The purpose of this multi-methods, community-based survey was to understand the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on social work education with the goal of transforming these data into critical knowledge products that are “of use” to social work students, current and not-yet-here. A number of  “home grown” survey questions were developed and refined during multiple collaborative survey-making sessions as part of a semester long class project for a required Research course at the Silberman School of Social Work. The survey covers four broad topical areas: 1) demographic information, 2) education during the pandemic, 3) self-care and social support, and 4) activism and community engagement. It was distributed to the entire class, and every student in SSW 752 (section 2) completed the survey (n = 22).

Student Demographic Information

Survey Participant Demographics

Study Context

Imagine a year so unprecedented that many of us have assigned new meaning to the word itself. 2020 was a year littered with morbidity and grief. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, as of May 2021, has taken the lives of nearly 600,000 people living in the United States, and over 50,000 of those deaths are in New York (New York Times, 2021). In the midst of this global pandemic, police brutality and racial violence are making constant appearances in the media. The murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor inspired a wave of demonstrations, protests, and riots compounding the pain experienced in many communities deeply affected by the coronavirus (Poteat et al., 2020). In a year of violence and loss, the world was forced to carry on with a “new normal”, and education institutions were not exempt. As life moved to virtual formats, unrest grew alongside death tolls and infection rates, and support and understanding were commodities in high demand among people living in the crosshairs of these contentious times. The following photographs were curated from online royalty free image sites for the purpose of visually highlighting the context of the 2020-2021 school year. 

The MSW Experience During the Pandemic

A word cloud of terms students used to describe their MSW experience during the pandemic. Larger words were used more frequently.

We asked survey participants to answer the question “Do you feel triggered by the events that transpired over the 2020-2021 school year?” Participants were given three closed-ended options: yes, unsure, and no. The following graphs illustrate the proportion of students who fell into the different categories. We compared students of color with White students, and applied the chi-square test to determine if the two groups were significantly different in terms of feeling triggered by the events of 2020-2021.

It is evident that identifying as a student of color was significantly associated with being triggered by the events of this past year, Fisher’s exact χ2(2)=9.306, p < .01. There was a significantly larger proportion of students of color who found the events of 2020 more triggering (81.3%) than White students (18.8%). Conversely, a larger number of White students were unsure if they were triggered by the events of this past year. In contrast, no students of color were unsure.  Moreover, the survey results demonstrated that the proportion of those in the sample who did not feel triggered was split in half, with 50% being White and 50% being students of color.

There are a number of possible explanations that could account for these results. The term “trigger” was not clearly operationalized in the survey and students were not given an open-ended option to explain their responses in the survey.  Yet, as social workers and advocates for racial and social justice, it is essential that we reflect deeply upon these signifiant findings, talk about them, and develop targeted supports for students of color who are struggling.  If students of color are the largest sub-population within the sample group who are triggered by the events of 2020, we need more research to develop evidenced-based programs to support them. Further, critical research is needed to examine why so many White students feel otherwise.  This may lead us to conclusions about empathy, compassion, and solidarity and how lack thereof may be perpetuating a system that our field is attempting to dismantle.

What about support?

Our survey asked multiple questions about social support and self care within and beyond the University setting. We felt it was particularly important to inquire about these concepts given the unique circumstances of Covid-19, social distancing, and profound isolation that people in every corner of the world are experiencing. We included open-ended questions like: “When you are going through a hard time, what activities do you do to take care of yourself?” and closed-ended questions like “Where do you receive support from outside of the University since the transition to online learning? (check all that apply)”. The following table presents findings from t-tests comparing students of color with White students in terms of perceived level of support from University personnel, higher scores represent greater perceived level of support.

According to the data, students of color experienced significantly lower levels of perceived support from professors and the field department than White students. It is interesting to point out that the support perceived from the field department and administration on a 1-5 Likert scale (1 meaning very unsupported and 5 meaning very supported) by white students was still only 2.25. The standard deviation is larger for White students for both administration and the field department (SD = 1.16), which indicates that their overall experiences deviated more from the mean, whereas for students of color, their experiences hovered closer to the mean, particularly with regards to the field department (SD = 0.69). Conversely, with regards to professors, the standard deviation was smaller for White students (SD=0.35) than students of color (SD=1.18), suggesting greater variance in perceived level of support from professors among students of color who participated in this survey. The p value being <0.001 shows that there is a statistically significant difference between the two groups, meaning that the difference in perceived support is not due to chance but due to the systemic presenting difference between the two groups.

Implications and Recommendations

The findings from this research shed light on numerous implications to better support social work students, particularly students of color, and also create more equitable learning environments for students and staff at the Silberman School of Social Work, whether in person or online. The following is a list of research, policy, and practice recommendations generated by our research collective after reviewing and analyzing the data. The potential cost of our recommendations vary, though attention was given to offering low cost, high impact solutions to the issues raised by this research. 

Implications for Research

• Form a Silberman research collective of BSW, MSW, and PHD students and professors and faculty members to engage in critical, community-based research on various equity issues. Institutional changes should be implemented based on research findings
• Research classes should continue performing this in-home evaluation of their university experience to make these lessons not only applicable to real life, but to also compare the findings of university assessments vs student assessments to challenge transparency 
• Institutions should conduct routine evaluation of supportive factors in place at universities to better understand the needs and perspectives of students

Implications for Policy

• Instate an institutional or professional policy where students are paid for their internship hours. Working 21 hours a week of free labor is not acceptable, and social work interns should be compensated for their services
• Develop a policy that holds school administrators accountable to reduce inequities among their student body 
• Develop an institutional policy to ensure an adequate student to advisor ratio so that students receive personalized attention and support
• Governing bodies like CSWE should include in their audits of social work programs a metric to assess the degree to which students from different social locations feel supported by their institutions

Implications for Practice

• Students of color are disproportionately affected by the lack of support and should be catered to through targeted services
• Create equity teams that focus on providing direct support and advocacy for micro-macro changes at the University that promote equity among differently positioned students and faculty members
• Burnout from juggling multiple commitments (i.e., school, field placement, and employment) is another factor that can impede a student’s academic success and readiness to enter the career field. Social work program administrators must have conversations around finding alternative ways to offset the financial costs of attending the program and providing paid field placement so students will not have to seek extra employment. Decreasing burnout is integral to social work students’ success and the future of the field as a whole
• Students need a place to give ongoing feedback to administration and other personnel. We too often feel discouraged when our emails about important items are ignored, or we are struggling with specific classes, professors, or field issues. This place can be our website, or can be something officially created by Hunter College
• Universities should hire someone whose specific role it is to receive feedback. If administrators are too busy to respond to students, we need to know that somebody is hearing how things are affecting us short and long term
• Provide students with access to a counselor that is specifically focused on the needs of graduate social work students and can help advocate in times of immense stress
• Provide more mental health workshops as well as workshops around meaningful discussions about race. These workshops should be led by someone who is trained in facilitating sensitive discussion around race-related issues

References 

Poteat, T., Millett, G., Nelson, L. E., & Beyrer, C. (2020). Understanding COVID-19 risks and vulnerabilities among Black communities in America: The lethal force of syndemics. Annals of Epidemiology, 47, 1-3.

New York Times. (2021, May 16). Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest map and case count. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html