 Reflecting on Professional Identity Through Art: A Case Example

Undergraduate human services programs seek ways to support students as they develop their professional identities. Few, if any studies, have considered the benefits of engaging human services students in art directives as a method for them to reflect on their professional identities. The following is a case example on how an art directive was incorporated in an undergraduate fieldwork course at an urban community college.

 Ethics Education in Human Services: Curriculum Approach, Faculty Characteristics, and Evaluation of Students

This article discusses three aspects of the context of ethics education, which are external to course content but affect the development of the ethical student and, later, the ethical professional. This article presents the available perspectives for the following: one course versus whole curriculum delivery of ethics education, the influence of faculty and supervisors, and the assessment of student ethical thinking and behavior. Professional literature is used to support consideration of each perspective in the ethics education of human services students.

 Response of Undergraduate Human Services Programs to the Mass Incarceration Crisis

Mass incarceration has resulted in the United States having the world’s largest incarcerated population and the highest rate of incarceration. Consequently, nearly 1 in 4 Americans has a criminal record. Racial and ethnic minorities have much higher rates of incarceration than Whites. The collateral consequences of a criminal conviction are colossal and continue well beyond incarceration. Human services students must be well prepared to competently serve clients and families affected by this crisis. This exploratory, qualitative study aimed to determine if undergraduate programs accredited by the Council for Standards in Human Service Education offer course content related to the mass incarceration crisis. Results from a content analysis of course titles and descriptions of 17 accredited programs suggest students are not being adequately prepared to competently serve this population. Implications for human services education, practice, and research are discussed.

Making the Invisible Visible: Applying Digital Storytelling for Immersive, Transformative and Anti-Colonial Learning

This article examines the potential for digital storytelling in students’ local environments to produce transformative, anti-colonial learning. Using a process of mindful, embodied and emplaced observation, social work and human services students at one Australian university were asked to create a digital story about the visibility and valuing of First Nations’ peoples, culture and country in their local area. This article reports on a mixed-methods research evaluation of transformative learning outcomes from that assessment. It details the Indigenist and intercultural conceptual framework that underpinned the assessment and research evaluation. This article provides resources, findings and insights that can assist social work educators and professionals to adapt the digital storytelling process for their own contexts.

The Impact of Death Education on Fear of Death and Death Anxiety Among Human Services Students

Human services professionals will undoubtedly work with the dying and bereaved populations at one time or other. Yet, they are poorly prepared to do so since death education, that is, lessons about the human and emotional aspects of death, its implications, and subsequent bereavement issues, is often not part of their curriculum. This nonequivalent comparison group study ( N = 86) examined death fear and death anxiety among human services students before and after receiving death education using the Multidimensional Fear of Death Scale. The results showed a statistically significant decrease in death anxiety among the group of students who participated in death education compared to those who did not.