Announcements

Fall 2012 - Spring 2013

Overview

Professional social workers are guided by: 
A person and environment construct, a global perspective, respect for human diversity, and knowledge based on scientific inquiry.

We also embrace several core values: 
Service, social justice, the dignity and worth of people, the importance of human relationships, integrity, competence, human rights, and scientific inquiry (see the NASW Code of Ethics).

These values underpin our commitment to: 
Respect of all people, social and economic justice, and human and community well-being. 

These values underpin our MSUM Social Work program's strategic statements: 
Consistent with the mission of this upper Midwest teaching university, and the Education Policy and Accreditation Standards (2008) of the Council on Social Work Education, the MSUM School of Social Work educates competent entry-level social work professionals with the core knowledge, values, and skills necessary to engage in ethical and empowerment-based generalist practice with all people in a dynamic and diverse society. Graduates are prepared to promote planned change and advance social and economic justice, and human rights, locally, nationally, and globally. 

Further, with a liberal arts foundation, MSUM SSW graduates are prepared for entry-level professional social work practice, and continue their formal education in social work or other graduate discipline. Thus, MSUM SSW graduates will be prepared to:

1. Engage in evidence-based, entry-level social work practice with individual, families, groups, organizations, and communities within local, national, and global multicultural societies;

2. Practice within the principles, values, and ethics that guide the social work profession;

3. Influence social policies in order to alleviate poverty, oppression, and social and economic injustice as well as advocate for human rights;

4. Identify and affect the bio-psycho-social, spiritual, and cultural functioning of people; and

5. Practice from a culturally-sensitive perspective that recognizes and appreciates diverse cultures, particularly those that differ from one's own.

These values also underpin our program's formal competency-based educational structure and curriculum: 
Accredited by the Council on Social Work Education for almost 40 years, our program's curriculum is grounded in the liberal arts, and uses an intentional design to promote mastery of 10 core competencies required for licensed generalist practice throughout the United States.

Competency-based education is an outcome performance approach to curriculum design: Competencies are conceptual ideas that include measurable practice behaviors comprised of knowledge, values, and skills. Our goal in using this outcome approach is to assist students in learning, integrating, and applying the 10 competencies and their related 41 practice behaviors in practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. 

These competencies and nested behaviors include:

• Identify as a professional social worker (PB 1-6):
  PB 1: Advocate for client access to SW services
  PB 2: Practice personal reflection/self-correction
  PB 3: Attend to professional roles and boundaries
  PB 4: Demonstrate professional demeanor
  PB 5: Engage in career-long learning
  PB 6: Use supervision and consultation;

• Apply social work ethics to professional practice (PB 7-10):
  PB 7: Recognize/manage personal values so professional values guide practice
  PB 8: Make ethical decisions by applying profession's standards
  PB 9: Tolerate ambiguity in resolving ethical conflicts 
  PB 10: Apply ethical reasoning strategies to arrive at principled decisions;
  

• Apply critical thinking in practice (PB 11-13):
  PB 11: Distinguish, appraise, and integrate multiple sources of knowledge, including research-based knowledge, and practice wisdom
  PB 12: Analyze models of assessment, prevention, intervention, and evaluation
  PB 13: Demonstrate effective oral and written communication in working with individuals, families, groups, organizations, communities, and colleagues;

• Engage diversity and difference in practice (PB 14-17):
  PB 14: Recognize that culture's structures and values may oppress, marginalize, alienate, or create or enhance privilege and power
  PB 15: Gain sufficient self-awareness to eliminate the influence of personal biases and values in working with diverse groups
  PB 16: Recognize and communicate their understanding of the importance of difference in shaping life experiences
  PB 17: View themselves as learners and engage those with whom they work as informants;

• Advance human rights and social/economic justice (PB 18-20):
  PB 18: Understand the forms and mechanisms of oppression and discrimination
  PB 19: Advocate for human rights and social and economic justice
  PB 20: Engage in practices that advance social and economic justice;

• Use research in practice (PB 21-22):
  PB 21: Use practice experience to inform scientific inquiry
  PB 22: Use research evidence to inform practice;

• Apply HBSE knowledge in practice (PB 23-24):
  PB 23: Use conceptual frameworks to guide assessment, intervention, and evaluation
  PB 24: Critique and apply knowledge to understand person and environment;

• Engage in policy practice (PB 25-26):
  PB 25: Analyze, formulate, and advocate for policies that advance social well-being
  PB 26: Collaborate with colleagues and clients for effective policy action;

• Respond to practice contexts (PB 27-28):
  PB 27: Continuously discover, appraise, attend to changing locales, populations, scientific /technological developments, emerging societal trends to provide relevant services
  PB 28: Leadership promoting sustainable service delivery and practice changes to improve social service quality;

