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theses

This secondary data analysis considers the mediating role of sense of community in the context of social work education among a diverse group of social work students. Specifically, this study focuses on aspects of the implicit curriculum in social work education, as social work educators are now mandated to assess and address the implicit curriculum’s impact on students (CSWE, 2015). Yet, no standard set of measurements or assessment tools have been provided for this purpose. Therefore, researchers within schools of social work have begun adopting their own theoretical frameworks and measures to test the implicit curriculum in social work education. One strand of research has employed an empowerment framework to the process of evaluating the impact of aspects of the implicit curriculum on students’ professional empowerment. This study seeks to understand the mediating influence of sense of community (measured by the Brief Sense of Community Scale [BSCS], Peterson, Speer, & McMillan, 2008) on the relationship between factors of the implicit curriculum (i.e. supportive faculty, administrative functioning, and opportunity role structure) and students’ professional empowerment as assessed through leadership competence and policy control. In addition, through a multigroup path analysis, this study explores whether these mediating subscales have a different impact for White, non-Hispanic students versus non-White students. Findings from this study include significant differences between White, non-Hispanic students and non-White students on measures of the BSCS subscales Influence and Emotional Connection; these subscales mediate the relationships between Supportive Faculty and Leadership Competence for non-White students only. In contrast, Influence mediates the relationship between Administrative Functioning and Policy Control, as well as the relationship between Opportunity Role Structure and Policy Control for both groups of students. Only White, non-Hispanic students have significant direct pathways from Supportive Faculty to Leadership Competence and from Administrative Functioning to Policy Control, suggesting the need for further investigation of the factors that could mediate these students’ experiences of the implicit curriculum in social work education.

ETD_7155

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Sheila M. McMahon

doi:10.7282/T3RJ4MNX

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.