SocW 514B
International Social Work and Development

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course provides a frame of reference and skills for community change and capacity-building in international contexts. International development perspectives and their implications for contemporary social work practice in an era of globalization will be examined, along with selected global social issues and practice approaches drawn primarily from developing countries. Students will be encouraged to investigate ways in which individual problems relate to structural issues, how to utilize participatory approaches in community assessment and change, and how problem-solving skills used in an empowerment framework can address situations in which people experience discrimination and marginalization. The major part of the course focuses on global social issues in local context, with particular attention to social workers’ roles as community change agents. Power dynamics in the context of helping, and the importance of critical consciousness within one’s role as practitioner and facilitator are examined.

EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES

This course will assist students to:

• Articulate working definitions of international social work and social development frameworks that incorporate related past and current conceptualizations of these terms, and provide some practical direction for the student's work in this area.
• Examine and apply selected frameworks to analyze international aid and social development approaches in specific settings.
• Demonstrate knowledge of practice approaches used in international social work and development.
• Integrate knowledge of collective societies, familism, and multigenerational dynamics in assessment, program design and project implementation.
• Understand the roles and skills of practitioners who develop comprehensive, community-based social, cultural, and economic development activities, in partnership with community members.
• Acquire knowledge of participatory action methods such as community mapping, community needs assessment and evaluation, and participatory action-research.
• Develop a critical, reflexive approach to practice, enhancing understanding of how the practitioner’s personal, social, and cultural background affects his or her thinking and views about international social work and development practice.
• Assess and analyze salient social, cultural, ethnic, religious, economic, and political aspects of communities that may influence community change.