Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• SSW CP 814: Advanced Trauma Seminar
  Graduate Prerequisites: SSW CP 755 ; SSW CP 756 ; SSW CP 757; For Traditional Track and HSE Students
  Graduate Corequisites: SSW CP 755 or SSW CP 756 or SSW CP 757; For Advanced Standing Students
  The Advanced Trauma Seminar is designed for students to deepen their knowledge of the impact of trauma, increase their skill set in the treatment of diverse people who have experienced trauma, and examine the impact of systems and societal inequality on both people who have experienced trauma and their related clinical care. Multiple conceptualizations of trauma, inequality, and mental health will be discussed, with associations between micro- and macro-level harm and healing being emphasized. This course builds on CP 803 & CP 804, with emphases on critical thinking as it relates to relational harm and healing. Foundations of the course include respect for client agency and autonomy, as well as institutionalized self-care. We will contextualize trauma-related mental health through examining intersectionality, sexual violence, relational harm of interpersonal trauma, and marginalized perspectives on mental health and healing. We will additionally focus on relational approaches to therapy and addressing systems of oppression within therapy. Finally, we will revisit ethics in therapy and identify social workers' roles in advocating for social justice for their clients through macro-level change.
• SSW ET 753: 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 (ET 753), 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 FE 800: Integrative Field Seminar
  Graduate Prerequisites: Required of Charles River students in their first placement. OCP students should consult their program director.
  The focus of this seminar is professional development and the role of the social work intern in the agency. The seminar meets several times each semester. Instructor sets schedule. Attendance is required.
• SSW FE 801: Field Education I
  Graduate Corequisites: SSW FE 800.
  Required of all students in their first semester of the first (foundation) field placement. Also required to be registered for a methods course.
• SSW FE 802: Field Education II
  Graduate Corequisites: SSW FE 800.
  Required of all students in their second semester of the first (foundation) field placement. Also required to be registered for a methods course.
• SSW FE 803: Field Education III
  Required of all students in their first semester of the standard second (advanced) field placement. Also required to be registered for a methods course.
• SSW FE 804: Field Education IV
  Required of all students in their second semester of the standard second (advanced field placement). Also required to be registered for a methods course.
• SSW FE 805: Advanced Field Placement: Non-Standard 1
  First semester of non-standard advanced placement (i.e. 12 month or modified block)
• SSW FE 806: Advanced Field Placement: Non-Standard 2
  Second semester of non-standard advanced placement (i.e. 12 month or modified block)
• SSW FE 807: Advanced Field Placement: Non-Standard 3
  Third semester of non-standard advanced placement (i.e. 12 month or modified block)
• SSW FE 808: Fld 4/2 May-May
  
• SSW FE 818: Field Ed 818
  
• SSW FE 819: Field Ed 819
  
• SSW FE 820: Field Ed 820
  
• SSW FE 821: Field Ed 821
  
• SSW FE 822: Field Ed 822
  
• SSW FE 823: Field 4/2 Jan-Jan
  
• SSW FE 824: Field Ed 824
  
• SSW FE 825: Field Ed 825
  
• SSW HB 720: Human Behavior in the Social Environment
  Graduate Corequisites: Graduate Corequisites: HB 735; Or permission of department chair. Required of all students.
  Human Behavior in the Social Environment (HBSE) is designed to help you chart a knowledgeable course through the complexity of human experience. We will explore a select set of theories that help us understand how individuals and communities develop and interact. Because empathic and skillful interventions with individuals, groups, and communities require understanding ourselves as well as others, the course provides an opportunity for increased self-awareness. At the beginning of the course, we focus on the key theories that help us understand the dimensions and expression of human behavior in the social environment. This discussion is followed by an examination of how dimensions of culture and cultural contexts can shape individuals values, beliefs, worldviews, and identities, all of which play a role in the helping process. Through discussion and analysis, we will explore areas of universality and difference in the context of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, spiritual beliefs, and socioeconomic class, as well as the realities and influence of multiple forms of oppression. Finally, we will examine human development throughout the lifespan, considering the developmental scientific knowledge base regarding opportunities and vulnerabilities during the different stages of the lifecycle, and the biopsychosocial and cultural factors that can influence individual development. HB 720 constitutes the foundation course in the human behavior department and is the underpinning of all courses in the HBSE sequence. The ability to analyze human behavior in the social environment, drawing from theoretically and empirically-grounded evidence bases, is essential for social work practice, whether the primary focus is clinical or macro. Social work has a distinct perspective that emphasizes the interconnection between individuals and their environments. The framework draws from other disciplines, including anthropology, economics, psychology, biology, and sociology. The course will provide an understanding of the interactions among biological, social, and psychological, and cultural systems. Forces that facilitate optimal growth and development will be contrasted with forces that impede development. The course will build on your undergraduate knowledge of basic human behavior theories, adding theoretical breadth, critical contextualization, and professional application.