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A Call To Action
Social work students are the future of the profession; we are the ones

who are to effect change in society, creating a more fair and just world.
Social work students, however, are ill-equipped to carry out this duty.
Curricula highlighting social injustice and its effects, illustrated through our
clients’ lives, fail to generate action and dialogue on social work school
campuses. This political apathy runs counter to the philosophy of social
work. Social structures need to be changed to remedy social ills through
direct action. Social work students must turn beliefs and convictions into
actions.  

The Social Work Code of Ethics Requires Involvement
Social work students have not been sufficiently engaged in social action

and discussion. One recent event on campus at Columbia University, billed
as a discussion on the humanitarian crisis in Iraq, was attended by approxi-
mately ten social work students. What could have been an opportunity for
social work students to inform themselves on issues of global, political, and
social importance was, instead, a demonstration of the student body’s apa-
thy toward learning about events outside their immediate practice focus.
Many social work students are poorly informed about local, national, and
international causes and their interconnections. Social work students should

SSOCIALOCIAL WWORKERSORKERS OFOF THETHE WWORLDORLD UUNITENITE

Lesley Buck

Social workers begin their professional careers in graduate school. In
preparation, students need to educate themselves with regard to relevant
social and political issues. The NASW Code of Ethics stresses the profes-
sion’s ethical obligation to actively work on behalf of the goals of social
justice and social change. Graduate social work programs fall short of

preparing students for the progressive role the profession requires. Social
workers are uniquely positioned to converge various fields relevant to

social change. Furthermore, social work is a political activity, as it either
serves the status quo or the concerns of client populations. Students are

required to reconcile the ethics of the profession and their graduate train-
ing through engaging in political and social action. 



Columbia University Journal of Student Social Work Volume 1, Number 1
26

realize that there is more to social work than what is being taught in gradu-
ate schools. 

Social work students have an obligation to engage in social change; it is
our fundamental role in society, and mandated by the profession. Social jus-
tice is one of the core ethical principles of the National Association of Social
Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics. This professional code requires us to act
socially and politically to guarantee all people the rights to equity and social
justice (NASW, 1999).

Educational Standards Exclude Social Change
Social work students prepare to enter a professional career, and like all

professions, social work has its own educational training (Flexner, 1915). A
comparison of the Code of Ethics to the educational standards set by the
Council on Social Work Education (CSWE, 2003) reveals interesting dis-
crepancies. Social work schools are not educating their students for future
careers as change leaders, as the CSWE merely requires that ethics and
social justice be infused into the curriculum of graduate programs (CSWE).
An ethical mission of our profession has been relegated to a non-essential
component of our educational requirements. 

Graduate social work education chooses to emphasize certain profes-
sional areas over others; it is clear that involvement in social and political
justice has not been recognized as an important area for knowledge devel-
opment (Sarri & Meyer, 1992). There is little evidence that the current social
work curriculum is designed to foster critical social thinking and action.
Students seldom engage in politically oriented dialogue. In fact, most stu-
dents and professors take great measures to ensure that discussions are polit-
ically sanitized, with students rarely expressing any strong opinions on
issues of poverty, racism, classism, or ethics. Social workers today have
relinquished their roles as social critics and reformers, representing a serious
concern for the profession (Sarri & Meyer).

The social work profession has a long history of active political engage-
ment, representing a threat to the status quo.  Many interested parties would
hope the newer generations of the profession would abandon this commit-
ment. In fact, Brill (2001) warned of the widening gap between ethics and
practice. Students are called upon to bridge this gap, which requires more
attention and critical thinking to our practice than ever before. 

Social workers have a unique perspective to offer the political and social
change debates. As a profession, social work draws upon and connects many
fields, including political science, sociology, psychology, and philosophy.
Social workers perform many duties and operate in many spheres.
Unfortunately, social work schools may not be doing enough to create pro-
fessionals suited for the inter-disciplinary work required of social workers.



BUCK / Social Workers of the World Unite
27

Social work schools may be training students to take a professional role in
the existing structure of society instead of fostering critical thinking and
training to create a new and better social structure (Sarri & Meyer, 1992). 

Social Work Is Political
Feminists have argued for decades that the personal is political. Social

workers are positioned, unlike any other group of professionals, to connect
personal issues to their social, political, and economic roots (Long, 2002).
Social workers must challenge the status quo by advocating for change to
address the structural, economic, and systemic problems from which clients
suffer.

