Ubuntu in action: Understanding pass rates

“I am because we are,” is the essence of ubuntu, a value system with origins in African oral tradition that has also guided such complex modern movements as the elimination of apartheid. Ubuntu is a great example of “AI,” the ancient intelligence of interdependence that can help us understand pass rate disparities on the social work licensing exams while simultaneously offering guidance for closing outcome gaps.

As human rights activist Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, “A person is a person through other persons. You can’t be human in isolation; you are human only in relationships.” Growing up in a collaboration-over-competition household, I was taught that interdependence is inherent to the human experience. My social work education later validated that relational approach with its emphasis on considering the person in their environment and the recognition that environments include systems and institutions that unequally distribute power, oppression, privilege, barriers, resources, and opportunities.

Humans are interconnected, and — depending on an array of societal factors — interdependence can either advance justice or lie at the root of marginalization. This holds as true for social workers themselves as it does for the recipients of our services.

During the last two years, ASWB has continuously invested in initiatives that will help us learn the deeper meanings behind the 2022 pass rate analysis findings, support educators and test-takers, and facilitate solutions with collaboration from individual social workers and our partners across the profession.

In the classic ubuntu story, an anthropologist sets up a race among village children. The winner, the first child to reach the basket of fruit, would win all of the fruit. But to the anthropologist’s surprise, the children join hands, reach the fruit together, and share it. Taken aback by the show of collaboration, the anthropologist asks why no one tried to get the fruit for themselves. The children respond, “How could one of us be happy if the others are sad?” Humanity requires collaboration.

I offer a social work-focused interpretation of the classic ubuntu story that speaks to why ASWB is committed to continuing critical conversations about regulation, licensure, competence measurement, and pass rates. It helps explain why we have chosen to further augment our work through collaborations. In addition to embarking on our own strategic initiatives, ASWB is working with esteemed researchers to identify systems-based factors and solutions for addressing the disparate outcomes shown in the pass rate data analysis.

As social workers, we know that systems play an important role in any issue. Addressing the pass rate disparities will require a systems-based approach.

Drifting away from ubuntu

During the past two years, some within social work’s own family have taken up the mantle of division — rather than seeking collaboration — on pretenses that ignore the systems and institutions that impact us all, including licensure candidates. Some across the profession, in state legislatures, and even within the regulatory space, have taken a reductionist approach in response to the disparities in exam outcomes. They reacted swiftly, calling the licensing exams themselves flawed and advocating for removing the key component of competence assessment from the licensure system. This approach is a dangerous one for our profession, as it leads us further away from a cohesive professional identity, and it risks distracting us from the true challenges we must face together.

The reality is that outcomes are not origins; the conflation of the two contradicts our understanding of systemic impacts. Competence exams do not cause disparities; they reflect the same impacts of generations of oppression and marginalization that we see in every other aspect of life. Social work is not immune from the historical realities at play in other corners of modern society.

Joining hands

Just as the village children joined hands and worked together, social work regulation will benefit from critical partnerships. Truly understanding exam pass rate data requires going beyond the mere surface interpretations that make for provocative social media posts. We must undertake robust analyses that dig deeper than we have in previous publications. It will take steady work to improve our understanding of intersections and gradually develop innovations in assessment, access, and upstream opportunities.

To more precisely contextualize the systemic factors that influence pass rates, ASWB partnered with Joy Kim, MSW, Ph.D., of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Dr. Kim’s expertise in social work regulatory research is unmatched, and we are proud to announce the upcoming publication of her exam report series later this summer. Dr. Kim and her associate, Michael Joo, MSW, Ph.D., have conducted an inquiry into the sources of pass rate disparities including analyses of pass rates that control for the individual, institutional, and community factors that test-takers carry with them throughout their lives.

The three-part series begins with a report that profiles social work license examinees using ASWB data. The second report in the series reviews other professions’ literature on licensing and certification exam pass rate disparities. The research series concludes with a third report that returns to the social work licensing exams, focusing on the effects of race and ethnicity on Clinical exam outcomes. As a whole, the research supports the conclusion that the pass rate disparities present our profession with a unique opportunity to embrace a systems-based approach to locating and addressing the sources of these disparities.

The report series from Drs. Kim and Joo will be available on ASWB’s website in mid-August. We look forward to sharing these research findings with our member jurisdictions and the overall social work profession. This research project will serve as another major step on our collective journey to better understand the exam pass rates and to identify what our whole community can do to reduce disparate outcomes.

The fruit of collaboration

Unless we collaborate, our profession will not benefit from the collective fruits of understanding ourselves as a human system. In the classic version of the ubuntu story, had the competition gone as the anthropologist expected, one child might have been satisfied, but that feeling would have been short-lived. Tensions among the children who must coexist and be together would certainly not be worth the win in the long run. The same is true for social work.

Dr. Kim’s research calls for working together on systems-based solutions to socially created disparities. Because the causes of pass rate disparities are complex, stemming from centuries of societal oppression and inequality, all parts of the profession must collaborate on research and begin to implement strategic, data-informed interventions.

The data publication in 2022 was a first step. I look forward to sharing with you soon the next step when we publish the rich information found in Dr. Kim’s reports. I anticipate that many will be challenged by her findings and be inspired to act.

I hope that we act in concert, hand in hand, facing complex challenges willingly. Let’s recommit to public protection while uplifting our profession. Only when we embrace ancient intelligence — the we of ubuntu wisdom — can we make progress on our shared equity journey.