Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI)

Welcome Statement

To our Social Work Community:

MSU Denver Department of Social Work has embarked on a journey to provide the necessary supports and resources to the department to ensure that we create a culturally responsive professional and academic learning environment truly rooted in an anti-oppressive social work practice.  We invite the Department, students, and partnering agencies to actively engage in and create spaces for critical reflexivity, self-awareness, and discussions around the dismantling of oppressive systems.

The social work profession is built upon a set of core values that recognize the “dignity and worth of the person,” “the importance of human relationships,” and “social justice” (NASW, 2021, preamble).  MSU Denver strongly believes that social work education is based on belief that reform is necessary within most social systems, whereby the social work curriculum is uniquely situated to provide the basic understanding and implementation of incremental and significant changes across the micro, mezzo, and macro levels.  Understanding how discrimination characterizes and shapes the human experience and development of identity, diversity, equity, and inclusion work must be recognized as foundational to the social work education experience.

Please join the Department as we hold brave spaces to embrace intersectional identifies and confront oppressive systems.

Mission Statement

To provide the necessary supports and resources to the department to ensure that we create a culturally responsive professional and academic learning environment truly rooted in an anti-oppressive social practice.

Vision Statement

MSU Denver Social Work Department strives to practice, promote, and educate the Council on Social Work Education’s competencies regarding diversity and social justice. Specifically, to engage diversity and difference in practice and advance human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice.

Anti-Racist Pedagogy Workshop Description

Full time faculty and staff, please join us for the Anti-Racist Pedagogy Workshop on Tuesday, February 15, 2022 at 9:00 am.

The legacy of racism, demonstrated by historical events and the current social and political climate of the United States, lets us know that it is not enough to be “not racist;” instead, we must commit to an anti-racist paradigm (Kendi, 2019). However, within the higher education setting, what exactly does it mean to be anti-racist? In other words, how can faculty and staff show their commitment to anti-racist actions as educators beyond dialoguing about it? In this three-hour virtual workshop,  faculty and staff will be presented with tools, techniques, and the teaching principles that undergird anti-racist pedagogy and course design tailored specifically to the Social Work field. The facilitators developed this workshop to address three interconnected parts of enacting anti-racist pedagogy: self-awareness and critical reflection, pedagogical and curriculum design, and anti-racist allyship. We will spend most of the workshop on the second part, pedagogical and curriculum design, to ensure participants leave the workshop with tangible, concrete steps to use in their online or in-person courses. Participants will also receive a packet that includes a curated list of resources, strategies, example anti-racist pedagogical practices, self-reflection tools, and key concepts.