Summary: | <p> From the early days of academia, classroom incivility has been acknowledged as counterproductive to the social contract of an educational environment; however, due to the subjectivity of what constitutes uncivil behavior, classroom incivility continues to be open to interpretation. The recent surge in classroom incivility has been attributed to changes in generational culture, parenting styles, K–12 educational practices, technological customs, and consumeristic/narcissistic attitudes of students. A marginal amount of classroom incivility literature has focused on higher education settings; even more scant is the literature that has explored uncivil behaviors in social work education environments. </p><p> This quantitative study examined students’ perceptions of classroom incivility in social work education, using the theoretical framework of social exchange theory. The sample included 203 social work students; nearly 78% were enrolled in the Master of Social Work program and approximately 22% were enrolled in the Bachelor of Social Work program in a public university in southern California. A majority of the sample expressed some level of concern regarding the <i>severity</i> of the uncivil behaviors listed in the survey; however, the participants appeared to be polarized in their responses concerning the <i>frequency</i> of uncivil behaviors. Based on these findings, implications for field internship and professional practice were identified and recommendations were made to assist undergraduate and graduate programs to recognize what is potentially the new norm in social work education settings and to promote a dialog regarding how students are educated and socialized into the social work profession. This research did not clarify the issue of what constitutes classroom incivility; rather, it generated questions for future research regarding probable causes, consequences, and effects of uncivil behaviors in social work education.</p>
|