Taught By:
Carmen Foster
Assistant Professor and MSW Program Director
Social Work
Belmont University
Read profile here.
Motivation to Teach Social Action:
I am the newly appointed MSW Program Director for a brand-new MSW Program that will start in August 2025 at Belmont University. In my role, I will be responsible for making sure that our curriculum aligns with social work values and ethics and CSWE competencies. We have several points of exposure to social justice and social action in our BSW and MSW classes. I will lead our Intro to SW, Policy, and Ethics class where we will look at social action and its relationship to social work. Further, I will also teach a policy analysis class and would love to focus on social action and how it drives policy change. I would love to learn best practices to develop courses around social action since I will have opportunity to influence how our courses are structured and how they evolve.
Course Description:
The course description provides an overview of a Race-Based Trauma course focusing on the mental health impacts of racism, particularly anti-Black racism. It explores the micro and macro effects of race-based trauma and discusses transformative support systems using the Social Work Code of Ethics. The course is designed to address issues of social justice, social action, and policy transformation, making it relevant for social work students at all levels.
