The influence of religious and spiritual traditions on social work practice across the globe; does it influence social work education?

Abstract

In this fourth and final issue of 2021, the reader will find six original manuscripts that address the impact of religious and spiritual traditions on social work practice from Alabama, USA, Israel, Malaysia, and Bangladesh. In these rich and thought-provoking pieces, we consider Islamic, Roman Catholic, and Ashtanga practices and beliefs that can, at times, foster and/or conflict with social work professional values and practices. These concerns may underlie the resistance that some social work education leaders have with integrating religion and spirituality into curricula, which is also discussed in this issue. Understanding the spiritual/religious practices of those we serve, as well as navigating the potential conflicts between personal beliefs and professional practices, are ethical obligations for social workers (Reamer, 2018). Given the current focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion in social work education today (Woo et al., 2021), a social worker’s personal comfort or discomfort with religion and/or spirituality must be considered accordingly. Failure to address religion and spirituality in social work curricula, and therefore social work practice, is to send a message that it is acceptable to sidestep an important dimension of identity for many of the people social workers will encounter in their work. Would this be acceptable for any other dimension of identity? Yet the recent research by Woo et al. (2021) showed that religion was included in only 13.5% of the courses covering equity and justice issues. The articles in this issue provide strong examples of how social worker can navigate potential conflicts between religious and professional values. There are many rich and relevant studies and scholarly works in progress that focus on religion and spirituality in social work practice. Disseminating this work is the purpose of this journal, and of significance in this issue is the research by Moffatt and colleagues on integrating religion and spirituality into the MSW curriculum. Their study is the first to include a sampling of MSW program leaders across the United States to explore the factors that hinder or facilitate including religion and spirituality in coursework. Of significance are the