ADEI:  Anti-racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

ADEI:  Anti-racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Bethel College Kansas

The Bethel College Social Work Program supports initiatives in anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion (ADEI) through course content, extracurricular activities, and collaborative partnerships with community organizations.  

Some examples of these initiatives include:

  • The Social Work Department plays an active role on the campus-wide Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Team.
  • The Social Work Department delivers course content in ADEI through Social Justice & Social Change (SWK364), Gender & Sexuality (SWK 255), and Social Welfare Policy Analysis (SWK420).  Additional course content is infused into other social work courses.
  • The Social Work Department partners with the Newton Community for Racial Justice to provide students with community-based anti-racism training.
  • The Social Work Department collaborates with the Harvey County Health Equity Team to help students attend training on health equity and related preventive initiatives.
  • The Social Work Department works to collaborate and support campus initiatives and bring guest speakers to the community to speak about ADEI efforts.  Some examples of recent initiatives include the 2024 Justice Symposium, Indigenous Scholar Sarah Augustine, and activist-scholar Dr. Caleb Stephens.

The Council on Social Work Education also requires accredited programs to meet the following competency in order to prepare for professional social work practice:

Competency 3: Engage anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion (ADEI) in practice:

Social workers: 

a. demonstrate anti-racist and anti-oppressive social work practice at the individual, family, group, organizational, community, research, and policy levels; and 

b. demonstrate cultural humility by applying critical reflection, self-awareness, and self regulation to manage the influence of bias, power, privilege, and values in working with clients and constituencies, acknowledging them as experts of their own lived experiences.

According to CSWE, 

Social workers understand how racism and oppression shape human experiences and how these two constructs influence practice at the individual, family, group, organizational, and community levels and in policy and research. Social workers understand the pervasive impact of White supremacy and privilege and use their knowledge, awareness, and skills to engage in anti-racist practice. Social workers understand how diversity and intersectionality shape human experiences and identity development and affect equity and inclusion. The dimensions of diversity are understood as the intersectionality of factors including but not limited to age, caste, class, color, culture, disability and ability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, generational status, immigration status, legal status, marital status, political ideology, race, nationality, religion and spirituality, sex, sexual orientation, and tribal sovereign status. Social workers understand that this intersectionality means that a person’s life experiences may include oppression, poverty, marginalization, and alienation as well as privilege and power. Social workers understand the societal and historical roots of social and racial injustices and the forms and mechanisms of oppression and discrimination. Social workers understand cultural humility and recognize the extent to which a culture’s structures and 10  2022 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards values, including social, economic, political, racial, technological, and cultural exclusions, may create privilege and power resulting in systemic oppression.