Social Work Leadership Practice 2 – Policy Analysis and Advocacy is the second course in the University of Iowa School of Social Work’s MSW Leadership specialization track. The content and approach in this course support Council on Social Work Education educational competencies of:
- Advancing Human Rights and Social, Racial, Economic, and Environmental Justice (Competency 2)
- Engaging Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ADEI) in Practice (Competency 3) and
- Engaging in Policy Practice (Competency 5)
Enduring Understandings and Learning Outcomes. In designing the overall MSW curriculum, we asked social work practitioners what “enduring understandings” stood the test of time in their practice. Based on what they said, we organized them into themes: Critical thinking (CT), Social Justice (SJ), Use of Self (US), Ethics (E), and Systems Perspective (SP). Enduring Understandings informed the creation of the learning outcomes for this course, which are:
- Apply a policy analysis process of building a rationale, collecting and synthesizing information, and presenting conclusions in a logical way.
- Evaluate policies to see whether and how they advance human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice.
- Advocate for policies informed by the points of view of those who are most directly harmed by racist policies and systems of oppression.
Based on the Learning Outcomes, the Enduring Understandings we’ll work on in this course (followed by the ways we’ll know we’re learning them — or types of evidence that show we’re getting there) are:
| Enduring Understandings | How we build skills to get there | |
| CT #4: How is evidence informed practice a critical thinking exercise? | Apply a process of building a rationale, collecting and synthesizing information, and presenting conclusions in a logical way.
Apply by analyzing policies that advance human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice Interpret similarities and differences between critical thinking and problem solving as a social worker |
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| SP #3: How do social workers consider the entire eco-system when seeking solutions? | Anticipate and recognize systems impacts of policy/program changes an agency could make.
Reflect on reactions to complexity and ambiguity when applying a systems perspective in practice, including the unclear “responsible party” and the most appropriate intervention level or type. |
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| SJ #4: How can I impact social change? | Reflect on one’s own reactions to the complexity and ambiguity when applying a systems perspective in practice. Including the unclear “responsible party” and the most appropriate intervention level or type
Apply the various stages of social work practice- engaging, assessing, intervening and evaluating practice- utilizing systemic and other multidisciplinary theoretical perspectives |
Interpret and amplify scholarly sources authored by those with lived experience and from systemically marginalized communities
Seek out expertise and leadership from marginalized communities in community assessments Reflect on one’s own personal and professional perpetuation of oppressive systems and structures that maintain social injustice See from the points of view of those who are most directly harmed by racist policies and systems of oppression. |
| SJ #5: How do I advocate for social justice? | ||
| SJ #6: What are the prerequisites for engaging in work as an ally or accomplice? | Reflect on how engaging in professional use of self through self-reflection is an ongoing process | |
| UofS #5: How do my personal experiences and affective reactions influence my professional judgment and behavior? | Examine your and other’s decisions and actions from a lens of positionality, monitoring emotional and other reactions.
Utilize feedback and supervision to critically interrogate your perspectives on issues and situations. |
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How are we going to get there? In order to achieve our learning outcomes, we need a focus — if we’re going to analyze or propose policy, what kind of policy is that going to be? And, if we’re going to advocate, where and how are we going to do that? In this course, our policy focus will be voting access. Running for elected office will be how we approach advocacy. I believe students (really all of us) learn better when we can try out content and concepts in real-world applications — or when that’s not possible or advisable, create a simulation to serve as a lab. For this course, we’re exploring and applying voting access in the real-world environments of a social work agency — yours, or someone else’s. When it comes to running for elected office, we’re creating an imaginary-for-now but perhaps reality-in-the-future scenario — you will take steps necessary to run for office.
Resources we’ll use. I’m emphasizing resources I’ve found “in the wild,” with the idea that when you want to use them again, you can find them — or something similar. There are so many good people doing good work out there. We don’t have to recreate it. Instead, we can join our efforts to theirs. For the first half of the course where we focus voting access, we’ll lean on Voting is Social Work, a national campaign to activate social work students and practitioners to work with social service agencies to register, educate, and mobilize voters.
We’ll also explore materials from organizations like Bolder Advocacy. Nonprofit (501 c 3) agencies are often understandably concerned about keeping their tax-exempt status and think that they can’t if they move into electoral politics – including helping clients to vote and informing them of the positions candidates hold on issues important to their clients. Bolder Advocacy calls BS on that and offers practical legal guidance to nonprofits so they can help clients exercise their voting rights and advocate for a better world.
In the second part of class, we turn to how a person goes about running for office. We’ll use materials from the Nebraska League of Women Voters and CandidateBootcamp.com. The League of Women Voters (LWV) is a national organization with state chapters engaged in voting access, education, and activation and engaging more people as candidates. On their home page they say: The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization working to protect and expand voting rights and ensure everyone is represented in our democracy. We empower voters and defend democracy through advocacy, education, and litigation, at the local, state, and national levels. LWV was established by suffragettes in 1920 and have chapters in every state. They are well-connected to local politicians and people in the know.
Since 2016, there’s been a significant increase in organizations offering education and support for people who want to run for office. CandidateBootcamp.com’s materials work well for our purposes here but know there are others out there. For example, state chapters of the Democratic and Republican parties frequently offer workshops or training series for people interested in holding office — and again, they are wonderful places to network in your community and state.
So, let’s begin. As the late social worker and US Senator Barbara Mikulski said, “Politics is social work with power.” People, we’ve got this.
