| Credits: |
3 |
| Prerequisites: |
None |
| Course Description: |
Special Studies abroad |
| Pathway Elective For: |
Global Social Work Practice (Host) |
| Credits: |
3 |
| Prerequisites: |
Permission of Instructor |
| Pathway Elective For: |
Global Social Work Practice (Host) |
| Credits: |
3 |
| Prerequisites: |
SW506 |
| Course Description: |
This course focuses on a holistic approach in promoting the development and deepening of assessment and screening skills and competencies. Conducting brief, evidence-based and evidence-informed assessments and screenings for common health, mental health, substance use and other behavioral health concerns which impact and/or compromise health and well-being will be the focus of this course. Holistic approaches which are developmentally appropriate across the life span and relevant in a variety of settings will be applied. Grounding of the assessment process in person in environment perspective (PIE), strengths-based approaches, the nature of the client/family and social support systems, cultural, spiritual and religious beliefs and other socio-economic resources that impact health and client well-being will be included.
Examples of screenings and assessments addressed in this course include a focus on mental health problems; adjustment to illness; risky, harmful or dependent use of a variety of substances (e.g. alcohol, illicit drugs, prescription medications, etc.); cognitive impairment; harm to self or others; abuse, neglect, and domestic violence; and behaviors that compromise health among others. |
| Pathway Requirement For: |
Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse (Host) |
| Pathway Elective For: |
Global Social Work Practice, Social Work Practice with Older Adults and Families from a Lifespan Perspective |
| Credits: |
3 |
| Prerequisites: |
None |
| Course Description: |
This course will apply African-centered values and principles in historical and contemporary context to the implementation of traditional methods in practice with African American individuals, families and communities. The course is bounded by a strengths and resilience framework in which students will 1) obtain an overview of the African worldview and the history, culture, and contributions to world civilization of African-descended people; 2) become familiar with literature that exemplifies the integration of the Afrocentric perspective in practice with African American families; and 3) utilize the case study method to apply knowledge gained. The course will be offered in a seminar format in which students have an active role in structuring their own learning, building on content delivered by guest lecturers and utilizing relevant reading materials, experiential activities and electronic media. |
| Pathway Elective For: |
Global Social Work Practice, Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse (Host) |
| Credits: |
3 |
| Prerequisites: |
SW508 |
| Course Description: |
This course will introduce students to a set of analytic tools and skills for critical policy thinking, reading, and writing. Analytic tools introduced in this class include frameworks for policy analysis and using feminist, intersectional, and critical race lenses for policy analysis. The impact of race, gender, and class on policy development and enactment are emphasized throughout the course as well as an exploration of global approaches to policy analysis.
This course will enhance critical writing skills and teach concise and persuasive writing methods, issue framing, and legislative literacy for effective policy writing. Students will learn qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods frequently used for policy analysis. Students will also be introduced to policy document writing, including policy briefs, memos, factsheets, op-eds, and public comments. Finally, students will learn how to locate, read, and translate policy for community consumption. |
| Pathway Requirement For: |
Policy & Political Social Work (Host) |
| Pathway Elective For: |
Global Social Work Practice, Management & Leadership, Program Evaluation and Applied Research |
| Credits: |
3 |
| Prerequisites: |
None |
| Course Description: |
This course will examine organizing in multicultural, multilingual and global contexts. The course will examine the process of promoting intergroup relations and social development and the skills needed to facilitate change across settings. In particular, students will explore the roles of power, privilege, oppression, and social identities in organizing for change in diverse communities and coalitions, and across cultural and global contexts. Students will also examine contemporary and historic efforts to engage in multicultural, multilingual coalitions and multi-national and global change efforts, including climate justice and racial justice. |
| Pathway Elective For: |
Community Change (Host), Global Social Work Practice |
| Credits: |
3 |
| Prerequisites: |
None |
| Course Description: |
Traditional project management tools enable social workers to conceive, plan, design, implement, manage, assess, and change projects effectively. Whereas projects are time-bound and discrete, programs are an ongoing collection of projects that can be managed together. Managing programs and projects in an inclusive and socially just manner necessarily requires engaging all people involved or affected by a project in meaningful and deliberate ways. Students will weave technical—and technological—tools together with inclusive structures in order to include and engage all stakeholders in the success of projects and programs. Technical skills developed in this course involve selecting and implementing tools to strategically design and manage projects in rapidly changing environments, as well as maximizing inclusion and equity with diverse populations.
