Educating for international social work: Human rights leadership

As social work increasingly develops an international perspective, there is a need for educational approaches that more fully integrate this content into the curriculum. This article presents an instructional framework focused on developing global leadership using the theme of universal human rights. It encourages students to analyze oppressive practices of power and to pursue equality for all people through acquiring human rights literacy (knowledge), empathy (values), responsibility (action), and transforming this into global leadership (change). It provides examples of teaching strategies that assist students in developing an international perspective to guide social work practice in the global 21st century.