2020 JSWE Awards
JSWE Award Winners for Volume 55
Best Reviewers
Congratulations to Leon Ginsberg (Appalachian State University, retired) and David Moxley (University of Alaska, Anchorage), who have been selected as the Journal of Social Work Education (JSWE) Best Reviewers of 2020! Each year, the recipients of the Best Reviewer awards are selected by the JSWE Editorial Advisory Board to recognize manuscript reviewers who have demonstrated exceptional service in responsiveness to requests for review, timeliness in submitting completed reviews, and quality of written reviews. Dr. Ginsberg and Dr. Moxley will be honored at the CSWE 2020 Annual Program Meeting in November.
CSWE and the JSWE Editorial Advisory Board would like to thank all the dedicated professionals who generously donate their time and expertise to review manuscripts and thus contribute to the value and success of the journal.
Best Empirical Article
Werman, A., Adlparvar, F., Horowitz, J. K., & Hasegawa, M. O. (2019). Difficult conversations in a school of social work: Exploring student and faculty perceptions. Journal of Social Work Education, 55, 251–264.
Difficult conversations about isms, power, privilege, and oppression are an essential part of social work education, and they present unique challenges for students and faculty. The current study examined students’ and faculty’s perceptions of the safety of the classroom and the competence of the faculty in facilitating difficult conversations at a graduate school of social work in New York City. Student and faculty versions of a survey were distributed to both groups. Results indicated students rated the experience of having difficult conversations at the school significantly more negatively than the faculty did. The majority of respondents expressed the need for courses and training to be more fluent in having difficult conversations. Future directions are discussed based on the findings.
Best Conceptual Article
Mersky, J. P., Topitzes, J., & Britz, L. (2019). Promoting evidence-based, trauma-informed social work practice. Journal of Social Work Education, 55, 645–657.
Given the human costs of psychological trauma, social workers should be well-versed in trauma-informed care (TIC). This framework helps guide the efforts of systems, organizations, and practitioners toward reducing trauma or mitigating its effects. The field has created TIC principles, although they have yet to be fully realized as practical applications. This article makes the case that theoretically and empirically grounded content on trauma should be foundational to social work education. We also argue that social work practice will be advanced by clearly defining trauma and by distinguishing TIC from trauma-focused and trauma-sensitive approaches. Finally, a TIC certificate program illustrates how graduate student training and social work practice are enhanced by integrating trauma content into classroom and field settings.
Best Note
Kuilema, J., Schwander, L., Alford, K., Venema, R., & Hoeksema, S. (2019). Teaching Note—Time for a Teach-In? Addressing Racist Incidents on College Campuses. Journal of Social Work Education, 55, 818–824.
This teaching note discusses a teach-in organized in response to a racist incident on a college campus. An examination of the history of teach-ins demonstrates that social work educators have been involved with them since the beginning of the profession, and the method is a natural fit for social work given its historic role. Social work educators have unique professional and ethical responsibilities to respond to hate crimes and other racist incidents on campus and to develop the competencies of social work students to do the same. Teach-ins are a model for doing so in ways that demonstrate the profession’s commitments to social justice advocacy, social justice education, and a robust implicit curriculum.