Management is a set of well-known processes, like planning, budgeting, structuring jobs, staffing jobs, measuring performance and problem-solving. This course will concentrate on single service projects as planned systems of action that engage the perspectives of clients, program and project staff, directors and managers, as well as the full organization. This course will prepare students to assist in tasks common to all phases of project development and assume independent responsibility for performing tasks some of these tasks (e.g., documenting program plans, developing initial budgets, program process analysis, and scheduling change). Specific attention will be given to issues in program design and development and the differential impacts on social identity groups that traditionally have been marginalized. |
| Pathway Elective For: |
Community Change, Global Social Work Practice, Management & Leadership (Host), Policy & Political Social Work, Program Evaluation and Applied Research |
| Credits: |
3 |
| Prerequisites: |
Foundation Essentials required |
| Course Description: |
This course will provide an overview of traditional and contemporary organizational theories and strategic frameworks relevant to understanding social impact organizations. A wide range of topics will be covered including but not limited to: organizational survival and adaptation to environmental changes, power asymmetry/dynamics between service providers and clients, staff and client diversity and inclusion, and informal strategies that providers develop to legitimize their practices while satisfying multiple stakeholders’ expectations. Using multiple theories and perspectives, students will develop a conceptual framework for recognizing how various environmental-, organizational-, and individual-level attributes shape social impact organizational behaviors and service provider’s practices. The framework will help students to reflect on organizational experiences and critically analyze institutionalized assumptions and beliefs that reside within social impact organizations. Using the conceptual basis acquired from this course, students will be asked to analyze a social impact organization and recommend strategies to improve organizational functioning. |
| Pathway Requirement For: |
Management & Leadership (Host) |
| Pathway Elective For: |
Community Change, Global Social Work Practice, Policy & Political Social Work, Program Evaluation and Applied Research, Social Work Practice with Older Adults and Families from a Lifespan Perspective, Welfare of Children & Families |
| Credits: |
3 |
| Prerequisites: |
SW507 |
| Course Description: |
This course is designed as an introduction to the process of qualitative inquiry with a particular focus on the challenges of engaging in anti-oppressive, socially just, culturally sensitive, and decolonizing research activities. It will introduce students to the philosophical underpinnings of qualitative inquiry as well as expose them to basic issues in designing and implementing qualitative research projects. Students enrolled in the Evaluation and Research Pathway must select from one of two required foundational courses before completing their specialized electives in methodologies and methods. This course will meet that foundational requirement. |
| Pathway Requirement For: |
Program Evaluation and Applied Research (Host) |
| Pathway Elective For: |
Global Social Work Practice, Policy & Political Social Work |
| Credits: |
3 |
| Prerequisites: |
SW507 |
| Course Description: |
This course is designed to advance the foundational ideas of quantitative research in social work and the social sciences, with a particular focus on applied quantitative research dedicated to the study of social problems and the development of social interventions at the macro, meso and micro levels. The course will deepen students’ understanding of such issues as sample selection, measurement, and questionnaire design, research design, and basic analytic approaches. Students enrolled in the Evaluation and Research Pathway must select from one of two required foundational courses before completing their specialized electives in methodologies and methods. This course will meet that foundational requirement. |
| Pathway Requirement For: |
Program Evaluation and Applied Research (Host) |
| Pathway Elective For: |
Global Social Work Practice, Policy & Political Social Work |
| Credits: |
3 |
| Prerequisites: |
Foundation Essentials Required |
| Course Description: |
Social problems affecting individuals, families, groups, communities, and nations are globally interconnected. This course is designed to introduce students to an understanding of power in the global context and to help students develop a critical and reflexive understanding of how such power informs social work practice, utilizing decolonizing and social justice-oriented perspectives (e.g., feminist, participatory, liberatory/emancipatory). Students will gain an analytic de-centering framework for critical understanding and assessment of pressing social problems (e.g., human trafficking, climate change, and environmental disasters) and models of social interventions across global contexts. Students will learn to develop research- and policy-related questions and procedures that may address these pressing social problems. In exploring these themes, we will review underpinning theories and practice in global social work, such as: colonization, international aid and development, and democratization. |
| Pathway Requirement For: |
Global Social Work Practice (Host) |
| Pathway Elective For: |
Community Change |
| Credits: |
3 |
| Prerequisites: |
SW505 (concurrent enrollment in SW505 permitted if necessary) |
| Course Description: |
This course is designed to prepare social work students for effective and ethical professional practice in global social work contexts.
This course works from a framework that acknowledges that global issues and practice are not bound by physical borders. Global contexts within the USA and abroad will be explored. These contexts will be within and across different cultural, geopolitical, socio-economic, organizational, and interpersonal settings.
