No abstract

As health and mental health providers are increasingly called to attend to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) issues, it is critical for social work education to ensure the competency of students to deliver services to these populations. This North American online study investigated the self-assessed readiness of LGBTQ undergraduate and master's-level social work students (n ¼ 1,018) to practise with LGBT clients, as well as their assessment of their non-LGBTQ peers. Participants were enrolled in Master of Social Work (MSW) (76.0 per cent) or Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) (24.0 per cent) programmes, representing 136 schools in fifty-two states/provinces. Students reported fairly low levels of self-assessed practise readiness with specific subpopulations (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender), with participants reporting the highest (somewhat prepared) self-assessed readiness with gay populations and the lowest (not well prepared) self-assessed readiness with transgender populations. Regression analyses were conducted separately for each subpopulation and revealed that across all groups higher readiness to practise was positively associated with implicit programme support for LGBTQ students, positive handling of LGBTQ issues in classrooms and explicit inclusion of LGBTQ content in courses. Implications for social work education are discussed.

Faculty activism is an integral part of shared governance in higher education institutions, yet little is known about the dynamics that underlie this activism. Using oral history interviews with 30 faculty members working to secure lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)-supportive policies on their respective campuses, this article identifies reasons the faculty members became involved in this advocacy, types of advocacy in which they engaged, factors associated with engaging in advocacy, and challenges facing these faculty advocates. Specific dynamics facing LGBT faculty are discussed, and predictions are made for the future of faculty advocacy on LGBT campus policy issues.

This paper describes findings from a qualitative study of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) student-heterosexual field instructor dyads. Each dyad was assessed for its level of agreement in characterizing the student's experience in field placement. Disagreements were common, with more than half of the dyads having 2-5 areas of disagreement. The following factors seemed to impact the level of student-field instructor agreement: the field instructor supervisory style, the quality of the studentfield instructor relationship, field instructor comfort with addressing LGB development and practice issues, the student's perception of the agency climate as gay-friendly, and the student's level of disclosure and stage in coming out.

"Are you married?" It is my first day of field placement. I had prepared so carefully by moving the ring my lover gave me to my right hand and leaving my pink triangle earring at home. Dressed in "professional clothes," I knew that I could pass undetected. Now, confronted with this question, how do I respond?