Social Work

This course introduces students to the praxis of community organizing. It provides a foundational knowledge of the skills, strategies and tactics needed to facilitate social change. It explores models of working with, rather than on communities. Learners will become familiar with thinking about community organizing from the margins - by using practices developed to challenge social inequalities, especially those advanced by grassroots groups. Content areas include: the nature of community, processes of community organizing, strategies and tactics for social action, diversity and social change, and the role of the community worker/organizer. For the purposes of this course, it is important to note that community organizing is marked by a complex set of principles, processes and ethical values, themselves united by political ideology. Community work is political and ideological. The course draws on interdisciplinary insights from various fields, including Post-Colonial and Post-Socialist Studies, Indigenous Studies, Critical Theory, Critical Race and Whiteness Studies, Cultural Studies, Balkan Studies, Visual Studies, Ethnic Studies and Anti-Resource Extraction Activism, in examining the dynamics of race, class, nationality, and their intersections in the context of community organizing.

This is a mandatory course for all MMBSW students. A central assumption of this course is that social work as a profession needs to be self-critical in order to guard against continuing and increasing oppression experienced by members of various groups as they access social welfare programs and social work intervention. Therefore, a critical analysis of social welfare, social services and social work practice will be a central focus in the course.

The Western perspectives of neo-conservatism, liberalism, social democracy and Marxism will be presented and analyzed for how each ideology defines social issues, social welfare responses and social work approaches. Anti-oppressive perspectives from feminism, critical anti-racism, and colonialism will be presented and discussed in the context of the challenges they pose to these dominant paradigms informing social welfare. An emphasis will be placed on structural social work theory and Indigenous social work practice as a framework for social work practice. 3 credit hours

This is a mandatory course for all BSW students. A key assumption of this course is that social work as a profession needs to be self-critical in order to guard against continuing and increasing oppression experienced by members of various groups as they access social welfare programs and social work intervention. Therefore, a critical analysis of social welfare, social services, and social work practice primarily in the Canadian context will be a central focus in the course.