The MSW program provides a rich combination of field practicum and classroom learning and is designed to provide both breadth and depth in professional education. The curriculum encompasses two distinct but interconnected areas: the beginning content (professional foundation curriculum) and opportunities for advanced content.

MSW Foundation

The MSW foundation provides an opportunity for students to gain the knowledge and skills needed for entry-level practice across different levels of social work practice (i.e., practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations, communities, social networks, institutions, and policy arenas). They also socialize students to the profession, its values, ethics, and history. All foundation courses must be passed to begin the advanced curriculum. The foundation curriculum encompasses the following linked, required areas of study:

• Foundation course introducing the intellectual and historical foundations of social work practice
• Foundation core practice sequence, which includes course content on human behavior in the social environment, generalist social work practice, diversity, and micro, mezzo, and macro practice skills
• Foundation practicum
• Social policy
• Social work research.

While taking foundation courses, students, with the help of faculty, Student Services advisers, and practicum coordinators, will choose their advanced concentration. The advanced concentration provides students with the opportunity to deepen knowledge and skills in advanced generalist practice or in another area of concentration.  

Course Descriptions

Please follow this link to "Academic Programs" and "Courses" to see full course descriptions.

Required Courses in the MSW Foundation Curriculum

Intellectual and Historical Foundations of Professional Practice (Soc W 500):
Intellectual, historical, and ethical foundations of the social work profession. Engagement with crucial aspects of the profession’s history; contemporary issues, problematics, and directions; and key concepts and theoretical frameworks. Students develop personal, professional, and intellectual foundations for practicing social work built on the central values of plurality and social justice.

Poverty and Inequality (Soc W 501):
Analysis of poverty and inequality in the U.S. Analytic and descriptive focus on measurement processes of production and perpetuation, and public policy responses. Examines competing perspectives on the causes of poverty, the role of policy, and socioeconomic dimensions of stratification, including race, ethnicity, class, gender, immigration status, disability, age, sexual orientation, and family structure.

Social Work for Social Justice (Soc W 504):
Focuses on personal and professional development in the service of social work practice for social justice. Employs critically self-reflective, experiential, and dialogic learning processes to engage students in exploring personal meaning systems and narratives in the context of the professional values of social justice, multiculturalism, empowerment, and globalization.

Social Work Practice:
Foundation practice courses integrate content on human behavior and social environment (HBSE), diversity, and social work practice and are taught in two-course sequences, one focused on micro/mezzo practice and the other on macro practice. The third practice course focuses on HBSE and builds on these sequences.

Micro/Mezzo Practice I (Soc W 510) and II (Soc W 511): Individuals, Families, Groups:
Two-quarter sequence that integrates generalist practice knowledge and skills with knowledge pertaining to human behavior and the social environment, cultural diversity, and social justice. Prepares students for entry-level generalist practice with individuals, families, and small groups to promote maximal functioning and quality of life. Content taught through lectures, assignments, and exercises focusing on empirically-based practice skills, theories of human development and behavior, knowledge of multiculturalism, competence in working with diverse populations – all with a focus on the profession’s social justice mission. Soc W 510 is primarily devoted to work with individuals and Soc W 511 to work with families and groups.

Macro Practice I (Soc W 512) and II (Soc W 513): Organizations, Community, Policy Practice:
Two-quarter sequence that prepares students for entry-level macro practice. Using an anti-oppression lens, students develop foundational skills in assessment, intervention, and evaluation of groups, organizations, communities, and policy construction and implementation. These arenas are viewed as both tools and targets for change efforts. This process is driven by the principles of economic and social justice, multiculturalism, anti-oppression practice, and human behavior knowledge about group, organizational, and community behavior. These principles and theoretical perspectives support social workers’ development as critical thinkers and reflective practitioners engaged in and capable of facilitating an action-oriented model that reflects social workers’ core values.

Practice III: HBSE and Applications in Multicultural Empowerment Practice (Soc W 514):
HBSE (human behavior and the social environment) courses center around theories of human behavior and the social environment and build on the generalist practice foundation developed in the preceding two quarters. The courses emphasize the learning of theories and knowledge on the interactions between and among individuals, families, groups, organizations, communities, and policy systems towards informing practice skills within a multicultural empowerment framework, across levels of social work practice.

Social Work Research

Foundations of Social Work Research (Soc W 505) and Social Welfare Research and Evaluation (Soc W 506):
Two-quarter research sequence that introduces students to a range of methods for informing evidence-based social work practice. Emphasis on critical appraisal of the literature, development of research questions, and strategies and techniques for conducting practice-relevant research. Students are expected to engage in a critical analysis of the underlying beliefs, approaches, and assumptions of various research methods, particularly as they relate to promoting social justice. Students are also expected to consider issues of social justice and diversity in the application of research methods. Students are responsible for developing a proposal in Soc W 505 that can be refined, implemented, and made ready for presentation in Soc W 506. Please note that students must complete the statistics prerequisite before enrolling in Soc W 505 (see above regarding statistics requirement).

Foundation Practicum

Introduction to Practicum (Soc W 523):
First course (one credit) in the practicum sequence for master’s-level students in the Day and Extended Degree Programs to orient students to the foundation practicum and prepare them for the development and implementation of their practicum educational contract and other required practicum activities. Includes individual meetings with students, two class sessions, and 24 hours at the practicum site.

