Undergraduate Courses
| Undergraduate Courses | Course Description |
|---|
Undergraduate Courses | Course Description |
|---|---|
| SOWK 200: Introduction to Social Welfare | SOWK 200 provides an introduction to the perspectives, concepts, and theoretical foundations of social welfare in Canada, including an analysis of the institutional structures of social welfare in the modern state. |
| SOWK 201: Introduction to Social Work Practice | This course introduces the field of social work. The knowledge, skills, values and ethics of social work practice are reviewed. Diverse forms of social work practice are introduced, and various perspectives for understanding the context of individual and social problems are presented. As an important aspect of developing a professional identity is an understanding of the social and environmental factors that contribute to personal development, a key component of the course will be on developing greater self-awareness. Students will be required through reflective questions to examine what they bring to these relationships in terms of values. |
| SOWK 305C: Topics in Social Work Practice (Community) | SOWK 305C (Community) is a required course and is open only to students accepted to the School of Social Work. The course is an exploration of a core elements of social work practice methods and the corresponding development of fundamental competencies necessary to prepare the student for entry-level generalist practice in a variety of settings. Students will develop introductory knowledge, skills and awareness of values necessary for the provision of professional services to communities within the framework of generalist practice; the change process; and the impact of diversity and oppression (issues related to culture, race, class, gender, sexual orientation and disability). Generic principles and generalist practice will serve as an organizing function for the course. Generalist practice methods are developed through understanding and developing innovative problem-solving skills: discovering, utilizing and making connections to arrive at unique, responsive solutions. The key components of the change process in generalist practice will be addressed. The course will reinforce the development of basic competencies in practice theory underpinning the skills necessary to the generalist helping role. Specific theories of community development will form the foundational theory development in this course. |
| SOWK 305G: Topics in Social Work Practice (Groups) | Social workers interact with individuals, families, groups, and communities, adjusting their methods to meet diverse needs and improve the functioning of social contexts. Group work is essential in this effort, addressing both individual and collective aspects. In this course, you will acquire fundamental knowledge, practical experience, and essential skills, as well as an understanding of the values and theories required for effective group work practice. You will learn innovative group work skills guided by the principles of generalist practice. You will reinforce your competencies in practice theory through experiential learning and assignments. Key topics covered include understanding group development stages and dynamics, exploring mutual-aid, relational-cultural, and empowerment models, and developing effective facilitation strategies and leadership skills. Additionally, you will address the impact of diversity and oppression on group work, differentiate between task-oriented and treatment-oriented groups, and navigate ethical dilemmas and professional responsibilities in group work practice. In SOWK 305G, you will learn about the theories, concepts, and experiences essential for understanding group dynamics and developing effective group skills. This course emphasizes the range of group work, from individual to social change goals, and will provide you with the specific skills and strategies required for successful group facilitation. |
| SOWK 305I: Topics in Social Work Practice (Working with Individuals and Families) | Examinations of the foundation, knowledge, and competencies underlying various topics in generalist social work practice. Enrolment is limited to students in the B.S.W. program. |
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Graduate Courses
| MSW Courses | Course Description |
|---|---|
| SOWK 521: Social Work Practice in Addictions | This course will provide learners with a theoretical, ethical and skills foundation for social work practice in the field of addiction. The essentials of direct practice in the context of the structural, political and policy dimensions of addiction will be emphasized. A social justice, strengths-based, harm reduction orientation to substance use and addiction will be applied. The course is divided into a number of different themes, specifically: (1) A harm reduction-based approach to practice in the field of addiction will be examined and emphasized. (2) Social Justice will be explored throughout this course. Our society’s primary response to illegal drug use and addiction is through the criminal justice system. The evidence shows that this approach has failed. A new model based on social work, human rights and public health principles will be examined. (3) Mainstream and emergent models of practice at the individual, family, group, community and policy levels will be examined. (4) A number of practice models to addiction treatment will be explored. Selected emergent models of practice will also be discussed. Learners in this course will allow students to familiarize themselves with the concept of addiction from a range of theoretical perspectives, with an emphasis on a bio-psycho-social-spiritual-environmental understanding of addiction. This course is cross listed with SOWK 440B. |
| SOWK 524A: Social Services Management | Management and leadership in social service organizations profoundly shapes both worker wellbeing and direct social work practice. In this course, students will deepen their understanding of organizations, organizational change processes, and contemporary issues in public and non-profit organizations. Students will also engage theories and discourses of management (for this course, defined as a job role) and leadership (for this course, defined as a sensibility or approach) towards developing personal leadership narratives grounded in social work values including social justice, decolonization, and an ethic of care. The course will provide students with knowledge and skills for leadership and management positions in public and non-profit organization. |
