| The effects of environmental degradation on human mental and physical health are disproportionately born by people of color, the poor, under educated, women, and children (Commission on Racial Justice, 1987; Bullard, Mohai, Saha, & Wright, 2008). Therefore environmental degradation is a social justice issue. In 2000, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) first approved and published a "strongly worded policy statement" (Zapf, 2009, p.72) regarding the natural environment. The policy makes the natural environment part of social work's professional realm and defines environmental justice for social work. However, no studies exist in the social work research and literature on what is reaching students regarding the natural environment for social work. The purpose of this study is to learn how U.S. social work educators are introducing issues of the natural environment into their teaching. Findings suggest there is a link between educators' personal relationships with nature and the approach they describe as appropriate for social work and the natural environment. Despite the fact that there is little information in the social work research on ecological justice, approximately 80 percent of the participants include ecological justice in their teaching. The lack of language specific to the natural environment in the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) educational standards has created a structural barrier to introducing issues of the natural environment into their teaching. Implications for social work education, policy, and research are discussed along with limitations of the study. |
