Shawn D. Ginther, M.S.W, Ph.D - Department of Social Work

Brief Class Overview
This writing-intensive course builds on foundational liberal studies curricula in its study of social policy development, various political and economic views, policy advocacy/practice, policy analysis, policy evaluation, as well as the relationship between social policy to generalist social work practice (policy practice/policy advocacy). This course must be taken with SW450-Communities and Organizations. Admission to the Social Work program is required, as is prior or concurrent registration in PARA 470.

School of Social Work: Mission Statement
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.

School of Social Work: Program Goals
With a liberal arts foundation, MSUM SSW graduates are prepared for entry-level professional generalist social work practice. Further, graduates are prepared to 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 [EP2.1.1, EP2.1.3, EP2.1.6, EP2.1.8, and EP2.1.10];
2. Practice within the principles, values, and ethics that guide the social work profession [EP2.1.2 and EP2.1.3];
3. Influence social policies in order to alleviate poverty, oppression, and social and economic injustice as well as advocate for human rights [EP2.1.3, EP2.1.4, EP2.1.5, EP2.1.6, and EP2.1.8];
4. Identify and affect the bio-psycho-social, spiritual, and cultural functioning of people [EP2.1.7, and EP2.1.9]; and
5. Evidence practice from a culturally-sensitive perspective that recognizes and appreciates diverse cultures, particularly those that differ from one's own [EP 2.1.4].

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School of Social Work: Teaching Philosophy
The School of Social Work faculty are committed to creating a student-centered class environment that promotes a community of learning and encourages honest dialogue, critical thinking, and respect for diversity in culture, values, and opinions. The School's faculty employs diverse teaching strategies to meet the various learning styles and needs of students which include, but are not limited to: lecture presentations, class discussions, writing assignments, lab experiences, videos, constructive interaction with guest speakers, simulations, role plays, and various additional formal and informal class activities and processes. Synthesis, integration, and application of knowledge and skills garnered from the various readings, lecture, discussions, and interactive exercises constitute significant learning opportunities for students. The School strives to cultivate a caring environment for our students, which means we "honor their humanity, hold them in high esteem, expect high performance from them, and use strategies to fulfill their expectations" (Gay, 2000, p. 46). The School also believes that students come to class with knowledge and experience that, if shared, can enhance the learning process of everyone, including the instructors. To engage and challenge each individual, it is necessary to know students as people, so therefore instructors acknowledge that each individual comes to class with their own set of abilities, motivations, attitudes, goals, and cultural backgrounds. Getting to know these various facets of our students allow us to excel as instructors because we utilize and capitalize on students' knowledge, skills, talents, and resources to make the classroom more interesting, dynamic, applicable, and personal.

Competency-based educational structure:
SW460W uses a formal competency-based educational structure and curriculum that 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:

Course Description:
SW460W students examine in a writing intensive format, the development of social welfare policies, historic and current policy structures, and policy practice, advocacy, analysis, and evaluation methods used in agency, community, and legislative settings.

Curricular Context:
Generalist social work practice is the critical application of an eclectic knowledge base, professional values, and numerous culturally competent skills in a planned change process at any system level. Under the rubric of social policy, Social Work 460W provides foundational policy, and policy practice and advocacy curricula that prepare majors for additional policy-related skills-building taught in other coursework (i.e., the practice sequence: SW420, SW430, SW440, SW450); and practiced in Field Internship: SW469 and Senior Seminar: SW470).

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Course Goal & Objectives/Social Work Competency/Practice Behavior:
COURSE GOAL:
SW460W students will understand the history and current structures of social policies, resultant programs and services, the interaction between policy and service delivery, and various methods and strategies of policy development, analysis and advocacy in different contexts. This will be accomplished while advancing students' technical and professional writing and verbal skills.

COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES (CLO):
1) Explain reasons/purposes/methods of policy practice/analysis/advocacy;
2) Explain the history of policy practice/advocacy/social reform in the United States;
3) Explain the America's policy structure and resultant service systems;
4) Explain the differential interaction of diversity/difference, group vulnerability, and policy;
5) Apply ethical reasoning to social problems/social reform/policy practice/advocacy;
6) Demonstrate policy practice skills, strategies, competencies;
7) Discuss ecological/global contexts/nature/impact of policy/policy practice;
8) Implement a policy analysis using a specific framework;
9) Develop/evaluate policy proposals;
10) Develop an advocacy strategy for a policy proposal;
11) Explain/use professional power as part of policy practice;
12) Develop a political strategy to advance a policy proposal;
13) Present/defend a policy proposal; and
14) Explain policy enactment/implementation/evaluation methods.

SOCIAL WORK COMPETENCY: Students in SW460W will understand how and why policy affects service delivery, and how they as generalist practitoners can actively impact policy. Students will understand the history and current structures of social policies and resultant programs and services.

