Two-Year Curriculum

The skills-based lab is a 7-week “hands-on” training for all students enrolled in Foundation Year Practicum. The aim of the lab is to equip social work students with universal engagement and communication skills to support both professional development in the practicum and personal growth. The lab is designed to be highly interactive, with a strong emphasis on “experiential learning” through role/real play and ongoing feedback. The lab is led by certified skills-based lab instructors, who serve as facilitators in the process of student learning and practice.

This is a 0-credit, pass/fail course taken in the first half of the term.

In this course, students acquire the language of statistics and learn the basics of descriptive and inferential statistics. The emphasis of the course is on a conceptual understanding of basic concepts to aid in interpretation. Specific topics include descriptive statistics, standard errors, type I and type II errors, t-test, chi-spare, and analysis of variance.

This is a 0-credit, pass/fail course taken in the second half of the term.

Students are required to complete six credits in the Human Behavior and Social Environment area. This first course adopts a developmental life-course and social systems framework in an examination of environmental and historical influences, current social movements, societal belief systems, social structures, and political processes affect bio-psycho- social aspects of human development. The course focuses on the application of these theories in tandem with a scholarly examination of social forces that shape human agency, opportunity, health, and behavior.

See Human Behavior and the Social Environment – II for the second course.

This course provides students with an overview and assessment of current domestic social welfare policies and programs, and the factors that influence their development. Special attention is given to income maintenance, personal social services, and in-kind benefits.

In this foundations course, participants will learn generalist and justice-based frameworks and skills for social work intervention. Emphasis is placed on an analysis of power, race, oppression, and privilege; the impact systems of oppression have at the micro-, mezzo-, and macro-levels; and how these systems may influence social work practice. Coursework focuses on anti-Black racism and covers the intersectionality of anti-Black racism and issues concerning LBGTQ+ rights, genderism, Indigenous People/First Nations People and land rights, Latin-x representation, xenophobia, Islamophobia, undocumented immigrants, Japanese internment camps, indigent White communities (Appalachia), and anti-Semitism.

All coursework aims to foster self-awareness and develop mindfulness practices; increase capacity to mitigate oppressive systems in social work agencies and organizations; provide skills for community building within and outside the classroom. Social work skills for anti-oppressive practice are developed through the use of experiential exercises and feedback. Practicum practice is integrated into classroom content and discussion.

(Must be taken concurrently with T6010 Generalist Social Work Practicum.)

Practicum education is a central component in each student’s professional education, and it requires 21 hours a week, three days a week. Placements provide a range of experiences to integrate with theoretical learning from class work and to develop knowledge, values, and skills for social practice.

This second term of Human Behavior and the Social Environment is split into two “mini” courses. Students must select two seven-week courses on a range of topics, all of which have a pronounced focus on issues of power, privilege, oppression, identity, and social justice.

Prerequisite: T7100

This course builds upon the knowledge and skills acquired in T7100 Foundations of Social Work Practice: Decolonizing Social Work.

Students learn to critically examine, select, apply, and evaluate major theoretical models of direct social work practice with individuals, families, and groups in a culturally competent manner. Particular emphasis is placed on the linkage between assessment and intervention, the critical evaluation of self in one’s own practice, and the use of empirical knowledge to guide practice decisions.

(Must be taken concurrently with T6010 Generalist Social Work Practicum.)

Prerequisites: T7100, T6801

This course builds on the knowledge, values, and skills provided in Decolonizing Social Work. Coursework focuses on better understanding and applying a justice-based framework to mezzo- and macro- social work practice within organizational, community and political systems. The intersections of white supremacy, institutionalized power, anti-Black racism, oppression, and privilege will be discussed.

Participants will learn to critically analyze and assess organizations, communities, social policies and political systems; develop interventions, advocate for, and work collaboratively to achieve change and build capacity in organizations and communities and to influence social policies and political processes; extend their understanding of distributive justice, human and civil rights and the dynamics of oppression, and the role of advocacy and social change action in pursuing social and economic justice.

(Must be taken concurrently with T6010 Generalist Social Work Practicum and T7102 Direct Practice with Individuals, Families & Groups.)

Practicum education is a central component in each student’s professional education, and it requires 21 hours a week, three days a week. Placements provide a range of experiences to integrate with theoretical learning from class work and to develop knowledge, values, and skills for social practice.

Students will understand and appreciate a scientific, analytic approach to building knowledge for practice and for evaluating service delivery in all areas of practice.

Different theoretical bases and methodological procedures for social work research are addressed, as are basic statistical procedures and technological advances in quantitative and qualitative designs. Ethical standards of scientific inquiry are emphasized with attention to protecting and promoting the well-being of vulnerable and oppressed populations.

Ultimately, students are expected to be able to access, critically evaluate, and appropriately use empirical research to inform and evaluate their practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.