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ScholarWorks > HHS > Social Work > JSSW > Vol. 52 > Iss. 1 (2025)

 

Keywords

Social work, policy practice, evaluation, social work education

Abstract

Social justice is recognized as one of the core values of social work. In pursuit of this, social workers are expected to engage in policy practice. However, surveys of MSW programs and practicing social workers suggest that studying and engaging in policy practice is not a widespread occurrence. One barrier to policy practice seems to be that social workers in clinical practice lack the knowledge and self-efficacy to engage effectively in it. In order to promote engagement in policy practice, a literature search of outcome studies related to promoting policy practice among social workers was attempted, which revealed no citations. Subsequently, a literature search of outcome studies related to promoting policy practice among social work students was conducted. A total of 19 quantitative outcome studies were located, and the relevant results are presented and discussed. The designs were of weak internal validity, and relatively few in number, given the importance ascribed to policy practice by the social work profession. Suggestions are provided to promote the design and conduct of further empirical studies intended to evaluate approaches to teaching policy practice to social work students.

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