The Professional Foundation Practicum (Soc W 524):
Incorporates content acquired in all areas of the curriculum. In a selected community agency, the student is given the opportunity to apply social work knowledge under the supervision of an experienced social worker. Emphasis on developing the perspectives and skills needed for practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. In addition, the development of culturally competent practice and planned social change skills are an integral part of this practicum and are seen as critical for the effective delivery of social services.

The student’s foundation practicum placement is determined by the Practicum Coordinating Committee. A practicum coordinator interviews each student and reviews a questionnaire completed by the student, which pertains to student areas of interest as well as previous experience in social work. The committee then selects a placement for each student that meets curriculum and accreditation requirements.

Advanced Year Concentrations

Interpersonal/Direct Social Work Practice

Interpersonal/direct social work shares with all social work practice the goal of enhancement and maintenance of psychosocial functioning of individuals, families, and small groups. Interpersonal/direct social work practice is the professional application of social work theory and methods to the treatment and prevention of psychosocial distress and impairment. It is based on knowledge of one or more theories of human development within a psychosocial context. The perspective of person-in-environment is central to clinical social work practice. Interpersonal/direct social work includes interventions directed to interpersonal interactions, intra-psychic dynamics, end-of-life care, and management issues. Interpersonal/direct social work services consist of assessment, diagnosis, and treatment, including psychotherapy and counseling with individuals, dyads, families, or small groups; case management; client-centered advocacy; consultation; resource identification and management; networking and collaboration; and evaluation. Clinical social workers work in a variety of settings, including but by no means limited to hospitals and other health services, mental health agencies, family services agencies, elder care services, work sites, corrections, and schools. (Based on the definition of “Clinical Social Work,” NASW, Board of Directors, 1984 and the Encyclopedia of Social Work, 1995.)

Interpersonal/direct social work practice courses may include:

• Advanced Health Care Practice: Prevention, Primary Care, and Emergency Department Settings
• Advanced Health Care Practice: Inpatient, Hospice, and Long-Term Care Settings
• Multigenerational Advanced Practice with Older Adults and Their Families
• Social Work Practice in Community Mental Health
• Advanced Practice with Diverse Children and Families: Child Mental Health
• Advanced Practice with Diverse Children and Families: Child Welfare
• Clinical Social Work with Individuals: Theory and Practice

Community Social Work Practice

This concentration promotes a socially just, community-based empowerment model of practice, focusing particularly on communities that are disadvantaged by local and global institutions and processes. Working at the nexus of multiple social systems, community social work practice embraces a critical-dialogic stance. Core elements of this integrative approach include: (1) a focus on community and locality as the natural site for social work practice; (2) assuming that individual, family, and community issues are always interconnected and tied to larger social structural factors; (3) knowing and understanding the connections between daily social work practice and the structural dynamics of society (history, economy, politics, and culture) both locally and globally; (4) a focus on critical contextualization, both an analysis of power and inequality and knowledge of the social change theories, at multiple system levels, and connecting action to knowledge; and (5) an emphasis on collaborative and collective processes and on building on community strengths (Fisher and Karger, Social Work and Community in a Private World, 2000). The community practice concentration builds on and extends the School’s long-standing tradition of social justice practice in a multiethnic and globalized society.

Community social work practice courses may include:

• Critical Empowerment Practice with Multiethnic Communities
• Praxis of Intergroup Dialogue 
• Critical Empowerment Practice with Refugees

Administration

Broadly speaking, administration encompasses the process of transforming social policy into social services through “a cooperative and coordinated endeavor, involving all members of an organization, each of whom contributes variously to the processes or goals formulation, planning, implementation, change and evaluation” (Patti, Social Welfare Administration, 1983). More specifically, social work administration is a practice intervention used by social workers to achieve service effectiveness and organizational change. As an intervention, administration requires the systematic and purposeful application of skills, knowledge, and values. Social work administration is a client-centered approach to management that stresses the skills and knowledge required to improve a program’s service effectiveness as well as staff morale.

Administration practice courses may include:

• Financial Management of Human Service Programs
• Leadership and Program Development

Policy Practice

Policy practice is focused on analyzing policies and associated political processes and influencing the direction of policy to effect social change. Social welfare policy practice pays particular attention to those policies that create or perpetuate injustices confronted by disenfranchised and oppressed groups. Policy practitioners possess skills in defining and measuring social problems, devising and analyzing policy alternatives, influencing policy decisions, and evaluating the impact of policies.

Policy practice courses may include:

• Concepts and Methods of Policy Analysis
• Policy Processes, Institutions, and Influences

Advanced Practicum

Advanced Practicum (Soc W 525, 18 credits) is required of all students. The focus of this practicum must be consistent with the student’s concentration area and with his or her individualized learning plan.

The advanced practicum, an integral part of the advanced curricula, is determined by the Practicum Coordinating Committee. A practicum coordinator interviews each student and reviews the student’s learning plan and a questionnaire completed by the student that pertains to student areas of interest as well as previous experience in social work. The committee then selects a placement for each student that meets curriculum and accreditation requirements.