Leadership at the clinical practice level: Do schools of social work prepare all social workers to be leaders?

Abstract Social work education has shifted to an anti-oppressive approach, prioritizing the skills and tools necessary to recognize systemic inequalities and disenfranchisement. However, social work curricula within the USA may be lacking in providing the proactive leadership skills necessary for social workers to empower clients and other stakeholders, particularly in specializations focused on work with individuals and families (referred to as clinical or ‘micro’-level practice). The purpose of this exploration is to examine how social work educators perceive leadership as a necessary part of their curriculum. Educators (n = 102) completed a survey focused on their perceptions of the inclusion of leadership content throughout Master of Social Work curricula and were asked to identify specific courses they felt currently contained leadership content. Analysis revealed a relationship between positions and perceptive of leadership content inclusion; qualitative analysis revealed that macro-level courses are most frequently identified as containing leadership content over micro-level clinical courses. The results of this study may allow for a move towards understanding leadership as part of the overall social work and set the foundation for understanding leadership on a national and global level.