Green social work educational resources in Canada

Green social work (GSW) is a relatively new framework within social work. The primary objective of this approach is to integrate an environmental focus. GSW aims to address economic oppression, engage in disaster resilience, and sustainable practices. The project GSW Education in Canada aims to comprehensively examine the Canadian schools of social work programs (Bachelor, Master, and Ph.D.), related courses, areas of faculty specialization, and placement opportunities. This project examines the level of GSW teaching and knowledge mobilization in the Canadian social work educational system. Consequently, through website keywords (e.g., climate change, disaster, environment, green social work, and sustainability) searching, data from the academic institutions’ official websites for 45 universities and colleges were collected. These data include (1) course descriptions, (2) faculty members areas of research and/or practice, (3) when possible, social work field placement opportunities. The first iteration of this data included information about faculty members, including name and research or practice specialization. However, faculty members’ data is not able to be published due to privacy and ethical concerns. This data set emphasizes the Canadian post-secondary institutions’ emphasis or lack of focus on GSW. This information might encourage schools of social work and faculty members to promote GSW research, teaching, and practice through integrating disaster response, climate change, and sustainability practices. International and Canadian social work researchers could use this data to identify future research collaborations across Canadian geographical areas where GSW curricula can be further developed. Prospective social work students can use this data to find GSW-related programs and courses and network with faculty members with related research interests. For the public, this data can provide information about social work courses and curricula across Canada and highlight the scholars with relevant expertise amongst the institutions.