Ongoing development of critical consciousness is the core of this course. Throughout the course, students will critically and reflexively examine the impact of their positionalities, privilege, values, assumptions, prejudice, and biases. Specific attention will be placed on analyzing types, levels, and sources of power and mechanisms of oppression to assist students in addressing global inequalities. They will use such expanding/increasing critical understanding and insights to more effectively work including advocacy and developing allyship in diverse global contexts. |
| Pathway Requirement For: |
Global Social Work Practice (Host) |
| Pathway Elective For: |
Community Change |
| Credits: |
3 |
| Prerequisites: |
None |
| Course Description: |
This course focuses on immigration - one of the most volatile and hotly debated issues of our time. How we respond to the myriad questions about immigration and immigrants and the problems generated by public policy responses to various kinds of immigration will determine how our society and economy will look and function in the future. Students will gain historical, structural and critical analyses of theories and debates related to immigration and forced migration, such as: political economy perspectives about the supply and demand of migrant labor; identity, culture and intersectionality based on Critical Latinx Theory; the challenges of ‘integration’; and tensions between citizenship rights activism versus No Borders activism. Students will understand policies and systems that both facilitate and delimit social work practice with immigrants and refugees, including the family, child welfare, refugee resettlement, asylum, health and mental health, community and legal systems. This course imparts and aspires for social work practice with immigrants and refugees that is forward-looking, transformative and just. |
| Pathway Elective For: |
Community Change, Global Social Work Practice (Host), Policy & Political Social Work |
| Credits: |
3 |
| Prerequisites: |
SW506 |
| Course Description: |
This methods course focuses on intervention with older people at the micro level. This content will be integrated with intervention strategies directed toward aging adults, including evidence-based interventions and practices. Major areas to be discussed are: coping with age related changes, caregiving demands, legal and financial planning, elder abuse, sexuality and intimacy, and loss and grief. This course will also address the diverse dimensions including: ability, age, class, color, culture, ethnicity, family structure, gender, marital status, national origin, race, religion or spirituality, and sexual orientation. The IP intervention will focus on intake, screening, initial evaluation, treatment and termination issues involved in working with older clients and their families. Such skills as reaching out, engaging reluctant or impaired elders, and successful termination of intervention will be covered. Various psychiatric disorders more typically diagnosed among the elderly will be discussed and intervention strategies identified. |
| Pathway Requirement For: |
Social Work Practice with Older Adults and Families from a Lifespan Perspective (Host) |
| Pathway Elective For: |
Global Social Work Practice, Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse |
| Credits: |
1 |
| Prerequisites: |
None |
| Course Description: |
Latinx constitute the largest ethnic minority group in the United States. The United States Latinx population is immensely diverse, with members originating from over twenty countries. Latinx sub-populations tend to reside in different areas of the United States, have different cultural practices/norms, immigration experiences, and varying levels of economic attainment. These sources of internal variation are important, as they have implications for many social outcomes and social work practice with Latinx families. This mini course focuses on the theoretical, empirical and practice literature on Latinx families in the United States. The mini course will allow for students to become familiar with demographic trends, health disparities, acculturation and acculturative stress, and the current debates surrounding the immigrant health paradox. Additionally, this mini course will cover key methodological approaches aimed at engaging Latinx families in mental health and health care services, as well as barriers and facilitators to mental health and health care utilization. Furthermore, the course focuses on the clinical aspects of working with Latinx families, including but not limited to, culturally congruent assessment, and prevention and treatment models. Students in this course will acquire a general understanding of (1) the demographic, social and political background of Latinx families in the United States, (2) key theoretical frameworks to consider (e.g., acculturative stress) when working with Latinx families, (3) culturally congruent assessment, prevention and treatment approaches for health and well-being, and (3) acquire a general understanding of clinical aspects when working with Latinx families in the United States. |
| Pathway Elective For: |
Global Social Work Practice, Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse (Host) |
| Credits: |
3 |
| Prerequisites: |
None |
| Course Description: |
This course will examine the correlates and consequences of child maltreatment, as well as the social, environmental, and cultural buffers and mitigating factors that lessen risk and promote protection/ resilience in maltreated children and adolescents. Students will learn about the public health model of child abuse prevention and examine a range of strategies that extend from this model. Throughout the course, students will critically review programs and practices in primary and secondary prevention and consider how they align with core values of the social work profession. Students will also consider how social workers can become more integrally involved in advancing local, national, and international efforts to promote the well-being of maltreated children across the lifecourse. |
| Pathway Elective For: |
Global Social Work Practice, Welfare of Children & Families (Host) |
| Credits: |
1 |
| Prerequisites: |
None |
| Course Description: |
This mini-course will acquaint students with the basic and advanced facts about HIV/AIDS and sensitize students to the multitude of public health, social policy and social service delivery issues that AIDS presents, and provide US and global perspectives to HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. Students will be sensitized to the special challenges AIDS presents for social work practice. Students will be presented with an approach to evidence based practice, and will review the state of HIV related evidence based prevention practice from national and global perspectives. |
| Pathway Elective For: |
Global Social Work Practice, Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse (Host) |
| Credits: |
1 |
| Prerequisites: |
None |
| Course Description: |
This course examines environmental justice organizing in a US and global context. Students will explore the disproportional impact of environmental racism and climate change on low-income communities of color in the US and globally. The course will examine both the history of environmental justice organizing as well as contemporary US and global efforts to organize for change. A particular focus will be on grassroots and coalition building as a strategies for environmental justice and climate change organizing. |
| Pathway Elective For: |
Community Change (Host), Global Social Work Practice, Policy & Political Social Work |
| Credits: |
3 |
| Prerequisites: |
None |
| Course Description: |
This course will examine theories, social policies and services, social movements, activism and research concerning gender-based violence, and domestic violence (intimate partner violence) in particular. While focusing on domestic violence, the course will address other forms of gender-based violence through an ongoing analysis of interlocking systems of oppression, power and control.
