Syllabus

Master of Social Work

SSWO 526 – Integrating Clinical/Community Practice Frameworks – Fall A 2020

Credits - 3

Description

Integrating Clinical / Community Practice Frameworks (SSW 526) is a required course of students enrolled in the MSW/MSWO program as Advanced Standing. It is designed to introduce social work scholarship, values, and skills imbedded in the UNE School of Social Work vision and mission that envision a world where social workers are at the forefront of advocating with individuals and communities for human dignity, social inclusion, and efforts to end inequities, exploitation, and violence. Course content fully integrates clinical (micro) and community (macro) perspectives and practices with an emphasis on cultural, relational, and evidence-based competencies. This course serves as a bridge to the Concentration Year of the MSW program by preparing new students for the advanced curriculum.

Prerequisites

Admitted as Advanced Standing (SADV)

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 successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

1. Demonstrate self-reflective practice that includes awareness and integration of personal, professional, social, economic, political, and cultural forces that promote and/or impede social inclusion and compassionate client-centered practice. Program Outcome 4
2. Demonstrate collaborative relationships using empowering, relational, and organizational change theories for practice with client systems, colleagues, community partners, and organizations. Program Outcome 3
3. Identify the use of research findings to select and critically evaluate practice and service delivery with individuals, families, groups, communities and organizations which will create micro, mezzo and macro level intervention strategies. Program Outcome 6
4. Apply prevailing ideological concepts of class, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation that permeate social inclusion with individuals, groups, and communities. Program Outcome 1
5. Demonstrate an understanding of historical and contemporary social and economic inequities and how they impact individuals, families, populations, and communities. Program Outcome 1

Assignments

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 week include the following:

Readings and Multimedia:

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

APA Style and RefWorks:

The MSWO program uses APA style for writing assignments. In week one there are resources to assist students in becoming familiar with APA including a tutorial and self-check quiz (ungraded). As you start your educational journey, we want to prepare you for ongoing learning, research, and scholarship. RefWorks is a tool available through the UNE Libary that allows you to store and organize your research articles in a format that you can build upon during your time in this program. The tool also will help with creating reference lists in APA style. In week one, you will set-up your RefWorks account and submit a screenshot (ungraded).

Discussions:

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

“Worlds Apart” Group Discussions 

Prior to beginning this course you were asked to read the book Worlds Apart, Poverty and Politics in Rural America (2nd Edition), Duncan. C. (2015). The communities highlighted in this book were first researched in 1999, and this second edition revisits each of them to see what, if anything, has changed. The impact of social exclusion in these rural impoverished areas provides a foundation from which to examine elements of social exclusion and identify strategies to promote social inclusion.

Students will be given questions to reflect on and discuss in their small groups.

How do I know who I am? Journal Assignment

The major writing assignment in this course is a two-part journal assignment titled “How do I know who I am?”, a critical and thoughtful examination of your awareness and understanding of yourself, the world, and “correspondences and contradictions” adapted from Mary Ellen Kondrat’s model for practitioner awareness (1999, pp. 465-466).

Each part of this assignment will be submitted as a separate entry in your course journal. Please tie in relevant course materials to strengthen your writing. This is mainly a self-report, but you must include, at a minimum, 2 scholarly, peer-reviewed references (per entry) to support your work.

More in-depth directions can be found in the course.

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

Assignment	Points	Percentage Value
Weekly Discussions	385 (13 discussions)	38%
Journal Assignment - How do I know who I am?	500 (first entry worth 200 points, second entry worth 300 points)	50%
"Worlds Apart" Group Discussions and Critical Analysis	80 points (40 points * 2 discussions)	8%
Refworks Assignment	15 points	1.5%
APA Quiz	20 points	2%
Total:	1,000	100%

Grade Scale

Grade	Points Grade	Point Average (GPA)
A	94 – 100%	4.00
A-	90 – 93%	3.75
B+	87 – 89%	3.50
B	84 – 86%	3.00
B-	80 – 83%	2.75
C+	77 – 79%	2.50
C	74 – 76%	2.00
C-	70 – 73%	1.75
D	64 – 69%	1.00
F	00 – 63%	0.00