2024-2025 Course List

Course provides an overview of intimate partner violence from a theoretical and evidence-based, social work perspective. Students learn about intervention strategies from direct practice to advocacy and policy change. Multiple systems are explored. The intersection of gender, class, sexual orientation, age, and culture with intimate partner violence is covered.

This course introduces students to the work of specialized instructional support personnel, who enhance the capacity of every student to learn. Emphasis will be placed on multidisciplinary collaboration that promotes student well-being and supportive school environments.

Service delivery issues, knowledge, and skills for providing social services within school services.

This course covers the evolution of school social work as a profession and the impact of the culture and climate of the school on practice. It examines how social diversity impacts academic achievement and the role of the school social worker in addressing disparities.

Course focuses on service delivery issues and skills, using a strengths-based, family systems, and empowerment approach for working with individuals with developmental and other disabilities and their families across the life span. Students hoping to do a practicum in a disability services setting should complete this course prior to beginning the practicum.

Social Work practice in public child welfare agencies is multi-faceted and uniquely challenging. Seven 1-credit modules are designed to offer maximum specialization in the study of direct (interventions with children, youth, and families) and indirect (policy and administration) practice in state, county, or tribal child welfare. Issues related to practice, policy, cultural responsiveness, and the application of social work ethics are addressed. This course can meet the elective requirement for MSW students, including Title IV-E child welfare stipend recipients. Previous experience or coursework in public child welfare is recommended. Course is taken, with advisement, for up to 7 credits.

This course provides students with the opportunity to apply knowledge and skills acquired in the school social work certificate program in a school-environment. In seminar students clarify and integrate theoretical and school-specific curriculum content with experiences.

Topics announced when offered.

This foundational social work course focuses on direct generalist practice with individuals, families, and groups. The historical roots of the social work profession are examined to explicate its abolitionist, racist, classist, and oppressive underpinnings. Emphasis is placed on decolonizing practices whose aim is to dismantle systems of oppression utilizing anti-oppressive and anti-racist lenses. This course explores the knowledge, skills, values, and ethics of the social work profession and the principles that promote social, economic, and environmental justice and planetary well-being.

This course focuses on the critical application and critique of theoretical perspectives, models, and concepts in relationship to diverse people and their environments throughout lifespan development. Students will learn and apply theories related to human behavior and the person in the environment that focuses on individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. Students will explore the impact of social structures such as poverty, oppression, and discrimination of people from diverse populations from micro- to macro-level systems.

The course provides students with an overview of the historical and contemporary social welfare system, with an emphasis on understanding the impact and legacy of racism and racial regulation and the structural determinants of poverty and economic inequality. Students develop skills in policy and social welfare program research, policy analysis, and developing policy position statements that are culturally informed, anti-racist and anti-oppressive and advance human rights and social, racial, economic and environmental justice.

This course provides students with generalist social work knowledge, values, and skills for effective interpersonal and interprofessional communication and interviewing, with emphasis on the application of effective oral and written communication with diverse populations. Students will develop greater self-awareness of personal cultural influences and identify their personal and professional values across diverse domains. Further, students will investigate the impact of social constructs, biases, and privilege on communication patterns with client systems at the micro-, mezzo-, and macro-system levels.

This course provides students with generalist knowledge, values and skills in self-reflective, culturally responsive, evidence-informed, and equity-minded task group practice, interprofessional practice within social services organizations, and community practice. The course prepares students to ground their rights-based, anti-racist, anti-oppressive practice at all system levels in the structural-social determinants of health.

Generalist Practicum and Seminar I provides students with the opportunity to integrate social work knowledge, values, skills, and cognitive/affective processes reflected in generalist behaviors through practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.

Co-morbid substance abuse and mental health disorders will be encountered by social workers in all areas of practice. Current research on dual diagnosis indicates integrated treatment of substance misuse and mental illness is the most effective approach to treatment. This course will provide an understanding of the intersection of multiple diagnoses and enable social work professionals to effectively treat multiple diagnoses in their area of practice. This course examines the interaction of addictive and other mental health disorders. Particular focus is placed on case-conceptualization, assessment, and intervention with multiple diagnosed clients in specific populations. Graduate students will also explore supervision/management.

Generalist Practicum and Seminar II is a continuation of SOWK 615 Generalist Practicum and Seminar I. Students integrate social work knowledge, values, skills, and cognitive/affective processes reflected in generalist behaviors through practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.

This course enables students to learn the rationale for applying quantitative and qualitative research knowledge and skills used in generalist social work practice. Students critically evaluate how to conduct ethical, culturally responsive, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive approaches in social work research. Students explore and recognize the importance of social and economic justice, diversity, evidence-informed and equity-minded research practices in social work.

The purpose of this course is to acquire advanced school social work practice skills to bring about systems level change. Students will learn how to utilize clinical skills to mobilize stakeholders to adopt evidence informed practices and implement them with fidelity.

This course prepares Advanced Standing students for transitioning from generalist social work to advanced generalist social work content in the specialization year. This course links undergraduate generalist social work to the advanced generalist specialization curriculum content to redefine students¿ professional self-identity, knowledge, skills, and values. In this preparation course, students will explore and analyze culturally responsive, anti-oppressive, anti-racist, ethical social work practice in research, human behavior, cultural humility, structural and social determinates of health, and tasks group.

This course provides students with advanced generalist knowledge, values, and skills related to direct social work practice focusing on diverse individuals across the lifespan. Through experiential learning and a culturally responsive, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive lens, students will investigate the cultural implications of social work assessments, planning, communication, intervention, and evaluation of individuals at various developmental stages of children, adolescents, adults, and older adults.

The purpose of this course is to prepare students for advanced social work practice in a public, private, and tribal child welfare settings. This course is required for MSW Child Welfare Scholars. The course is designed to provide the student with a focused, practice-oriented learning environment that will build upon previous experiential and academic learning. The emphasis will be upon increasing the student¿s conceptual and practice skill level to become an effective social worker in a child welfare setting while increasing knowledge of historical and current federal and state child welfare policies, programs, and practices.

This task group-based course provides students with the policy advocacy practice skills needed to advance human rights and promote social, racial, economic and environmental justice. Students research and write a policy advocacy brief and develop and implement an advocacy plan on a state-level policy issue, through a human rights, anti-oppressive, and anti-racist lens.

This course provides students with advanced generalist theories, knowledge, values, and skills related to practice with couples and families. Through experiential learning and through a culturally responsive, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive lens, students will analyze, develop, and apply advanced knowledge and skills in the assessment and incorporate culturally responsive methods and interventions with couples and families.

This course provides students with advanced generalist knowledge, values, and skills in critical areas of administrative social work practice. Students develop competence in needs assessment, organizational change, program planning, grant writing, leadership, social work supervision, and other aspects to effectively managing social service agencies. Students are prepared to provide culturally responsive, anti-oppressive, and trauma-informed agency-based leadership to diverse populations in rural and small community settings.