Consider the various ways that the communities you are working with have been (mis)measured? How does measurement type influence the construction of social issues and the ways we address them? How might you measure things in an ethically responsive way?
Blog Post Rubric
Posts will be due by Friday of the same week they are assigned on Wednesday. You are expected to respond to your peers posts in a way that enhances our understanding of the subject. Please see the rubric below:
| Criteria | Full Participation Credit | Partial Credit |
|---|---|---|
| Blog Posts | Discussion prompts are answered fully and includes information from the readings, for example: 1. List 1-3 “social worker takeaways” you gained from the reading; or 2. Ask 2 questions you have connecting the reading to social work, or 3. List 1 interesting quote from the reading. | Discussion prompts are sparsely answered with no reference to the readings. |
| Engagement | Over the course of semester, the student has responded to at least 3 other student’s posts. The posts are related to the course texts and discussion content. | Over the course of the semester the student has responded to 1 or fewer student’s posts |
| Response Quality | The student’s responses thoughtfully build upon other’s perspectives and deepen the discussion. The responses include evidence from one of the below categories: 1. The readings 2. Social work practice (internship/work) 3. Professional and self-growth | The student’s responses do not thoughtfully build upon other’s perspectives, nor do they deepen the discussion. The responses do not include evidence from one of the below categories: 1. The readings 2. Social work practice (internship/work) 3. Professional and self-growth |
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Cameron & Stinson (2019) explored the ways gender was recorded and reported in studies in recent years, problematizing the sweeping default use of a gender binary (man/woman). By not making space for diversity of gender, research becomes inherently unethical, inaccurate, and compromising of the integrity of all shared knowledge (Cameron & Stinson, 2019). Researchers are tasked with achieving competency around evolving language and concepts in all areas relevant to their research, including demographic data such as sex and gender (Cameron & Stinson, 2019). This article serves as a reminder to define all variables and not just those unique to a research study.
Through my work at my current placement, I have been privy to attempts at global research around the experience of homelessness. One challenge of this work is that different people, organizations, cultures, and governments define (or fail to define) “homelessness” by different variables. For example, couch surfing, housing instability, and shelter living could be part of the definition of homelessness or not. It is additionally difficult to research a population that is so inherently hidden and hard to access due to stigma, lack of access to technologies, and failure to achieve a global or national coordinated effort to do so. A lesson we learn from Cameron & Stinson (2019) is to ask how individuals who don’t fit into a binary describe themselves; where is the nuance of experience of “homelessness” according to those with direct experience? These are all important considerations because a problem must be named to be addressed. Ethical social work practice necessitates questioning binaries in research and beyond.
References
Cameron, J. J., & Stinson, D. A. (2019). Gender (mis)measurement: Guidelines for respecting gender diversity in psychological research. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 13(11). DOI: 10.1111/spc3.12506