| According to the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), the profession of social work is rooted in a set of core values: service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence. NASW's professional values facilitate professional socialization and guide decision-making practices. Personal and professional value conflicts can arise around various contextual dimensions including dimensions of religious ideology. Of particular interest is the intersection of conservative religious beliefs and progressive social work values around morally charged issues (e.g., issues related to diverse sexual orientation). Based on the Council on Social Work Education Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (CSWE EPAS) mandate, social work education is charged with infusing core social work values and ethics, as well as recognition and reconciliation of personal and professional value conflicts throughout a competency based curriculum. This quantitative method cross-sectional study explored potential variances between personal values associated with differing dimensions of religious ideology and orientation to social work values among social work students. This study also explored if the level of matriculation in social work education moderates the influence of religious ideology on orientation to social work values. Social work students enrolled in CSWE accredited BSW and MSW social work programs located in four different counties in Florida (Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, and Polk) were invited to participate in the study. The research study pursues to contribute toward an initial observation of the influence of religious ideology on the assimilation of social work values. Although the findings need to be examined with caution, the results of this study found an inverse relationship between level of orthodoxy associated with religious ideology and orientation to social work values. Additional findings of this study suggest that while controlling for level of education, level of orthodoxy associated with religious ideology can have an influence on orientation to social work values. |
