Programs
Graduate
Admissions | Curriculum | Program Options | Field Education | Tuition Fees | CatalogGraduate Student Handbook
Master of Social Work Curriculum
The graduate professional program prepares students for direct-service and leadership positions in the field of social welfare. It begins with a nine-hour foundation curriculum, built on a liberal arts base that has two goals: to provide students with the knowledge, values, and skills leading to an informed perspective on the broad profession and to prepare students for entry into the concentrations:
Coursework in human behavior, social policy, research, and social work practice makes up the foundation and introduces differential approaches to problem solving. In a field practicum, the student engages in carefully supervised social work practice in a human service setting.
Students build upon the foundation by choosing to specialize in interpersonal practice or policy, planning, and administration. Within either concentration students can elect to emphasize community practice. The second field practicum supports the advanced study of the concentration and takes place in a setting with a client population or in a field of practice that closely corresponds to career goals.
The 60-hour full-time and extended-study graduate curriculum is highly structured and sequential. In the 39-hour advanced-standing program, students attend two classes in each of the spring and summer sessions before commencing the specialization courses and field education in the fall and spring semesters.
Full-time and extended-study students have two field placements, in different agencies, and advanced-standing students have one field placement in the area of concentration. All field placements for the full-time and extended-study programs take place in fall and spring semesters; advanced-standing programs take place in the summer I session and continue through the fall and spring semesters. Students from the three programs--full time, extended study, and advanced standing--choose from the two concentrations of study: interpersonal practice or policy, planning, and administration.
Social Work Courses
All social work courses have a capacity limit for the number of students allowed to enroll in each class. In general, foundation courses have a maximum capacity of 25-35 students, and Interpersonal Practice and Policy, Planning, and Administration concentration seminars have a maximum capacity of 15-17 students. These course enrollment caps help to allow for intimate and honest group discussion. Students enrolled in the Advanced-standing and Full-time programs have registration priority in day-time classes, while Extended-study students have registration priority in evening classes.
Foundation
The foundation curriculum covers ideas and values that form the core of social work practice. Coursework in human behavior, social policy, research, and social work practice introduces differential approaches to problem solving. Theory and practice are applied in the field practicum and throughout a variety of classroom experiences. In the field practicum, the student engages in carefully supervised social work practice in a human service setting. Beginning professional competence in direct practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities is a major focus of the foundation courses and field experience. The foundation curriculum provides a broad base of knowledge useful in general or specialized fields of social work practice.
Concentrations
Students build upon the foundation by choosing one of two concentrations of specialized study: Interpersonal Practice or Policy, Planning and Administration. The second field practicum supports the advanced study of the concentration and takes place in a setting with a client population or in a field of practice that closely corresponds to career goals.
Interpersonal Practice
The Interpersonal Practice (IP) Concentration prepares students for advanced professional practitioner roles working with individuals, families, and groups. It equips students with the knowledge and skills to provide treatment to a wide range of client populations in a variety of settings. The IP Concentration encompasses the scholarship and skills historically associated with social casework, group work, and family treatment.
Learning takes place through a combination of classroom courses, practice-oriented seminars, and a two-semester field practicum. Direct and indirect methods of intervention and long- and short-term treatment approaches are considered and practiced.
A strength based bio-psycho-social perspective, person-in-environment theoretical framework, and a problem-solving model are intrinsic in the content taught. The goals are: (a) promoting well-being, (b) preventing problems, (c) restoring and enhancing lost or reduced functional ability, and (d) emphasizing the interaction between theory, practice, and research.
Students are prepared to assume roles as advocates, providers of treatment, and resource facilitators. The empowerment of clients to adequately manage immediate and ongoing problems, while enhancing independent living and decision-making, is the goal of interpersonal practice.
Policy, Planning, and Administration
The Policy, Planning, and Administration (PP&A) concentration prepares students for leadership roles in human service organizations. A primary theme of PP&A is empowerment: the empowerment of practitioners to facilitate changes in organizational, community, and societal structures and processes that contribute to a just society; the empowerment that occurs by enabling officials and citizenry to understand and respond appropriately to the human condition; and the empowerment that occurs when troubled or disadvantaged people have opportunities and resources to minimize or overcome personal and/or societal barriers to the betterment of their condition.
PP&A practitioners serve in a variety of roles, including administrator, fund developer, program planner and evaluator, information system specialist, community developer, and community and/or client advocate. The PP&A curriculum includes a blend of knowledge and skill content in such areas as leadership, program design, program evaluation, policy analysis, needs assessment, personnel management, budgeting, computer applications, and fund development.
Building upon the direct-service skills acquired in the foundation, students complete five PP&A courses and a two-semester, agency-based field practicum. Students may plan a course of study uniquely suited to their own interests through the choice of electives and field setting, e.g., child welfare, mental health, poverty, administration, and policy. Courses relevant to PP&A are available in departments throughout the University, including sociology, business, educational leadership, communication, and public affairs and administration.