< Go Back to Full Educator | Resource List
January 2020 Educator | Resource of the Month
The Center for Diversity and Social & Economic Justice Educator|Resource is a monthly feature that highlights curricular resources and social work educators who address diversity and justice.
The NAME Steps: Addressing Anti-LGBTQIA2S+ Microagressions
.png?lang=en-US "The NAME Steps: Addressing Anti-LGBTQIA2S+ Microagressions banner")
“I have noticed my professors, classmates, and field placement coworkers become visibly uncomfortable with trying to use the ‘right’ words to talk about [LGBTQIA2S+] folks. While this seems like a little thing, their hesitation or confusion reveals more than I think they know.” – MSW Student, United States.
LGBTQIA2S+ microaggressions are a serious problem in all educational settings, including social work classrooms, and are detrimental to the development of future social work leaders. Social work educators serve a central role in helping students and colleagues reflect on and learn from microaggressions that inevitably arise in the classroom. In addition to rich resources on the many dimensions of affirmative social work education, this resource features The NAME Steps: How to Name and Address Anti-LGBTQIA2S+ Microagressions in Social Work Classrooms. NAME steps provide flexible guidance for educators in naming and responding to microaggressions, encouraging collective responsibility for addressing diversity in social work classrooms. The guide—which also includes five real case scenarios from social work classrooms for educators to rehearse using the NAME steps—was developed by the authors in collaboration with members of the CSWE Council on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression.
Teaching Resources
About the Educators
.jpg?lang=en-US&width=100&height=104 "Dr. Lauren B. McInroy Photo") |
Dr. Lauren B. McInroy is an assistant professor in the College of Social Work at The Ohio State University. Her research investigates the impacts of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on the well-being of marginalized adolescents and emerging adults – particularly LGBTQ+ young people, who experience heightened risks. |
.jpg?lang=en-US&width=100&height=114 "Dr. David S. Byers photo") |
Dr. David S. Byers is an assistant professor and convener of the Clinical Track at the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research at Bryn Mawr College. His research focuses on the ethics of care in settings of marginality, stigma, and precarity, and the ways clinicians and other care workers organize themselves ethically within theory-to-practice gaps. |
.jpg?lang=en-US&width=100&height=117 "Dr. Shanna K. Kattari photo") |
Dr. Shanna K. Kattari is an assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work and the Department of Women and Gender Studies. Recently, she has focused on the health disparities among trans/nonbinary communities, across physical and behavioral health, as well as better understanding how the lack of inclusive providers has increased these disparities. |
Educators Q&A
What do the NAME steps offer the social work educator?
Classroom discussions in social work education can be charged and complex, with a substantial focus on topics such as power, oppression, stigma, and social identity. Even so, educators typically receive little guidance on recognizing and responding to microaggressions in their classrooms. Social work educators serve a central role in helping students and colleagues reflect on and learn from microaggressions that inevitably arise in the classroom. Improving the ability of educators to recognize and respond thoughtfully to microaggressions is vitally important as we train the next generation of social work leaders.
On behalf of the CSWE Council on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression, we developed the NAME steps (Byers et al., 2019) to help our colleagues recognize and intervene in microaggressions toward LGBTQIA2S+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, two-spirit, and other sexual and gender minority) populations. Read the full Q&A here.
The views expressed in the Educator|Resource are those of the educator(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Council on Social Work Education.
Interested in contributing to the Educator | Resource of the Month? Please contact Dr. Yolanda Padilla, CSWE Diversity Center Director, at [email protected].