract Date: Jul 31, 2019