MSW: About the Curriculum

Curriculum Goals

The primary goal of the curriculum is to provide social work students with the critical skills, value base and knowledge to advance social justice, multiculturalism, social change, collaboration and empowerment in their professional roles. We are committed to a curriculum that:

• Enhances students' capacity for critical analyses of social and cultural structures, critical self-reflection, dialogue and collaboration with diverse individuals and groups, and effective interventions in culturally diverse settings.
• Provides students with the skills and capacity to create effective social change within and across various social systems, including at the individual, interpersonal, group, community and institutional levels.
• Educates students to be effective change agents in today's diverse and global society, by using state-of-the-art forms of collaboration such as inter-disciplinary service planning, cross-cultural community coalition building, partnerships with clients and community groups, and intergroup dialogue and action.
• Produces social workers who can critically analyze, test, and contribute to the knowledge bases of the profession and who can make well-reasoned theory- and evidence-informed judgements in their day-to-day social work practice.
• Allows for active student participation in the planning, organization and direction of learning opportunities.

Concentration on Children, Youth and Families (CYF)

The mission of the Children, Youth and Families concentration is to prepare MSW-level practitioners to design, deliver and evaluate services focused on promoting the healthy development of children and families, as well as elderly family members. The concentration reflects the program's commitment to child and family services. The curriculum in the Children, Youth and Families concentration addresses the full continuum of traditional child welfare services, but extends as well through a number of different fields of service and intervention methods including: juvenile justice; school social work; early intervention, prevention and family support services; advocacy; child and adolescent mental health; work with families who have a member with a developmental disability; and intensive family preservation services.

Throughout the concentration curriculum, special attention is given to children and families whose daily lives are challenged by the effects of poverty and whose primary recourse for help is through publicly-funded services.

General Curriculum

3-Year MSW

During the first-year and part of the second, the Professional Foundation curriculum provides instruction in the basic knowledge, skills and values required for beginning social work practice, as well as an opportunity for socialization to the profession, its value orientation, ethics and history. The general curriculum also includes a field practicum where students are given the opportunity to put into practice the knowledge gained in classroom courses. In the remaining second and third year, the advanced curriculum is designed to provide knowledge and skills in the concentration area of Children, Youth and Families. This also includes the Advanced Practicum, which is an integral part of the concentration curricula. Advanced Practicum may not begin until all foundation requirements are completed.

Advanced Standing MSW

Designed for eligible graduates of baccalaureate programs in social work/social welfare, Advanced Standing allows students to enter the advanced level of the MSW curriculum. During the 6 quarters of the advanced curriculum, students will gain knowledge and skills in the concentration area of Children, Youth and Families and complete the Advanced Practicum.

Curriculum Detail

Classes in both MSW Program options are typically scheduled from approximately 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m., one or two evenings a week. Students must be prepared to adjust their employment and personal schedules to accommodate program requirements, particularly around practicum.

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