Comparisons Between Caucasian Students, Students of Color, and American Indian Students on their Views on Social Work’s Traditional Mission, Career Motivations, and Practice Preferences

Analyzing the Attitude of Undergraduate Students Toward Poverty and Impoverished Persons: Does Social Work Education Make a Difference?

“…Their analysis yielded interesting results: Caucasian students were more likely than non-White students (i.e., Asian Americans, African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos and Filipinos/Pacific Islanders) to attribute poverty to individualistic factors. In another study that considered the influence of ethnicity and gender on attitude toward poverty, Sun's (2001) analysis yielded different results from Limb and Organista's (2003) study in that Caucasian social work students were found to place a greater emphasis on the structural explanation of poverty than were non-Caucasian social work students.…”

“…For example, Limb (2001) noted that Native American MSW students exhibited more desire to help poor and disadvantaged populations though social and institutional change than did non-Native American MSW students. Furthermore, Limb and Organista (2003) analyzed data collected from a California statewide sample of approximately 7,000 matriculating MSW students. Their analysis yielded interesting results: Caucasian students were more likely than non-White students (i.e., Asian Americans, African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos and Filipinos/Pacific Islanders) to attribute poverty to individualistic factors.…”

MSW Students' Perspectives on Social Work Goals and Social Activism Before and After Completing Graduate Education

“…They and others (Gsikai & Belanger, 2002) conclude that there may be incongruence between the values of social work and the aspirations and interests of many incoming MSW students. Others contradict those outcomes (Limb & Organista, 2003.…”

“…In spite of both CSWE and NASW statements, there is no definitive measurement scale of the goals of social work, although researchers in different countries use a variety of proxies for them, including student attitudes toward poverty and career preferences (Krumer-Nevo & Weiss, 2006;Limb & Organista, 2003;Perry, 2003;Weaver & Yun, 2011;Weiss, 2003).…”

What Changes MSW Students' View on the Mission of Social Work?

“…The author stressed the need to pay particular attention to ethnicity and age of students when addressing issues related to social work values and attitudes. With regards to the influence of race/ethnicity, research reported that students of color showed more preference for working with disadvantaged clients (Rubin and Johnson, 1984;Abell and McDonell, 1990;Limb and Organista, 2003).…”