Teaching Inequality
摘要
Social work education has a pivotal role in a commitment to empower graduates to advocate for social change and to challenge systems of oppression and inequality. Through coursework on diversity, cultural competence, and social policy, students learn to recognize and address the structural barriers that perpetuate injustice and marginalization in society (Thompson, 2020). In this chapter, a social work practice course, Social Work Practice—a Poverty and Homelessness, will be discussed to demonstrate a service learning project accomplished by students of the Master of Social Work Program of Ilia State University. The project addresses inequality among street-connected young people using photovoice methodology. Social service methods are used to deepen students’ formal preparation for local and global citizenship and gain practical experience to understand and intervene at different levels to reduce inequalities. In service learning projects, students engage in hands-on, reciprocal learning about social justice through the application of theoretical knowledge, concepts, and methods to the practical, everyday lives of disadvantaged people and groups (Quist-Adade, 2013).