| SOWK 525: Advanced Social Work Practice: Mental Health | This course builds on students’ foundational social work knowledge and skills and seeks to develop advanced competencies in the provision of mental health services. Course content includes discussions on biomedical and recovery models; engagement and relationship-building; assessment and diagnosis; and treatment-related strategies. The emphasis of this course is the enhancement of students’ perceptions, experiences, attitudes, knowledge and skills in clinical social work through extensive case discussions, exploration of some current best practices, and critical analysis of actual issues and concerns that the students face. As such, this course uses participatory, dialogic, and transformative processes to ensure the relevance of content and process to students’ realities and replicates the philosophy and approaches to the provision of mental health services advanced by this course. |
| SOWK 526A: Social Work Practice with Individuals and Couples | This course provides advanced training in direct practice with individuals. Grounded in social work perspectives, values and ethics, the course focuses on how to enter practice with individuals in ways that are respectful and honour the strengths, vulnerabilities, goals and needs of the client system while being responsive to the many contexts of clients’ lives. Special attention is given to positive engagement, creation of a therapeutic alliance and case conceptualization. Students are prepared for work in various settings addressing a range of emotional, behavioural and mental health concerns through the applied exploration of evidence-based theoretical/practice models. Students are supported to connect with their own competence, compassion and hope and to develop self-awareness and intentionality. |
| SOWK 528A: Social Work Practice with Groups | This course provides knowledge of and experience in working with groups as systems. It includes assessment of dynamics as well as developing skills in intervention modalities appropriate for working with various types of groups. This course aims to prepare advanced graduate students to provide psychotherapeutic and psycho-educational group interventions. The focus of the course will relate primarily to services for those who are dealing with mental health disorders and/or psychosocial stressors. |
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| PhD Courses | Course Description |
|---|---|
| SOWK 570D: Directed Studies in Social Work | This course is a general introduction to central issues in contemporary epistemology or the nature of knowledge. The course focuses on some of the central questions of philosophy pertaining to the nature and sources of knowledge, the limits of knowing, the legitimization of knowledge and knowers, embodied knowledge, knowledge as tangled web of power relations, situated knowledge, and epistemic violence. These questions and the ensuing conversations will be explored from interdisciplinary perspectives. Their relevance in a social work doctoral program relates to the importance of understanding the power of knowledge and our responsibilities as knowledge creators and consumers. Directly related to issues of knowledge creation are the more pragmatic questions of how epistemological perspectives and choices affect how you will carry out your own dissertation research. Thus, the course will include modules on research design which will punctuate our more philosophical discussions. Epistemological content is organized into three major themes: Critical engagement with Eurocentric epistemologies; anticolonial, postcolonial and Indigenous epistemologies; and postmodern and post-structural approaches to knowing. Basic elements of research design are introduced at the course commencement and then the research design implications of each of the above major themes will conclude each course section. As this is a doctoral course, our learning plan is open and can be modified according to your needs and interests. We will engage in periodic check-ins to determine whether this course plan is meeting your learning needs. |
| SOWK 601: Social Work Doctoral Seminar | This seminar is intended to assist students in developing academic and professional skills and to provide a forum to develop, discuss and critically examine aspects of their own and their colleagues’ research. The seminar is concerned with providing students with an environment to explore ways to develop original scholarship and disseminate their work. Students will have an opportunity to present and get feedback on ideas of their thesis as well as substantive papers on topics drawn from their theoretical framework, methodology or comprehensive papers. They will also have the opportunity to develop skills in key academic transferable skills in research, teaching, grant applications, conference presentations and publication. |
| SOWK 621: Theory, Ideology and Ethics | This course is designed to help incoming social work PhD students better understand the university, the organization of social science and humanities disciplines, generational shifts in which theories and ideas capture popular attention, and some of the major contemporary challenges to the elite knowledge work of the state-sponsored university. The first part of the course looks at the historical and geopolitical nature of the university as an institution and how university branches and disciplines are structured and focused. This initial foundation will help us engage with interdisciplinary academic social work as a historical and cultural phenomenon. The second part of the course looks at the generational structure of academic knowledge and explores major interdisciplinary and inter-generational shifts in social theory (called “turns”). This second domain of learning will help us locate our investments and research interests within a broader universe of shifting ideas and competing claims about academic knowledge work. The third and final part of the course will introduce some of the major current challenges to the elite knowledge work of the university, including evolving debates about equity, diversity and inclusion, decolonization and monoculturalism, and anthropocentrism. Overall, this first course is intended to invite new scholars into the work of the university and questions of disciplinary reproduction, challenge and change, while also providing an advanced introductory grounding from which to identify relevant elective courses and further develop specific doctoral research interests. |
| SOWK 654: Advanced Qualitative Inquiry | The focus of this course is to develop an in depth and rigorous understanding of a wide range of approaches to qualitative research. It provides a critical reflective approach to research in the social sciences and seeks to support you in defining your epistemological and ontological perspective with a particular focus on positioning qualitative research approaches. Attention will be paid to the interpretive, political and critical nature of knowledge production in qualitative research. |
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