Date of Award
Spring 4-15-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
D.S.W. Social work
Department
Social Work
First Advisor
Dr. RIta Mary Weller, Ph.D.
Second Advisor
Dr. Steve B. Lem, Ph.D.
Third Advisor
Dr. Patricia McGarry, Ph.D.
Abstract
Master of social work (MSW) students may be entering into field practice without meeting the necessary competencies for practice to address the needs of the gender and sexuality diverse (GSD) population. The literature supports that GSD content may be absent from course content. This cross-sectional design study aimed to understand what factors influence MSW faculty to incorporate GSD content into their coursework. MSW faculty at Council on Social Work Education (CSWE, 2022) accredited programs were invited via email to complete an online, anonymous, and voluntary survey. The results suggested strong support for the integration of GSD content into the coursework, while suggesting that faculty identity and intersectionality play an integral role in the inclusion of content. However, the results suggested that students are lacking in the development of needed practice skills for working with the GSD community. Further suggested is that competencies related to both CSWE (2022), Educational and Policy Accreditation Standards (EPAS) and National Association of Social Worker (NASW, 2021) Code of Ethics guidelines are not being implemented to measure students learning outcomes of such proficiencies. Linear regression was used to analyze quantitative data related to faculty demographics with selected questions from the Affirmative Training Inventory-Faculty Version (ATI-F) (McGeorge et al., 2015). Regression analysis demonstrated that responses on the ATI-F were influenced by faculty demographics, particularly those who identify as a member of the GSD community and those who have personal connections or professional experiences with the community. Linear regression further suggested that faculty are more likely to use three or less subjective learning outcomes assessments to measure student proficiency in meeting competency standards. Thematic analysis was used to identify emerging themes from the qualitative responses. The data supported that faculty identity, institutional barriers, broad perspectives related to intersectionality and faculty’s commitment and responsibility to social work influence the inclusion of GSD content. Although this study demonstrated a low response rate to meet criteria for generalization across all MSW faculty, the data presented salient points for further research and study.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Recommended Citation
Mazur, Lynn, "Master of Social Work Faculties Integration of Gender and Sexuality Diverse Content: A Cross-sectional, Quantitative Study" (2026). Social Work Doctoral Dissertations. 53.
https://research.library.kutztown.edu/socialworkdissertations/53
