From Frontlash, to Whiplash, to Clarity: Making Sense of U.S. Federal Executive Actions In 2025

Beginning in January of 2025, the United States (U.S.) saw a large-scale, coordinated, conservative political movement roll-out. Daily announcements of new executive and administrative orders threatened to terminate funding, eliminate programs, and diminish rights across minoritized populations, carrying substantial implications for social work practice and education. The movement was reminiscent of the 1960’s political counterattack on civil rights gains, referred to as “frontlash” (Weaver, 2007), that marked a punitive policy turn that reshaped U.S. social welfare and criminal legal policy, making the U.S. a world leader in incarceration. Though similar, the expansive, cross-sector, and unrelenting nature of the 2025 executive actions conjures a metaphor distinct from “frontlash”-- one of “whiplash.” Capturing the inescapable, rapid, and disorienting nature of these actions, whiplash is the state in which many social workers, or “street-level bureaucrats,” found themselves in 2025.

This roundtable will share findings from the Experiences of Executive Actions Study (EEAS) to move beyond whiplash, make sense of 2025 executive actions, and anchor social work curriculum, intervention, and research in knowledge of local impacts. EEAS drew on rapid qualitative methods, focus group data, and thematic analysis to understand social work student experiences of actions' impacts on practicum sites. Study participants were MSW students (n = 57), currently in practicum placements and enrolled in required research methods courses in a single northeastern U.S school of social work. Study staff conducted eight focus groups with MSW students. Focus groups ranged in length from 45-60 minutes, each with 3-15 students. Analyses proceeded in the following steps: (1) focus groups were transcribed, (2) reviewed by study team members who wrote analytic memos identifying key concepts and themes, (3) group memo discussion, emerging themes, and implications, (4) artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted thematic analysis (Claude for Education) to systematically analyze themes, (5) comparison and alignment of AI-generated themes with researcher identified themes, (6) analysis across themes and model building, and (7) writing.

Findings indicate experiences of executive actions could be described across two major thematic impact areas, on: (1) practicum sites, and (2) students. The first set of themes and subthemes captured students’ experiences of executive actions within practicum experiences, including impacts on (1a) administration, (2a) service delivery, and (3a) and clients. The second set of themes and subthemes captured impacts on students themselves, including (2a) pervasive emotional distress, (2b) career and financial concerns, (2c) educational experience, and (2d) the significance (or insignificance) of self-care as a coping strategy. Findings also indicated that the experiences conveyed were conditional on a range of organizational, student, and social work program characteristics.

In this roundtable, speakers will discuss the EEAS approach and findings and facilitate a discussion around approaches to integrating findings into social work curriculum, enhancing practicum agencies' supports, and deepening relationships with organizations centering resistance in service provision. The roundtable will foster dialogue and encourage participants to share their strategies for making sense of 2025 political policies and practice contexts. From greater understanding, we hope to inform curriculum, support practice, and sustain social welfare policy in the social work workforce.