PRACTICE BEHAVIORS: Students learn how to analyze, formulate, and advocate for policies at many levels (e.g., agency, state, & federal). They also develop skills need to work collaboratively to bring about policy change.

Grading Policy:
The following grading scheme will be used for all academic credit:

Prerequisites:
ECON 100, POL 120, Para 470, and admission

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Principal Reading Materials:
• Jansson(a), B.S. (2011). Becoming an effective policy advocate (6th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole (Bookstore purchase);
• Jansson(b), B.S. (2012). The reluctant welfare state (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole (Library Reserve); and
• Kiszner, L.G., & Mandell, S.R. (2011). The pocket Wadsworth handbook (5th ed). Boston, MA: Wadsworth (Bookstore purchase).

Professional Expectations:
Just as licensed professionals must meet various professional expectations in their practice settings, Social Work 460W places professional expectations on both the instructor and students. (see the Student Conduct Code referenced above)

STUDENTS: As this is a university setting, students must ready themselves for competent and critical discourse of assigned materials prior to each class meeting.* Students must submit professional quality work (i.e., content and appearance) at all times. Submitted work that is less than professional quality will not be graded and cannot be rewritten. Students must not hold independent and/or personal conversations during class sessions as these are very disruptive to class processes. Students must respect those who hold the floor at any given time in order to ensure a safe and productive learning environment. No cell phones are permitted in class. Finally, the instructor will expel from class any student chronically violating the above policies.

(See also student professional conduct expectations outlined in the Social Work Department Student Handbook), as well as the Formative Evaluation Process used in the School of Social Work.)

*Students must read all materials listed for a given week read prior to that week in anticipation of critical, in-depth discussions. Critical thinking is defined in Social Work 460W as the careful examination of beliefs and actions that ideally leads to creative opinions or conclusions that form the basis for professional action. Critical thinking skills are developed via the deliberate, judicious, and methodical evaluation -- both verbally ( class discussions ) and in writing ( research report & examination ) -- of our class material's logic, assumptions, stated conclusions, and practice relevance. To assist students in meeting these expectations, Social Work 460W enables students to develop their critical thinking skills and writing ability since both are germane to social work research and professional social work practice in formal institutional and community-based settings.

Requirements:
To accomplish the above goal, formal class requirements are:

• Worksheets;

• Term Paper with multiple drafts.

NOTE: All final papers will be in the front office to be retrieved by the end of the second week of the following semester. Unclaimed papers will be recycled that following Monday.
Your final semester grade will be your percentage of the sum of the above scores.

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Unit Sequencing & Class Resource Page:
Use the following link to access your course assignments: SW 460 Notes

Tasks before the first class session:
To prepare for our first meeting, please complete two tasks. First, visit an agency of interest and get a brochure and other reading materials about their mission, goals, objectives, clients, services, client outcomes, etc. Because these reading materials will guide your work this term, please ensure that the agency is one you want to study in-depth. It may even be a potential internship site. Second, read for the first week these materials and review our first worksheet (WS#1).

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Teaching Methods:
Social Work 460W utilize lectures, class readings, cooperative learning group work, videos, experiential exercises, worksheets, classroom assessment techniques, and writing assignments to achieve the course goals. This Social Work 460W professor will then evaluate completed assignments to measure student learner outcomes relative to stated learning goals.

Writing Intensive Orientation:

Social work professionals must write clearly, precisely, succinctly, and technically. Thus, SW460W is a required writing-intensive course that uses "writing-to-learn" processes to help you become a professional writer and competent consumer and purveyor of social work research. SW460W informally and formally integrates technical human service writing with course content to advance your knowledge, skills, and perspectives gained from Dragon Core curricula and other social work courses and prerequisites, to help you understand social work research methods (e.g., generalist practice assessment and human service program evaluation). Throughout the semester you will complete short, unscheduled, and ungraded writing assignments to advance learning and professional self-expression. You will also complete five separate series of WI worksheets that sequentially integrate unit-specific class materials. From these, you will complete five separate writing assignments where each is uniquely organized, drafted, revised, peer edited, re-revised, then graded. You must use and provide peer consultation via a dyadic "editing buddy" system. Each assignment will require that you locate, read, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and appropriately and ethically integrate into your written products diverse primary and secondary professional human service literatures using the APA formatting system. These five individual assignments must be logical, engaging, grammatically and mechanically sound, and professional in appearance. These assignments require writing, editing, reorganization, etc., and are the basis for the evidence-based practice assessment project you will independently complete during practicum (SW469) and senior seminar (SW470). In every instance you must consult frequently with this instructor during the semester.

NOTE 1: All writing will be processed in this class in various ways. For example, students will share their work with their individual colleagues, in small cooperative learning groups, and with the entire class at various times this semester for learning purposes.

