Taught By:
Janice Brown Wharwood
Assistant Professor of Social Work
School of Education and Social Sciences
Florida Memorial University
Read profile here.
Motivation to Teach Social Action:
I am a researcher, consultant, and Assistant Professor of Social Work focusing on race, educational equity, cultural responsiveness, and social work leadership. I teach at Florida Memorial University in Miami Gardens, Florida, and am passionate about social action, innovation, advocacy, and entrepreneurship. Currently, I'm involved in developing a new Master of Social Work (MSW) program that will launch in Fall 2025.
With over 20 years of experience as a social work educator, I have observed significant challenges faced by individuals in marginalized communities and am dedicated to addressing their needs while fostering self-advocacy. My dissertation explores cultural responsiveness in social work education, especially its impact on marginalized racial and ethnic groups. This work has fueled my commitment to self-determination and fighting against being seen as "the other."
Course Description:
The culturally responsive approach is utilized to understand, value, and respect different cultural perspectives in order to inform professional practices. In the field of social work, being culturally responsive means deliberately adapting interventions and methods to fit the specific cultural background, values, and beliefs of a client, showing honor for their identity, and actively considering how cultural elements might shape their experiences and needs within social services; essentially, it focuses on recognizing and responding to cultural variations in a manner that empowers clients and fosters positive results. Within social work, anti-racism is a practice that begins with the racialized social dynamics that portray Black individuals as inferior. The most straightforward guideline for anti-racist practice is to address the societal foundations rooted in racist relationships, with the aim of uncovering areas where societies are free from racism. This also involves tackling other forms of oppression that intersect with racist dynamics, such as sexism and classism. Concentrating solely on racism is just the initial step in an anti-oppressive, anti-racist journey.
