ACCESS TO INTERSECTIONALITY, CONTENT TO COMPETENCE: DECONSTRUCTING SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION DIVERSITY STANDARDS

This article provides an assessment of the current situation in social work education regarding the teaching of content on diversity, with a focus on implications for social work theory, practice, and education. The article provides a critical analysis of the historical development of approaches to teaching diversity content in social work education as reflected in several iterations of CSWE's Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) since the late 1960s. In addition, the article critiques long-standing approaches to teaching this content that have been based largely on modernist theories and assimilationist assumptions about difference in the United States. It concludes with a discussion of the challenges and opportunities social work education faces today that have opened up as a result of the 2008 EPAS.