Courses
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SSW MP 794: Macro Field Seminar
A required monthly seminar in support of field placements for non-MSW-supervised, second-year macro students. There are no readings or assignments. -
SSW MP 795: Applied Macro Skills, Groups and Systems
This course focuses on the development and staffing of various types of task groups in a range of settings. The course covers theory, knowledge, and skills related to task group development; leadership models; decision making; conflict resolution; coalition building; lobbying and influencing legislation; press and media relations; conducting effective meetings; staffing governance boards; resolving common group problems; and working with multicultural groups. It draws heavily from students' learning experiences in their current field placements (as well as employed positions, where applicable) and is conducted as an interactive seminar. -
SSW SP 741: Ethics and the Social Work Profession
This required seminar is intended to inspire the moral imagination of social work students, and prepare them for competent and compassionate ethical practice as professionals. Ethics and the Social Work Profession (SP741), examines the issues of social work professionalism, the process of becoming a social work professional, the tensions inherent in the goals of social work, and the ways these interrelate to produce conflicts of values and ethics in social work practice. The course focuses on acquiring and practicing the skills of ethical decision-making, including values clarification, application of ethical theory, utilization of codes of ethics, and models of ethical analysis. Both clinical and macro aspects of social work are explored, with an emphasis on the contemporary challenges of practice in multicultural and urban settings. Issues of self-care, impairment, licensure, malpractice, whistle-blowing and other professional challenges are explored. The course is set in the advanced curriculum as an integrative ?capstone?, designed to be concurrent with the student?s final semester in the MSW program. -
SSW SR 743: Introduction to Social Work Research I
The goal of this introductory course is to develop the student's ability to use and engage in both quantitative and qualitative research in order to inform and evaluate their own social work practice. The course addresses key research concepts and procedures such as hypothesis formulation, measurement, sampling, research design, and data collection. The course also examines ethical issues in the conduct of social research, including informed consent, anonymity and confidentiality, culturally sensitive research methods, and the NASW Code of Ethics. -
SSW SR 744: Social Work Research II
Students are introduced to the concepts and procedures that are fundamental to both descriptive and inferential statistics. Empirical research examining the effectiveness of social work practice, particularly in the urban environment, is explored. Utilizing existing national data sets, students generate their own research hypotheses and then formulate and carry out an analytic strategy to answer these questions effectively. Emphasis is also placed on gaining skills in presenting and communicating key findings to relevant audiences and stakeholders -
SSW SR 904: Clinical Research Methods in Social Work Practice
This course familiarizes graduate students with design, implementation and analytic strategies for quantitative research with clinical populations. A particular emphasis is on the conduct of intervention studies. Topics include conceptualization and design, sampling of participants, assessment, data organization and management, analysis plans, evaluation and outcomes, and ethical concerns. -
SSW SR 906: Qualitative Research Methods
This course provides graduate students with foundational knowledge of some of the major theories and practices of qualitative research. The history of qualitative methods is reviewed to situate this long-standing approach within current practices in the social sciences. A variety of approaches to data collection (ethnography, observation, focus groups and individual interviewing) and analysis (narrative, grounded theory, Listening Guide) are introduced along with ethical issues in the practice of qualitative research. Strategies for enhancing rigor are discussed as are writing qualitative research proposals and publications. A series of exercises and a mini research project provide opportunities for direct application of the course material. -
SSW WP 700: Social Welfare Policy I: Conceptions, Scope, History, and Philosophies of Social Welfare
The first semester of this two-semester foundation course in social welfare policy explores concepts about the meaning and purpose of social welfare, ideologies, and values about the role of government and social welfare policy, the evolution of social welfare policy over time, and the role of social work in the development of social policy. -
SSW WP 701: Social Welfare Policy II: Contemporary Social Policy Analysis
This second-semester foundation course focuses principally on the study of urban poverty. Using a social problem/policy model, the course explores definitions, correlates, causes, and consequences of urban poverty. The same model is then used by students in exploring particular social problems and policies of interest to them. Particular emphasis is placed on analyzing current interventions and proposing means to improve policy intervention, including the contributions of social work. -
