SDG’s and systems science: teaching beyond the micro-macro divide in social work education

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) enlist a triple-bottom-line approach of environment, social, and economic wellbeing that mirrors social work’s environmental, social, and economic justice commitments. Additionally, the networked systems design of the SDGs resonates with the ecological systems approach central to social work practice. Systems science is vital for addressing the SDGs, and systems dynamics has been used to model the interactions between them. However, to date, social work education has used systems frameworks largely as a sensitizing tool rather than an operational one. This paper advocates for using systems science to teach SDGs in social work education, and provides an example of how to accomplish this in the classroom. Accessible texts on systems dynamics support the practical implementation of these tools in social work classrooms. This paper extends that work by outlining a classroom activity that incorporates the networked structures of the SDG’s and introductory systems dynamics concepts. This activity can be implemented in service of re-examining the micro and macro practice gap in social work education, and to prepare the next generation of social workers to engage with the SDGs.

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