This course is an integrative seminar designed to help students strengthen their critical analysis skills and integrate their knowledge and skills at micro, mezzo, and macro levels. The course encourages the application of these knowledge skills to various levels of practice aimed at ending domestic violence and other forms of gender-based violence, especially social change activities through policy advocacy and community organizing. |
| Pathway Elective For: |
Community Change (Host), Global Social Work Practice, Policy & Political Social Work |
| Credits: |
1 |
| Prerequisites: |
None |
| Course Description: |
The Language Translation and Interpretation is a one-credit mini-course that aims to prepare students to identify, address, and evaluate the language translation and interpretation needs of individuals, families, and communities whose native language is not English. The course will focus on strategies and evidence-based practices for engaging with individuals, families, and communities with or without the aid of an interpreter. Examples of topic issues include gender, class, race/ethnicity, and how these factors influence translation and interpretation in social work practice. The course is recommended for both monolingual and multilingual students working with populations in the U.S.A. and/or other countries. |
| Pathway Elective For: |
Community Change, Global Social Work Practice (Host), Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse |
| Credits: |
1 |
| Prerequisites: |
None |
| Course Description: |
The Understanding and Organizing Against Inhumane Immigration Policy mini-course focuses on the impact of immigration-related public policy on individual, families, and communities. In this course, we will identify and address sweeping national controversies around immigration and significant questions about social justice and racial discrimination. This course will focus on the problems undocumented immigrants face and the public policy strategies of enforcement, particularly at the border and in the interior of the country. Along with discussion of the policies and practices of enforcement, we will explore local enforcement consequences to individuals, families, and local communities. Discussions will include global, national, state, and local components. Students in this course will acquire the skills to critically analyze and address this aspect of immigration policy, its controversies, and strategies for organizing for change within local communities. |
| Pathway Elective For: |
Community Change, Global Social Work Practice (Host), Policy & Political Social Work |
| Credits: |
1-2 |
| Prerequisites: |
None |
| Course Description: |
The Global Course Extension (GCE) mini-course builds off a 3-credit on-campus Advanced Global Topics in Social Work course. This course focuses on a specific global social work-related topic, such as migration, displacement, poverty, climate change, indigeneity, etc. This mini-course involves a 2-4 week trip to a pertinent international location that will allow students to further engage and explore the themes and topics introduced in the on-campus course. Participation in this mini-course requires that students satisfactorily complete the associated 3-credit Advanced Global Topics in Social Work course. Additionally, students must apply and be accepted to participate in a GCE course through an application process. |
| Pathway Elective For: |
Global Social Work Practice (Host) |
| Credits: |
3 |
| Prerequisites: |
None |
| Course Description: |
The Advanced Global Topics in Social Work course is taught by various members of the program faculty and is typically offered during the winter semester. Each version of the course has its own subtitle, some being offered one time only while others may be repeated. Advanced Global Topics in Social Work courses provide an in depth focus on a global social work issue, such as migration, displacement, poverty, climate change, indigeneity, etc. Additionally, students in the Advanced Global Topics in Social Work course have the opportunity to apply for the Faculty-Led Global Course Extension (GCE) mini-course that includes a 2-4 week trip to a pertinent international location that will allow students to further engage and explore the themes and topics introduced in the on-campus course. |
| Pathway Elective For: |
Global Social Work Practice (Host) |