SSW WP 703: International Social Welfare Policy
This course is designed to familiarize students with social problems and social policies cross-nationally. It contrasts problem definitions and policy responses among nations at similar levels of economic development. The course presents descriptive materials on social policies in different nations and contrasts, and traces factors leading in recent years toward welfare state retrenchment and away from welfare state expansion. -
SSW WP 704: Social Policy and Programs on Aging
This course explores the development and scope of public policies directed toward older persons. It reviews the provisions and workings of current programs, with special attention to implications for social work practice. Program areas investigated include acute and long-term health care, housing and community-based services, and the formal service structure and its relationship to informal service provision. Finally, the course explores emerging policy innovations in aging, such as public and private insurance for chronic-care needs, life care programs, and proposals for more progressive public policies affecting older Americans. -
SSW WP 705: Mental Health and Social Policy
This course provides an understanding of mental health policy and service delivery in the United States and of the impact of mental health policies on social work practice. It reviews multiple perspectives on mental health and mental illness and the history of social policies influencing mental health care. The class examines current trends in service delivery and financing (such as managed care and health insurance reform) and explores legal and ethical issues in the provision of mental health care. Models of family and consumer advocacy and empowerment are considered. -
SSW WP 706: Social Welfare Policy and the Family
Profound changes in the structure of American society and in the makeup of the family have stimulated debate about the appropriate role of government in family maintenance and child rearing. This course reviews major social and demographic changes in the family and critical issues in the construction of a national family policy, particularly in the areas of income distribution, child welfare, social services, employment, and health care. -
SSW WP 707: Social Welfare Policy and Programs on Children
This course analyzes emerging issues and ideas about children and how these affect social policy and practice. It reviews major social and demographic changes in the family that affect the development of national policies designed to protect and provide for the care of children. The course emphasizes policies in such areas as income provisions, adoption, substitute care, neglect and abuse, social services, and employment. -
SSW WP 710: Family Law and Children's Rights
This course provides a framework for understanding law and social policy. It examines the impact of law on the social work profession. The class discusses issues of marriage and divorce, child custody and support, children's rights, and legal research. -
SSW WP 711: Substance Abuse Policy
This course in alcohol and drug policy is designed to provide students with a forum to acquire and synthesize knowledge of policy, research, and service organization in the field. The course will include topics such as alcohol and drug research, social problems that interface with alcohol and drug policy (e.g., poverty, gender, and race discrimination), key issues, controversies and trends, ethics and values issues, and the role of social work in the field of alcohol and drug policy and research. -
SSW WP 713: State Legislative Processes and Welfare Policy
The focus of this course is on developing an understanding of how social policy may be achieved in the legislative arena at the state level. The course (a) introduces students to theories, research findings, and issues about legislative processes; (b) derives working hypotheses, or action principles, which may guide social work practitioners in the legislative process; and (c) applies these working hypotheses toward achieving adoption of proposals by a state legislature. -
SSW WP 719: U.S. Housing Policy
This course builds on the historical context and policy analysis skills developed in WP700 and WP701 to provide an in-depth examination of the structure, development and debates in housing policy in the U.S. Focus on the workings of housing markets, analytic tools useful in exploring housing policy as well as current research concerning public housing and dispersal programs will be featured prominently in the course. -
SSW WP 900: Social Program Analysis and Evaluation
This course prepares doctoral students in the application of analytical methods as a basis for improving public and organizational decision making in social welfare. The political, value, and technical aspects of policy formation and implementation are considered. The course emphasizes the formulation of empirical hypotheses and assessment of the hypotheses against available data. -
SSW WP 901: Sociology of the Social Work Profession
This course explores the development of social work as a profession. It examines the historical roots of, and key trends in, social work. Readings are taken from sociological literature on professionalization and comparison of several professions within social work. Discussion includes a critical evaluation of the function of "experts" in contemporary American society.