Social justice can be achieved through direct efforts to reform social pol-
icy. Social work students should be involved in social advocacy on behalf of
their client populations. The criteria by which we measure the success of
social action must be the change achieved for the deprived communities in
which we serve (Figueira-McDonough, 1993).

Furthermore, many scholars have argued that social work is, a priori, a
political endeavor (Abramovitz, 1993; Long, 2002; Freire, 1990). The uni-
fying theme of social work, regardless of the unit of analysis (client inter-
ventions, advocacy, community organizing, and policy reform), is ameliora-
tion of a social problem. To claim that social work is neutral is to support the
existing social structure and ideology and exempt these from diligent scruti-
ny. Long stated that “a decision to act apolitically is a decision to support the
status quo” (p. 57). It could be further argued that social workers actually
contribute to this status quo by placating the disenfranchised instead of
mobilizing them and creating change. Apolitical social work absolves the
rest of society from action, allowing problems to linger unchallenged.
Abramovitz argued that social workers need to be educated for change to
ensure that the profession does not become an agent of the status quo. 

The Emerging Professional’s Responsibility to be Informed
Freire (1990) stated, “social workers are conditioned by the structure of

the society in which they live, in which they are formed. Social workers
uncover and make explicit a certain dream about social relations, which is a
political dream” (p. 5). The structure of society has changed drastically in
the last twenty years. Much social progress has been undone through effec-
tive political marketing, shifting attention away from domestic and social
issues. 

Schools of social work need to sustain an environment where divergent
opinions can be expressed, and students need to take initiative to educate
themselves about relevant and timely political and social issues. A funda-
mental problem in the political and social arenas in the United States today



Columbia University Journal of Student Social Work Volume 1, Number 1
28

is the lack of discourse. Citizens are not questioning the political system in
the diligent manner that was espoused by this country’s fore founders. The
proliferation of social problems in the most recent decades is testimony that
many have been victimized by the political system, directly or indirectly. If
social workers do not actively work for social and political change on behalf
of the most vulnerable populations, who will? If the current generation of
social workers fails to embrace the profession’s ethical obligation to achieve
social justice, will the profession’s mission evolve to support, instead of
oppose, a socially conservative and oppressive political environment?

Writing in 1953, social worker Charlotte Towle asserted, “we live in a
period of scientific enlightenment and of great technical achievement which,
if intelligently used, could render the life of all peoples more satisfactory
that even before” (p. 1). Social work students must not rely on graduate
school curricula to provide all the essential training to accomplish this. The
mission and ethics of the profession require a willingness to actively con-
front social and political injustice on behalf of our client populations. Young
professionals preparing to enter practice must realize the political nature of
their work and reconcile it with the political and social reality they would
like to develop. 

References
Abramovitz, M. (1993). Should all social workers be educated for 

social change? Pro. Journal of Social Work Education, 29, (1)
6-11.

Brill, C. K. (2001). Looking at the social work profession through the 
eye of the NASW code of ethics. Research on Social Work 
Practice, 11(2), 223-234. 

Council on Social Work Education. (n.d.). Curriculum policy state
ment for master’s degree programs. Retrieved February 24, 2003, 
from http://www.cswe.org.

Figueira-McDonough, J. (1993). Policy practice: The neglected side of 
social work intervention. Social Work, 38(2), 179-188. 

Flexner, A. (1915). Is social work a profession? In National 
Conference of Charities and Corrections, Proceedings of the 
National Conference of Charities and Corrections. Chicago: 
Hildmann. 

Freire, P. (1990). A critical understanding of social work. Journal of 
Progressive Human Services, 1(1), 3-9. 

Long, P. (2002). Ethical and inescapable: Politicized social work. In 
M. O’Melia and K. K. Miley (Eds.), Pathways to Power: Readings 
in Contextual Social Work Practice (pp. 55-73). Boston: Allyn and 
Bacon. 

National Association of Social Workers. (1999). Code of ethics of the 



BUCK / Social Workers of the World Unite
29

National Association of  Social Workers. Washington, D.C.: 
NASW.

Sarri, R.C. & Meyer, C.H. (1992). Is social work inherently conserva-
tive- designed to protect the vested interests of the dominant power 
groups? In E. Gambrill and R. Pruger (Eds.), Controversial Issues 
in Social Work (pp. 39-51). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Towle, C. (1953). Common human needs. New York: American 
Association of Social Workers. 

Lesley Buck is a first-year MS student at the Columbia University
School of Social Work. She is currently an intern at the Boys and Girls

Harbor Post-Adoption Services Program in New York City. She holds a BA
from New York University in Economics and French.




