Developing a Localized Anti-Oppression Prereq: Lessons for Making it Relevant, Applicable, Measurable, and Engaging

Concurrent Session 1

Brief Abstract

This session provides insights into the design, development, and continuous improvement process for a self-paced, localized, 15- to 20-hour anti-oppression prerequisite. Discussion will occur around efforts to make a course such as this relevant, applicable, measurable, and engaging, in order to best move the needle on DEI and anti-oppression outcomes.

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Ashlie Kauffman Sarsgard, University of Maryland - Baltimore School of Social Work

Co-presenter: Samantha Fuld, University of Maryland School of Social Work

Samantha Fuld, DSW, MSW, LCSW-C, is Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work. She received her DSW from the NYU Silver School of Social Work, where her scholarship focused on the impact of trauma and stigma on mental health in people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and she worked to promote a critical social model of understanding disability in social work practice. She has held a variety of clinical and administrative positions, all of which have worked to address the negative mental health impacts of stigma and systemic oppression, particularly facing neurodiverse/neurodivergent people. Her work centers on a commitment to anti-oppressive social work education and practice, neurodiversity, cultural humility, social/institutional models of understanding critical social issues, and the guiding principle of Nothing About Us Without Us that has been core to the disability rights movement. She currently serves as Co-Chair of the SSW's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee (DEIC) and teaches in both the foundation and advanced curricula, including courses in human behavior, social work practice with individuals, advanced clinical interventions, and cognitive behavior therapies.

Extended Abstract

The necessary, increased attention to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in higher education has revealed the need for review of the implicit and explicit curriculum in many schools and universities, including ours. As a part of changes to our curriculum that include adding and infusing anti-oppression and DEI content, a team at our school developed a non-credit, 15- to 20-hour prerequisite required of all incoming students on the history of oppression and resistance in the U.S., focusing on our city as representative of other cities, communities, and populations that experience oppression and work to resist its impact. Also made available to advanced students, faculty, and staff, the prerequisite introduces numerous topics and concepts related to structural oppression (including its impact on Black, Latino, Asian, Indigenous, LGBTQIA2S+, immigrant, and other populations), illuminates how resistance has occurred in response to oppression and attempts to transform it, and provides theoretical approaches to understanding oppression in order to deepen critical thinking around the course topics.

Built using Articulate Rise software, the pre-requisite was created similar to a training module, and contains a written script that narrates the course content; audio recordings of the script; hundreds of relevant photographs that serve as brief photo essays of topics; inspiring quotes; and links to various video clips and newspaper, website, and journal articles. Interactions and assessments designed to teach, reinforce, and engage include images with pop-up markers, flash cards, and checks for understanding. The journal feature in the LMS is linked to from the course for students to engage in self-reflection around certain questions and apply learning from the course to groups, communities, and locales with which they are familiar.

In this education session, we will describe various efforts in the course design and development process to make the prerequisite relevant, applicable, measurable, and engaging, in order to best move the needle on DEI and anti-oppression outcomes. We will outline our efforts to inclusively engage various stakeholders in initial course development and in continually improving and altering the course in response to highly relevant issues and events, such as COVID-19 inequities and Black Lives Matter protests and demonstrations. We will share how pre- and post-course self-assessment data, quantitative and qualitative survey responses, and other inputs have also directed our revisions of the course. We will also share our plans for efficiently and effectively updating future versions in order to be most attuned and responsive to the needs of our students and the communities they serve.

During the session, we will demonstrate content and features of the course via a presentation and will ask questions of participants with an aim of helping them consider how they might apply various design, development, content, and revision choices in DEI-related or other curriculum projects they might engage in at their own institutions. Audience members will be given a link to the course in Articulate Review, which is an accessible platform that will enable them to both view the course and make comments on it, using either a mobile device or laptop, and will answer the questions posed using this platform. Besides this manner of audience participation and interaction, we will also leave time for a question and answer session at the end of our presentation.

Attendees will leave the session with strategies for developing a prerequisite or other self-paced course that incorporates anti-oppression and DEI content with a localized viewpoint. They will recognize the importance of involving numerous stakeholders in the design, development, and revision processes of a course that focuses on DEI and anti-oppression outcomes. They will gain tangible ideas for how to make a DEI and anti-oppression prerequisite relevant, applicable, measurable, and engaging, and learn how specific design and development choices can lead to extensive self-reported change for students who had varying levels of prior knowledge about oppression and comfort discussing topics related to it.