Syllabus

Master of Social Work

SSW 646 Social Work Practice in the Caribbean

Credits - 3

Description

Social work models used in the North America represent only a subset of the large number of possible intervention strategies available to respond to the diverse needs of communities and societies. This course attempts to prepare students for international social work practice in the Caribbean or for work with immigrant populations.

The focus of the course will look at the challenges the Caribbean faces in improving the lives of their citizens given their current economic and social circumstances. The course will identify numerous strategies and skills social workers have used to collaboratively build interventions within the social welfare, education, healthcare, and sustainable community development arenas. Coupled with these strategies will come an awareness of the similarity of social challenges faced by nations throughout the world. Among these are human rights, rapid and unplanned urbanization, war, poverty, housing, gender inequality, inability to care for the complex needs of children, racial and/or ethnic discrimination, and cultural conflicts.

Another overarching goal of this course will be to expose class participants to alternate views of the professional and personal transformation processes via the method of social development, as it relates to individual, interpersonal, family, community, organizational, societal, and international change.

The tension between what is “universal” in social work practice and what is country or group-specific will be repeatedly addressed as a third goal of this course. Deliberations in which North American social work practices may or may not be appropriate for the cultural integrity of different countries or global contexts will be an ongoing exploration for the construction of country specific intervention plans.

Course Content

The course will investigate ways in which micro and macro skills can be integrated via a social development framework to address social welfare/ services issues in a Caribbean settings. This includes the development of interventions beginning at the community level and moving toward global aid. We will address not only basic resources such as food, shelter, but also consideration will be given to sustainable economic development, inter-ethnic conflict, global indebtedness, ethno-specific/ethnocultural organizational development, political systems, and social stigmas as a method of intervening in social challenges. 

Materials

Learning Objectives and Outcomes

School of Social Work Program Outcomes:

Graduates of the UNE SSWO will demonstrate knowledge, skills, and leadership in the following:

1. Practice social inclusion to enable people, populations, and communities to fully participate in society, enhance human bonds in the context of cultural diversity and ensure improved quality of life and equitable resource distribution. EPAS Competencies 2 & 3
2. Engage in culturally-informed relationship building, being respectful of the complexity and diversity of contexts and circumstances. EPAS Competencies 3 & 6
3. Utilize theories of human behavior, social systems and social inclusion when offering interventions with people and their environments. EPAS Competency 8
4. Promote ethical reflection, critical consciousness and shared decision-making based in social work values and with consideration of the broader contexts of the world in which we live. EPAS Competency 1
5. Balance the roles of helpers, activists, and advocates through collaboration with communities to build healthy and sustainable resources. EPAS Competencies 2, 5, & 6
6. Engage as critical consumers and producers of research as it relates to assessment, intervention and evaluation of clinical and community practices. EPAS Competencies 4, 7, 8 & 9
7. Practice person-centered and collaborative community partnerships across diverse settings. EPAS Competency 6

Course Objectives

Upon completion of this course, class participants will be able to:

1. Examine several perspectives in social work through a Caribbean context (measured by Jamaica Group Video project).
2. Explain the influence of Caribbean social, economic, and political policy on the lives of citizens in that region (measured by the Caribbean Resource Social Service Manual assignment and the Jamaica Group Video project).
3. Analyze the interplay among cultural, social, historical, economic, and political factors affecting the Caribbean nationally and internationally (measured by the Caribbean Resource Social Service Manual assignment and the Jamaica Group Video project).
4. Apply strategies/ interventions related to developing trust and serving as “co-learners” in cross-cultural and international settings (measured by interactions and experiences in the field).
5. Discuss ways that new and innovative social welfare/ services in use internationally may have utility for addressing North American social problems and challenges (measured by Caribbean Social Service Delivery Needs Paper).
6. Explain how Caribbean organizations and coalitions’ policies influence behavioural choices at the individual, interpersonal, community, group, and societal levels (measured by the Caribbean Resource Social Service Manual assignment).

Assignments

Caribbean Resource Manual

This assignment is designed to give students a practical application and an up-to-date understanding of Social Work resources in different parts of the Caribbean. The student will pick a region in the Caribbean and look at it from a social service perspective and follow the questions below. The Manual will be 9 pages inclusive of references and title page, double-spaced, and APA format. It will be written in the third person and as an academic paper.

Caribbean Social Service Delivery Needs Paper

This assignment is designed for the student to identify and critically explore a Caribbean social service delivery need/issue (e.g., poverty, unemployment, homelessness, children deprived of parental care, HIV/AIDS, human trafficking, disability, family violence, juvenile and adult crime, and imprisonment) and draw comparisons to that same issue in North America. Students will explore the comparison and how it impacts Social Work Practice in the two systems differently. 

