SocW 504 Social Work for Social Justice -Developing a Personal-Professional Stance II

Instructors for Autumn 2007:

• Jill La Pointe*
• Stephen T. Wilson*
• James DeLong*
• Mae C. Henderson and Roy L. Old Person*
• Gita Mehrotra and Jennifer Self*

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Introduction

SW 504 is a 3-credit course focusing on personal and professional development toward social work practice for social justice. This course complements the "Intellectual and Historical Foundations of Social Work Practice" by locating the self in a professional and political context. The course employs a critically self-reflective, experiential and dialogic learning processes to engage students to explore personal meaning systems and narratives in the context of professional values of social justice, multiculturalism, human behavior theory, empowerment and globalization. Such exploration through intensive involvement is geared to helping students develop a strong foundation for critical self-reflection and respectful engagement across differences in perspectives, experiences and histories.

I: Course Purpose

The purpose of this course is to enable students to articulate a personal-professional stance toward social work practice for social justice. The course will provide the theoretical and experiential human behavior and social environment knowledge base related to difference, dominance (oppression and privilege), social justice, and liberation. The course will provide a dialogic forum for students to: (a) critically examine their social identities and positionalities embedded in race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, class, ability status, religion and national origin; (b) reflect on how socio-cultural beliefs, assumptions and value systems affect their social work practice; and (c) develop perspectives and approaches to working with and across social identities and positionalities. This course aims to help students develop the competencies of critical self-reflection, multicultural values and ethics, knowledge, awareness and skills in a variety of ways they can act against manifestations of social injustices and promote greater diversity and justice.

II: Competencies for Social Work Practice for Social Justice-An Overall Framework

This grounding in self and work toward social justice may be expressed through a number of dimensions that we refer to as competencies for social justice work- passion and commitment, personal awareness, knowledge, and skills. Competencies, in our conceptualization, are:

1. not apolitical, value free or objective, but clearly recognize societal power differentials and inequities;
2. contextualized skills, that is contextualized in a set of relationships and interactions that are manifested at multiple levels (individual, group, community, organizational and societal);
3. comprised of both critical and contextualized analysis of practices as well as creative possibilities for generative just, powerful and innovative re-construction of practices;
4. processual in nature, i.e. in process of on-going development and transformation for life-long learning; and
5. emergent from the dynamic interplay of knowledge, awareness, skills, passion and commitment:

III. Course Objectives

In this course, we aim to cultivate the following competencies:

A. Passion and Commitment (Values) Objectives

• Critically reflect on own passion and commitment for social justice work
• Examine and foster personal and professional values and ethics that support social justice
• Develop an appreciation for the importance of critical self-awareness in the context of dialogic engagement with others
• Foster respect for one's own and others' cultural identities
• Articulate and appreciate the values of intergroup dialogue as a coalition & alliance building process
• Embrace issues of difference and conflict as opportunities for greater learning
• Develop an appreciation for a praxis--reflective and active--approach to learning and practice
• Develop own areas of growth and continued learning toward personal and professional development

B. Knowledge and Awareness Objectives

• Understand the theoretical and conceptual frameworks of difference, dominance and transformation (liberation)
• Understand the multiple identities and intersecting diversities within oneself and in the larger society
• Recognize the interconnections and intersections among different forms of oppression
• Understand how the dynamics of difference and dominance affect human behavior and social relations among diverse populations
• Understand and describe the concepts and practices of intergroup dialogue-sustained and meaningful engagement across differences
• Explain how social identities and status affect intergroup dialogue and social work practice
• Articulate learner's interpersonal and intergroup styles in communication
• Identify the conditions that facilitate or hinder dialogue across differences in culture and power
• Identify personal strengths and challenges in working with diverse groups

C. Skills Objectives

• Develop and communicate critical self-awareness of one's assumptions, beliefs, values, and behaviors (with regard to race, class, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, ability, age, and religion)
• Develop a commitment and ability to remain engaged through difficult and conflictual conversational exchanges
• Demonstrate ability to apply engagement skills in different contexts
• Demonstrate critical self-reflective abilities in relation to social work practice
• Demonstrate skills for working respectfully and effectively with differences and conflicts in a multicultural world
• Develop and refine a framework for continued learning about cultural diversity and social justice work
• Create the forums, conditions and processes to foster dialogic engagement across differences
• Demonstrate socially just alliance building skills in working across differences

 

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