BSW400 Culture, Economics, and Social Justice (3 cr.)

Prerequisite(s): BSW305 ; BPH405  or ST132 or equivalent
This course investigates the impact of culture, race, economics, privilege, and discrimination on – and on the perception of – human development, behavior, and interactions within society. This investigation utilizes previously introduced developmental theories and conceptual frameworks and presents new theories and models designed to embrace human diversity and promote social justice. This course incorporates the concept of intersectionality and highlights its importance in anti-racist social work practice.

Upon completion of this course, students are expected to be able to do the following:

1. Express a fundamental understanding of the strengths, challenges, and lived experiences of individuals marginalized in society (due to intersections of culture, race, ability, age, economics, gender, sexuality, religion, privilege, etc.).
2. Examine privileged narratives and ideologies in society and how those narratives and ideologies can foster implicit bias within all levels of social work practice.
3. Identify current and historical patterns of socially-sanctioned bias and injustice embedded with social structures, social policies, and systems of social welfare and control.
4. Explore personal judgments, attitudes, beliefs, or biases that might hinder or prevent effective social work practice across the breadth of human diversity.
5. Predict the impact of positional and cultural power and privilege in building trust and engagement within marginalized communities.
6. Explain the strengths and limitations of each theoretical framework to assess the strengths and needs of individuals, families, and groups of people whose assumptions, ideologies, history, and values differ from the framework’s foundational assumptions, ideologies, history, and values.
7. Explain, using both historical and current examples, how the function of assessing client needs can be co-opted as a tool for social control, social conformity, and the perpetuation of structures of privilege.
8. Explore the ideological assumptions, judgments, and values underlying the intervention strategies associated with each theoretical framework and their suitability to effectively serve client populations across the breadth of human experience and diversity.
9. Compare and contrast the significance of socially normative benchmarks for successful social work practice with the ideologies, assumptions, beliefs, and values of the client population served.
10. Describe the positive and negative impact of individual social work practices and policies on the communal health and functioning of marginalized client groups.
11. Identify and incorporate multiple components of anti-racist social work practice.