NOTE 2: All final papers will be in the front office to be retrieved by the end of the second week of the following semester. Unclaimed papers will be recycled that following Monday.

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Student Accommodations:
Students with disabilities who believe they may need an accommodation in this class are encouraged to contact Greg Toutges, Director of Disability Services at 477-2131 (Voice) or 1-800-627-3529 (MRS/TTY), CMU 114 as soon as possible to ensure that accommodations are implemented in a timely fashion.

Recommendation:
I STRONGLY SUGGEST YOU NOT SELL BACK THE TEXT BECAUSE YOU WILL NEED IT FOR YOUR SW469 INTERNSHIP POLICY PRACTICE ASSIGNMENT.

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Flood Statement:
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.

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Attendance:
MSUM: Students are expected to attend all class meetings unless they are ill or officially excused as the result of participation in a university function. However, faculty members may or may not take roll in their classes, and they may or may not lower the marks of students for the sole reason of unexcused absences. As a point of clarification, if a student has an unexcused absence for a class session during which an examination or other graded exercise is scheduled and the student has more unexcused absences than the number of times the class meets each week, this policy permits the faculty member to reduce the student’s grade for the sole reason of the unexcused absences and for failure to complete the graded assignment.

SW460W: Attendance is crucial to your success in SW460W. Because you are becoming human service professionals, attendance is expected. Indeed, students who do not attend class do not perform as well on class assignments, and professionals who routinely miss appointments, work deadlines, etc. do not remain employed!

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Late Assignments:
As a pre-professional university student in a CSWE-accredited social work program, it is imperative to be on time when submitting work. For example, imagine being negligent in providing timely court reports, administrative documents, case notes, progress reports, grant applications, etc. Indeed, each of these documents will have strict submission deadlines, and employees who do not meet these deadlines will not remain employed. Moreover, not meeting deadlines on behalf of clients who depend on us has serious ethical implications! Therefore, as part of your professional training the following pertain:

• A late assignment is one that is provided after it is officially collected in class;
• All late work submitted must have the actual submission date stamped and initialed by office staff that day of submission;
• Five points (5) will be deducted from "pre-points" (i.e., before multiplied) per day (including weekends) for any assignment submitted later than the official due date for any reason;
• No faxed or mailed assignments will be accepted for any reason!

In case of university closure due to weather, the due date will become the next official business day. To avoid penalty under this policy, pleaseprint out completed assignments well before the due date!! This will allow you time to attend to emergencies.

Academic Honesty and Student Conduct:
Each student will be held to MSUM's high standards regarding academic honesty and student conduct. Therefore, each student is expected to review MSUM's policy on each: "Academic Honesty" and "Student Conduct". Violations of these standards will be addressed according to MSUM procedures.

Excerpt from the Student Conduct Code: "When an instructor has convincing evidence of cheating or plagiarism, a failing grade may be assigned for the course in which the student cheated. Instructors also may choose to report the offense, the evidence, and their action to the Dean of their college or the Vice President for Academic Affairs. If the instructor (or any other person) feels the seriousness of the offense warrants additional action, the incident may be reported to the Judicial Affairs Officer. The Judicial Affairs Officer will follow procedures set out in the Student Conduct Code. After the review of the case and a fair, unbiased hearing, the Judicial Affairs Officer may take disciplinary action if the student is found responsible (see Student Conduct Code for details)."

Each student will also be held to our profession's behavioral standards as outlined in the NASW Code of Ethics and the School of Social Work Student Handbook. Please carefully review these professional standards and note their role in your formative evaluation while in our program.

Literary Resources:

Primary Reading Resource
• Jansson(a), B.S. (2011). Becoming an effective policy advocate (6th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole;
• Jansson(b), B.S. (2012). The Reluctant Welfare State (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole (Library Reserve); and
• Kiszner, L.G., & Mandell, S.R. (2011). The pocket Wadsworth handbook (5th ed). Boston, MA: Wadsworth.

