Class Descriptions

Practice in International Social Work

SW701

Course Description

This course is intended to prepare social work students for involvement in social development interventions in an international arena. This course will focus selectively on the challenges developing countries face in improving the lives of their citizens and the roles social workers can play in solving or successfully addressing them. Among the issues, some of the following are included: provision of basic life necessities, hunger and nutritional insufficiency, education, economic development, the strains related to urbanization and modernization, ethnic conflict, child protection, community and familial violence, environment and community health, organization and administration of human services, and citizen empowerment. Students will learn about strategies used by service providers, institutions, and self-help groups for the purposes of social transformation, community development, and enhancement of individual well-being. Central to the discourse will be an idiographic-nomothetic dialectic which counter-poses what is universal and what is culturally specific about social welfare issues and interventions across countries and regions. Course readings and discussion will begin with a focus on the globalization of selected social problems. An array of skills will be drawn from the traditional practice armamentarium of micro and macro social work methods to communicate to take collective action. Discourse will also focus on ways that these classic approaches must be adapted to increase their relevance for work in developing regions of the world, in international aid or relief organizations, and in programs for immigrants or refugees in this and other more technically developed countries. This course will also teach about newer models of social development and the opportunities these countries have and may offer to social workers working with their people.

Objectives

Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate knowledge of a global perspective on social welfare problems, with particular appreciation of the role to be played by social workers in addressing them.
2. Enhance their skills in assessment of problems of developing countries and in design and implementation of interventions.
3. D the ability to use assessment, development, and evaluation strategies which take into account differences based on class, culture, ethnicity, race, religion, spirituality, physical and mental ability, sexual orientation, national origin, and gender.
4. Display a an increased in]sophisticated awareness of the interplay among cultural, social, political, and economic factors in application of micro and macro social work practice.
5. Develop sensitivity and awareness to understand people with different cultural, economic, historical, political, and ideological backgrounds.
6. Explain the role of idiosyncratic culturally-specific factors and use them in shaping strategies to address critical problems that occur around the world.
7. Envision and gain new exposure to new and innovative models of social welfare approaches to domestic social problems used in different countries.
8. Demonstrate the capacity to take collective action and gain more influence as a body to make substantial and sustainable change.
9. Discuss typical ethical concerns related to practice in international social work.

Design

Because this course will cover a wide range of practice methods and issues, readings and discussion of case studies will be emphasized. Generous use will be made of audiovisual materials and guest lecturers to expand the range of knowledge and expertise we currently have in the School on the social conditions, problems, and solutions in developing countries around the world. Moreover, this course will also draw on the extensive flow of foreign scholars and practitioners visiting from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe to participate in presenting and discussing their social welfare experiences.