Jamaica Groups Video

The objective of this assignment is to create a 10-minute video of your experiences as a social work student in Jamaica. Please utilize the organizations we visit and help viewers understand the individuals, community and groups we encounter. This video can be set up it any way you see fit, but must explain your experience and how social work is viewed in Jamaica. It is, in essence, a way to get at the first learning objective in this course: “Examine several perspectives in social work from a Caribbean context.”

Learning Activities

A variety of learning activities are designed to support the course objectives, facilitate different learning styles, and build a community of learners. Learning activities for each module include the following:

Readings and Multimedia:

Description: This course will use an array of readings, videos, and films to present the important concepts in the various modules.
The readings and multimedia provide the foundation and background for student discussion threads and written assignments.

Discussions:

Description: An important learning method in this course is student participation and interaction in the discussion threads within each module. Students are expected to participate actively and in a respectful manner. Please refer to Course Policies about participation for a full discussion of expectations.

Grading and Feedback Method: Grading methods are listed with each specific discussion assignment. Please refer to the Learning Modules and Discussion Boards for more information.

Written Work:

All written work should be typed and double-spaced. The papers should be submitted in Microsoft Word format including references in APA format as appropriate. Students who are not clear about proper format are encouraged to consult the UNE Student Academic Success Center or various libraries, online, and other resources to get this information. All materials should be appropriately referenced and limited to recognized scholarly, academic, or client/consumer-oriented sources (such as online journals and information from advocacy-oriented organizations). Gender-neutral language should be used throughout all written assignments.

Extensions and incompletes:

Under normal circumstances, there will be no extensions for papers or other assignments, or incompletes for the course. If you have concerns about an assignment, please discuss with the instructor well in advance of the due date. If you have reason to believe that you will be unable to complete the work, contact the Course Instructor immediately.

Work submitted may undergo a plagiarism detection process. This may or may not include analysis through plagiarism detection software. If this process is used, student work may be retained and used to conduct future plagiarism assessments.

Weekly Participation:

Posts to the discussion board must add substantively to the discussion by building upon classmates’ ideas or posing critical questions to further the discussion. For example, a posting of “I agree with what people are saying” is not sufficient. I will be monitoring the participation on a weekly basis, and welcome people to check in with me if they have questions regarding their participation. Keep in mind that weekly posts make up a significant percentage of the final grade. All posts must be respectful. If at anytime you are concerned with a posting, please notify me immediately. Please note that I encourage people to work in small groups to reflect and respond to the discussion questions. This is why some of the discussions in your learning modules indicate that they are small group discussions. Your instructor will randomly assign you to a small group at the start of class. This will be the group you work in throughout the course–when small group discussions occur.

The majority of your discussions require a certain quality of critical thinking within the posts. Unless otherwise noted, you should post quality responses of no more than two to three paragraphs in length of the indicated quantity in any preferred combination related to the questions. The recommended method is that you carefully read the existing posts and then think about how to build off the existing ideas by offering additional insights, alternative perspectives, or raising critical questions. As part of this process, be sure to refer back to the original discussion question in order to keep the thread focused on the required topic and addresses the indicated question(s).

More specifically, many of the discussion requirements will say something along the lines of “submit two posts.” With this, one of the posts needs to be more substantive. For example, one of the posts provides an explanation of why you are raising the critical question or justifying/explaining the alternative perspective–within the context of the question. Then the second post should be a response to one of your classmates or instructor’s post to add additional insight or perspectives (refer to the Participation Rubric for guidance). Keep in mind, if the assignment has more specific criteria for completion, you should follow what is indicated. As a general rule, if you do not see a quantity of posts indicated to a given discussion, you should always post a response to the question itself and a response to at least one of your classmates (per discussion) AS A MINIMUM. You should always follow the criteria listed in this section (Participation section of the Syllabus) as well as anything more specifically stated in the learning modules.

All posts to the discussion boards should be completed by 11:59 p.m. EST of last day of the module as indicated in the “Course Schedule”. Any discussions that extend beyond that date and time will not be considered a part of the grade and/or assignment, but rather optional reading. Even though you technically have until the last day of the module to post, your participation points will suffer if you do not post initially by Sunday as this negatively impacts your classmates’ ability to respond to your posts and your ability to respond to their posts. Posts that do not relate to the identified topic should be in one of the on-going discussion boards such as “Ask The Class”, “Hallway Discussions”, or “Resources”.

Grading Policy

The School of Social Work uses the following grading system for all courses with the exception of field education courses. Students are expected to maintain a “B” (3.0) average over the course of their study. Students with less than a GPA of 3.0 will be placed on academic probation. Students must have an overall GPA of 3.0 in order to receive their Master’s Degree.

Your grade in this course will be determined by the following criteria:

Grade Breakdown