Abstract
Social work education prepares students to ethically engage historically stigmatized populations. The importance of including diversity in the social work curriculum and preparing culturally competent social workers has been established. However, little is known about how social work educators utilize the syllabus as a tool to prepare students to develop the stamina to attend to and cope with emotional reactions that may result from engaging in critical self-discovery and difficult conversations regarding diversity and social justice. Guided by the Discomforting Pedagogy Educational framework, this study consists of a review of a nationwide sample of syllabi identified from first-year, stand-alone, required diversity-related social justice courses within MSW programs. This study explored the extent to which course expectations included affective learning processes (one’s emotion, beliefs, ethics, self-awareness, and attitudes) in the course syllabi that support discomforting learning experiences. The results highlight that most instructors communicate expectations regarding conduct based on respect and valuing diverse perspectives, but instructors can more explicitly support students’ examination of their positionality and bias and how to handle these emotional reactions. Based on the findings, we offer several strategies for supporting social work students in challenging their existing views and working through discomforting learning experiences.