Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. 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 SR 907: Advanced Qualitative Research Methods
  This course is the second in a two-semester sequence (SR906 and SR907) designed to introduce students to qualitative approaches in social science research and foster development of foundational skills in qualitative research design, data collection, data analysis, and presentation of qualitative research findings. The course builds on students' developing understanding of the diversity and philosophical underpinnings of qualitative approaches and provides an opportunity to deepen one's skills in data collection and analysis through the completion of a small-scale qualitative research project. Students are expected to have obtained IRB approval for their projects prior to the start of the semester so that work on these can begin immediately.
• SSW SR 910: Doctoral Dissertation Seminar
  Designed as a seminar format, this course guides students in the transformation of their latent ideas into novel researchable dissertation projects. The course focuses on enhancing student knowledge and skills necessary to develop the many components of the dissertation in a coherent manner: introduction, literature review, theoretical or conceptual framework, research questions, methods, results and discussion sections. The seminar also addresses a number of dissertation research-related tasks such as creation of the dissertation committee, understanding research ethics and the institutional review board process, exploring dissertation funding and identifying needed resources, creation of realistic timelines for dissertation phases, and strategies for dissemination of work through conference presentations and publications. Each student will develop a complete draft of his/her dissertation prospectus and evaluate the proposed research in terms of its relevance for the field of social welfare, including relevance to the profession's mission to pursue social justice, the rigor of the proposed study, the originality of the research, and the feasibility of the overall proposal.
• SSW SW 905: Contemporary Social Problems: A Social Work Perspective
  SW905 is meant to act as an informal capstone experience for social work doctoral students. The class is to be taken in the fourth semester of full time study after students have completed their foundational learning at the School of Social Work as well as their methods and specialization courses in the greater University community. Given the topical and methodological diversity of the social work academic enterprise and the accompanying diversity in student research interests, the course has two over-arching aims: 1. To recognize the unique contributions of social work empirical research to the understanding of contemporary social problems; 2. To have students locate their own nascent research agendas among the diverse methods and topics that are currently characteristic of the field.
• SSW SW 908: Teaching Seminar
  This required, 4-credit course will orient students to teaching methods and skills specific to course instruction in substantive areas required in accredited social work programs at the master's level. Students will explore diverse pedagogical frameworks for teaching social work clinical and community practice, policy, human behavior, and research. The course will emphasize effective teaching grounded in core social work values of social justice and respect for human diversity.
• SSW SW 909: Teaching Practicum
  Students will complete a teaching practicum with an instructor of record for a traditional in person MSW classroom course. Course assignments will be made according to the needs and interests of the student in collaboration with faculty advisors and course instructors with approval from the doctoral committee and relevant departments.
• SSW WP 700: Social Welfare Policy 1: Conceptions, Scope, History, and Philosophies of Social Welfare
  Graduate Prerequisites: Required of all students. - 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 2: Contemporary Social Policy Analysis
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SSWWP700) Required of all students. - 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 704: Social Policy and Programs on Aging
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SSWWP700 & SSWWP701) Or permission of department chair. - 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
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SSWWP700 & SSWWP701) Or permission of department chair. - 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 707: Social Welfare Policy and Programs on Children
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SSWWP700 & SSWWP701) Or permission of department chair. - 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 711: Substance Use Policy
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SSWWP700 & SSWWP701) Or permission of department chair. - 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
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SSWWP700 & SSWWP701) Or permission of department chair. - 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 720: Family Policy
  Graduate Prerequisites: WP700 & WP701 - This course will explore how social policies shape the context in which families live and in turn influences family wellbeing. Students will examine the relationship between family functioning and social policies at the local, state, and federal level. We will examine how demographic changes, values, attitudes and perspectives of well-being of families influence the policy debate. Attention will be given to the current debates about the "proper role" of government in support of families from different political perspectives. Students will assess the equity and effectiveness of policies and programs aimed at promoting American families' economic, health and social well-being and identify roles social work professionals can play in influencing policy development and implementation. Special attention will be paid to the consequences of various policy debates/alternatives for vulnerable and/or historically marginalized populations.
• SSW WP 725: Contemporary Housing Policy in the United States: Critical Challenges and Policy Solutions
  Graduate prerequisites: SSWWP 700 and WP 701 - In the midst of a growing and multifaceted housing crisis, housing is an increasingly salient policy issue at the local, state and federal levels in the United States This course will examine the contemporary housing policy context in the United States. The overarching objective of the course is to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to analyze this contemporary context and make recommendations about the future of housing policy. In line with this objective, the course will cover the historical trajectory of housing policy in the United States and then shift to an examination of critical contemporary housing problems including rental housing affordability; eviction, homelessness and other forms of housing instability; homeownership; and racial discrimination in housing markets. In doing so, the course will also explore the relationship between housing and health as well as other social outcomes. The course will also analyze key federal, state and local housing policies¿with an emphasis on those intended to assist low-income renters¿and consider recent housing policy innovations that have either been proposed or implemented. Given that housing is a highly active area of social policy, the course will draw frequently on current events¿including policy initiatives that may be under consideration at the local and state levels¿and will engage guest speakers whose work intersects with various areas of housing policy.
• SSW WP 901: Social Justice, Values and the Social Work Profession
  What is social justice' What, if any, relationship does it have to social welfare' How do our understandings of social justice and social welfare shape our understanding of social problems' This course will explore these questions and their implications for social work academics through humanities and social science approaches and a history of ideas that have influenced the development of professional social work in the United States. It will also examine social justice, values and some key areas of 21st century social work.
• SSW WP 903: Perspectives on Social Welfare Policy
  Focusing on theory, process and substance, this course is designed to expose students to different understandings of the American political institutions as they relate to social welfare policy. Attention is paid to institutional and other factors, shaping and constraining the development of social policies in the United States.