Applied Methods of Teaching about Oppression and Diversity to Graduate Social Work Students: A Case Example of Digital Stories

Social work education accreditation requires the completion of course work specifically around issues related to oppression and diversity within society. Educators offer a range of approaches to engage students in discussion about oppression and diversity from academic content and structured curriculum to reflective practice and experiential learning opportunities. The following describes a Master of Social Work course on oppression, social justice, and diversity offered at a western Canadian university that utilized a mixed method of teaching practices – including the creation of digital stories by the students in small groups. Beyond this description of the course content, students’ insight into the impact of using digital stories for their own learning and application to professional practice around issues of oppression and diversity is presented and discussed.Pour e tre agre e comme travailleur social, il faut avoir suivi des cours axe s sur les questions d’oppression et de diversite au sein de la socie te . Pour faire participer les e tudiants, les e ducateurs emploient diverses me thodes qui vont des discussions a partir d’un contenu universitaire a un programme d’enseignement structure et utilisent une approche re flective ainsi que des occasions d’apprentissage expe rientiel. L’article traite d’un cours de mai trise en travail social sur l’oppression, la justice sociale et la diversite , offert dans une universite de l’Ouest du Canada, qui utilise une me thode combine e de pratiques d’enseignement, y compris la cre ation d’histoires digitales par les e tudiants en petits groupes. En plus d’en de crire le contenu, l’article pre sente un aperc u de l’impact de l’utilisation de ces histoires sur l’apprentissage des e tudiants et de son application aux pratiques professionnelles entourant les questions d’oppression et de diversite .