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Social work educators walked out of their national accreditor’s Atlanta conference this October over a proposal to drop explicit DEI requirements from program standards, citing fears that changes would weaken protections for anti-racist and anti-oppressive instruction in states restricting DEI.
“Social work education is not politically neutral,” the National Collaborative for Reproductive Justice, Innovation, and Political Education in Social Work, which is coordinating opposition to the revisions, stated in an organizing update.
A set of demands released in mid-October to coincide with the walkout included calls for “explicit, assessable anti-racist and anti-oppressive competencies” and “meaningful opportunities for participation and institutional accountability.”
“We cannot meaningfully participate in a process we do not fully understand. This is not simply about terminology. It is about institutional power, educational protections, and the future of our profession,” Rutgers University social work Professor E. Goldblatt Hyatt, co-director of the collective, wrote on social media, adding “many colleagues are feeling overwhelmed, hurt, or uncertain.”
Of concern is the Council on Social Work Education’s proposed 2029 revision to its 2022 accreditation standards, which would exchange a required competency of engaging “anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion in practice” for a more broadly worded “person-in-environment” standard.
This proposal follows CSWE’s May statement to The College Fix that DEI values “continue to be essential” and are necessary for “ethical and competent practice.” The council maintains that its “underlying values and expectations have not changed.”
The organization points to restrictions on ADEI terminology enacted in 19 states containing roughly 40 percent of its accredited programs, claiming those laws have made advising schools increasingly difficult.
The National Collaborative for Reproductive Justice, Innovation, and Political Education in Social Work counters that explicit accreditation requirements have defended DEI-related coursework, citing an exemption allowing Boise State’s social work programs to continue requiring DEI-related courses.
Naomi Farber, a professor emerita of social work at the University of South Carolina who previously directed its master’s and doctoral programs, largely agrees with the collaborative in this sense, but said she understands the proposed revision as also potentially enabling greater diversity of thought in the classroom.
“The difference in this draft version seems to be that this perspective narrowly defined can certainly be included among ways to understand racism but is not mandated as such,” Farber told The College Fix.
The revision could allow “different, even competing ways of explaining and defining racism,” she added. “As an ostensibly evidence-based profession,” social work is “obliged to consider a wide variety of theories and kinds of evidence” in teaching and practice.
CSWE’s existing guidance makes clear that programs must demonstrate more than a commitment on paper. Its 2022 interpretation guide lists assignments about white supremacy and “classroom organizing to dismantle oppressive policies” as examples of ADEI efforts.
Nathan Gallo, a Colorado State University MSW graduate, supplied The College Fix with syllabi linking course assignments to CSWE competencies.
A fall 2022 course titled “Anti-Oppressive Social Work Practice” assigned a six-to-eight-page privilege paper worth a quarter of the final grade, asking students to “look at their own dominate [sic] identity” and examine the “impact of privilege and oppression.”
Gallo questioned whether the proposed changes would survive further revisions, citing the council’s Oct. 20 statement that its writing committee would reassess “more explicit language around addressing and combating racism.”
“CSWE’s statement lowers the likelihood that these moderations will ultimately stick,” Gallo told The College Fix. He added that the draft appears to ease the ADEI requirement, but “if identical expectations remain, programs will continue to experience a continued infringement on academic freedom.”
Arnoldo Cantú, an independent scholar and clinical social worker, shared Gallo’s wariness of the council.
“There is no recognition of good-faith criticisms of DEI and critical social justice as reasoning for dropping those mandates,” Cantú told The College Fix. “It’s mostly pointing the finger outward, not inward.”
CSWE, NCRJI-SW founder Crystal Hayes, Professor Hyatt, and Martell Teasley did not respond to requests for comment.
The council has scheduled a public information session on the proposed standards for Nov. 13. Public comments close Nov. 20, with a second draft expected in 2027.