Additional Resources
• APA. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
• Avner, M. (2002). The lobbying & advocacy handbook: Shaping public policy at the state & local level. St. Paul, MN: The Wilder Foundation. (Library reserve)
• Becker, P.C. (2002). Statistical portrait of the United States: Social conditions & trends. Lanham, MD: Bernan Press.
• Borgetta, E.F., & Montgomery, R. J.V. (2000). Encyclopedia of sociology (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Macmillan Reference (Reference).
•  Boyle, S., Hull, G., Mather, J., Smith, L., & Farley, O. (2006). Direct practice in social work. (Ch 2) Boston, MA: Pearson Education (Library reserve).
• Campbell Collaboration: http://www.campbellcollaboration.org/about_us/index.php.
• Caputo, R.K. (1991). Welfare and freedom American style: The role of the federal government, 1900-1940. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
• Carter, S. et al. (2006). Historical statistics of the United States. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press (Reference).
•  Cochrane Collaboration: http://www.cochrane.org/.
• Dood, D.B. (1993). Historical statistics of the states of United States. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press (Reference).
• Farnsworth-Riche, M., & Gaqyin, D.A. (2003). The who, what, and where of America. Lanham, MD: Bernan Press (Reference).
• Fernandez-Ballesteros, R. (2003). Encyclopedia of psychological Assessment. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications (Reference).
• Ginberg, L. (1995). The Social Work Almanac. Washington, DC: The NASE Press (Reference).
• Grey House Publishing (2006-7). America's top rated smaller cities. Millerton, NY: Grey House Publishing.
• Haynes, K.S., & Mickekson, J.S. (2010). Affecting Change: Social workers in the political arena. Boston, MS: Allyn & Bacon. (Library reserve)
• Hamilton, N.A. (2002). American social leaders & activists. New York, NY: Facts on file, Inc.
• Herrick, J.M., & Stuart, P.H. (2005). Encyclopedia of social welfare history in North America. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications (Reference).
• Horner, L.L. (2003). Almanac of the 50 States. Palo Alto, CA: Information Publications (Reference).
• International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW): http://www.ifsw.org.
• Kagan, J. (1998). Gale encyclopedia of childhood and adolescence. Detroit, MI: Gale Publishing.
• Karger, H, & Stoesz, D. (2000). American Social Welfare Policy: A Pluralist Approach. Boston, MS: Allyn & Bacon. (Library reserve)
• Kazdin, A. (Ed.) (2000). Encyclopedia of psychology. New York: Oxford.
• Kirst-Ashman, K.K., & Hull Jr., G.H (2012). Understanding generalist practice (6th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.
• Kuper, A., & Kuper, J. (1996). The social science encyclopedia (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge Publishers (Reference).
• Manstead, A.S.R., & Hewstone, M. (1995). The Blackwell encyclopedia of social psychology. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing (Reference).
• National Association of Social Workers (NASW). Code of Ethics. ( The NASW Web Page).
• National Association of Social Workers (NASW) (2008). Encyclopedia of social work (20th ed.). Washington, DC: NASW. (The library, the department, or on the NASW Web Page).
• National Association of Social Workers (NASW) (1995). Social work abstracts. Washington, DC: NASW Press. (The library).
• National Association of Social Workers (NASW) (2003). Social work dictionary (5th ed.). Washington, DC: NASW Press. (The library, the department, or the NASW Web Page).
• National Association of Social Workers (NASW) (2008). Social work speaks: NASW policy statements, 2009-2012. Washington, DC: NASW Press. (Library reserve).
• O'Leary-Morgan, K., & Morgan, S. (2007). State rankings 2007. Lawrence, KS: Morgan Quitno (Reference).
• Roberts, A.R., & Greene, G.J. (2002). Social workers' desk reference. New York, NY: Oxford University Press (Reference).
• Roberts, A.R., & Yeager, K.R. (2004). Evidence-based practice manual. New York: Oxford University Press (Library reserve).
• Roeckelein, J.E. (1998). Dictionary of theories, laws, and concepts in psychology. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press (Reference).
• Rossi, P.H., Lipsey, M.W., & Freemanm H.E. (2004). Evaluation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications (Reference).
• Schulze, S. (1985). Population information in twentieth century census. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press (Reference).
•  Shearfor, B., & Horejsi, C. (2006). Techniques & guidelines for social work practice (7ed.). (Ch 6) Boston, MA: Pearson Education (Library reserve).
• Shumsky, N.L. (1998). Encyclopedia of urban America. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO (Reference).
• Smelser, N. J., & Baltes, P. B. (2001). International encyclopedia of the social & behavioral sciences. Oxford, UK: Elsevier Science, Ltd. (Reference).
• Trattner, W.I. (1986). Biographical dictionary of social welfare in America. New York, NY: Greenwood Press (Reference).
• U.S.Census Bureau (2007). Statistical Abstract of the United States. Washington, DC: U.S. Bureau of the Census (Reference).
• U.S.Census Bureau (2007). County and city data book. Washington, DC: U.S. Bureau of the Census (Reference).
• U.S.Census Bureau (2006). State and metropolitan area data book. Washington, DC: U.S. Bureau of the Census (Reference).
• U.S.Census Bureau (2006). Census of Government finance. Washington, DC: U.S. Bureau of the Census (web link).
• Wendel, H.F. et al. (2002). State profiles: The population and economy of each U.S. state. Lanham, MD: Bernan Press (Reference).
• Wendel, H.F., & Wendel, C.S. (2006). Vital statistics of the United States. Lanham, MD: Bernan Press (Reference).
• Wilson, R.A., & Keil, F.C. (1999). The MIT encyclopedia of the cognitive sciences. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press (Reference).

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