• Apply generalist practice skills when working with individuals and various social systems (PB 29-41):                            PB 29: Substantively/effectively prepare for action with IFGOC
  PB 30: Use empathy and other interpersonal skills
  PB 31: Develop a mutually agreed-on focus of work and desired outcomes
  PB 32: Collect, organize, and interpret client data
  PB 33: Assess client strengths and limitations
  PB 34: Develop mutually agreed-on intervention goals and objectives
  PB 35: Select appropriate intervention strategies
  PB 36: Initiate actions to achieve organizational goals
  PB 37: Implement prevention interventions that enhance client capacities
  PB 38: Help clients resolve problems
  PB 39: Negotiate, mediate, and advocate for clients
  PB 40: Facilitate transitions and endings
  PB 41: Critically analyze, monitor, and evaluate interventions. 
  (Council on Social Work Education, 2008 EPAS)
  (UPDATED: 5 January, 2011)

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SW400W Research Students: 

Welcome to the School of Social Work, and congratulations on being admitted to our fine program. In SW400W, you will take your first steps toward mastering several core competencies and their practice behaviors, as well as key writing intensive (WI) skills required of all licensed generalist social work practitioners. Specifically, you will apply knowledge gained from sociology, psychology, social psychology, and philosophy, as well as SW250 - Introduction to Social Welfare and Social Work, and SW330 - HBSE, to understand how licensed professional social workers use research processes to guide their practice and programs. You will also extend further the writing skills developed thus far in WI general education courses as you apply these skills in the context of your professional training.

To begin your pre-professional training, please read 
our course web page carefully (particularly the resource page, see its link)and familiarize yourself with SW400W and all requirements, especially its writing-intensive format!

Then, read materials for Unit 1. 

Finally, select a social problem you wish to study this term and visit before the first day of class, an agency that addresses that problem. Please get their general brochure, and other reading materials to use in class this semester. Although we will use these the entire semester, we will especially consult them during the first two weeks of class.

I look forward to working with each of you this semester in our study of empirical methods used in social work practice. 
(UPDATED: 30 May, 2012)

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SW460W Policy Students:

I am excited to begin our study of evidence-based generalist policy practice! In SW460W, you will continue developing core competencies while continuing to refine your writing intensive skills such that both closely approximate those required of all licensed generalist social work practitioners.  We explore social policy and its creation, legitimization, and evaluation. We will draw on your knowledge from Political Science, Economics, History, and Paralegal Studies, as well as SW250 (Introduction to Social Welfare and Social Work), SW330 (HBSE), and SW400 (Research Methods), as we use the planned change model in the context of generalist social work policy practice!

Please read our course web page carefully (particularly the resource page, see its link "Class Notes") and familiarize yourself with SW460W and all its requirements, especially its writing-intensive format! 

Then, read materials for Units 1. 

Finally, select a social problem you wish to study this term and visit an agency before the first day of class that addresses the selected problem to get their general brochure and other reading materials. You may also use the agency/social problem studied in SW400W. We will use these materials during our first class meeting.

I look forward to working with each of you again this semester in our study of evidence-based policy practice in generalist social work and technical writing in professional social work practice. 
(UPDATED: 30 May, 2012)

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Phi Alpha: Earning a high grade point across all university classes is truly difficult; but when one does, it deserves special recognition! If you have a cumulative GPA of 3.25 or better, you are eligible to join our Phi Alpha Honor Society. So please consider joining in special celebration of your hard work and resultant academic achievement! See our Department staff for details! (UPDATED: 5 January, 2011)

DRAGON SOS: All students are encouraged to participate in the Social Work Student Organization DRAGON SOS. (UPDATED: 5 January, 2011)

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Flood Statement Addendum: 

Spring flooding in the Red River Valley can be challenging. Often floods require sandbagging and levee building, even temporary evacuation. A spring flood emergency may require us to adjust our class schedule, alter our instructional delivery, work independently, and perhaps make special accommodations for students in extraordinary situations. To be notified of any emergency, I strongly encourage each of you to enroll in the E2Campus emergency notification system (http://web.mnstate.edu/security/ ) which will notify students about class cancellations and other emergency related information. Should a significant flood emergency occur that interrupts university processes, we will proceed with instruction to the extent possible. I will contact you via our class listserv to coordinate coursework; and you can contact me via email about questions. In an emergency, we may temporarily need to work independently, during which time I will continuously update you about assignments and due dates, and answer class questions as though we are in our classroom. My goal is to continue our learning of course materials as much as possible and prepare you for licensed generalist social work.(UPDATED: 5 January, 2011) 

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The Minnesota State University Moorhead (MSUM) Social Work Program prepares competent and effective professionals for entry-level generalist social work practice. The MSUM Social Work Program also provides leadership in developing service delivery systems and advancing social and economic justice.