Assignments

ASSIGNMENT #1: 

Unsettling History

Book Dialogue Groups: As a way to understand the explicit power of historical forces and the unconscious pull such forces have on shaping our own lives and relationships to ourselves and to people, we are asking each student to explore historical forces by reading and reflecting on one of following books. 

The first book gives powerful and direct historical exposure to the role of oppression in the origin of the United States of America: Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of The United States (Harper Perennial Modern Classics: 2005).

The second book is by Juan Gonzalez and is titled Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America. It is an updated and thorough account of the role of the United States in the mass migration of Latinos to the U.S. (Penguin Books, 2011).

Another is An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz: “Today in the United States, there are more than five hundred federally recognized Indigenous nations comprising nearly three million people, descendants of the fifteen million Native peoples who once inhabited his land” (Beacon Press, 2014).

The final book for the fall semester is Nell Irvin Painter’s book, Creating Black Americans: African American history and its meanings, 1619 to present. “Ranging from life in Africa before slavery to today’s hip-hop culture, this magnificent account of African-American history examines a past rich in beauty and creativity, but also in tragedy and trauma. Writing for a new generation, eminent historian Nell Irvin Painter blends a vivid narrative based on the latest research with and array of artwork by African-American artists, adding a vital dimension to the story and a new depth to our understanding of black history. 

We ask that you choose the book you read based on two primary criteria: 

(a) Select a book that will support you in locating in history the origins of the hierarchical sorting of people that has led to oppression, domination, power, and privilege. 

(b) Select a book that will enable you to learn about the history of oppression in the United States. 

Group Conversations on History Books (sections will determine when to hold group book conversations): Students who are reading the same history books will lead in-class conversations on how the history they have read informs social work assessments at the individual, family, group, community, and organizational level. 

Each book group will lead a 20-minute conversation covering the following:

  • Provide an overview of one or two historical incidents from the book and explain why the author includes it.  What is the author trying to show? 
  • How can we see echoes of these events or this tendency in the modern U.S.?
  • How does social work either confront or actually perpetuate these tendencies?
  • How do your own biases, preconceptions, and history factor into your understanding of the historical content you have read and your perception of whether or not echoes of this content or this tendency are present in the modern U.S.? 
  • Concluding remarks: how will you use this history to inform your social work practice?

Due Date: Students and Instructors can decide when the Group Presentations for this assignment will be done.

ASSIGNMENT #2: 

Contribution on Decolonizing Social Work Practice Knowledge

This year we are examining the United States as a settler colonial society. The ideologies, beliefs, values and norms established in this society many centuries ago continue to inform the ways in which our institutions function, including the social work profession. Our aim this year is to think critically and practically about how to dismantle some of these practices to ensure that we are responding to all individuals, groups and communities in a holistic and liberatory manner.

In our current environment of a pandemic, social unrest, immigration issues, violence against the LGBTQ community, anti-Black racism and anti-Semitism, oppression of elder populations and of those with other abilities (to name a few), the legacy of the original settler policies continues to live on today. New theories, frameworks, concepts and practices are needed to help shift the profession of social work from a colonial project to one of liberation. Who better to provide this new way of thinking and working than you—who will be entering this new world of social work?

This assignment is a year-long assignment. Part 1 is due this semester and Part 2 is due in the spring. In conjunction with other students or as an individual, you will author a contribution (this term is being used in lieu of “article” as a way of modeling what decolonizing strategies might look like) that offers new knowledge using indigenous/folkways of knowing to shift settler colonial thinking in social work practice. You can select from a variety of issues, including but not limited to:

  • Housing and homelessness
  • Food insecurity and food deserts
  • Education
  • Health care/health disparities
  • Incarceration/Abolition 
  • Child welfare
  • Immigration 
  • Environmental racism
  • LGBTQ
  • Aging
  • Anti-Black racism
  • Anti-Semitism
  • Poverty
  • Oppression of other racial groups and identities
  • Policing

Consider the ways in which the history of settler colonialist society, its ideologies, beliefs, values, language and ways of knowing, shape the manner in which social work is currently practiced. 

  • How do they contribute to the experiences of service users as they interface within the system you have chosen to write about?
  • How might they have shaped the meaning that service users place on their own circumstances, identities, etc.?
  • How do they inform how you, as the practitioner, utilize your power and positionality in the processes of assessment, engagement and intervention?
  • What are some of the strategies for dismantling these types of thoughts, policies and practices?
  • What are some alternative, decolonized thoughts, policies and practices and the possibilities that might emerge from these shifts?

This semester, you are responsible for submitting:

  • A working title for your contribution (you can change the title in the spring)
  • A literature review identifying the sources you are using to contextualize and support the new theories, practices and policies you are presenting (sources can include articles, artwork, poetry, photographs, music, and other indigenous/folkways of knowing) 
  • A 200 word abstract of your contribution 

Details for the full contribution which you will complete in the spring will be provided next semester.

Due Date: Session 12

Suggested rubric: The text in purple addresses your assignment for the Fall semester. For the purposes of Assignment 2, only focus on addressing the first two columns in a complete manner. The entire table offers a longer term view of the project planning process, which you will be revisiting in the Spring as you move towards project/contribution completion.

Assignment 3: 

Just Practice Framework Assessment

Aim: To understand the importance of ascertaining the meaning that service users give to the experiences and the conditions in their lives as well as their wishes and feelings. This is important to ensure that service users are involved in assessment, planning, and review processes with the goal of you, the social worker, being able to first understand the meaning, wishes, and feelings of service users and then presenting these clearly and confidently to others. 

To ensure that the five themes of the Just Practice Framework are consistently applied when working with service users: Meaning, Context, Power, History and Possibility

Introduction (half a page)

  • What is the topic?
  • What is the connection to social work?
  • What does your paper do?

Identity and Issues (1 page)

  • Think of a person that you are working with and identify where you are in the process (i.e. engagement, assessment/planning/review). Identify the issues being addressed in the situation presented by the person

Meaning (2 pages)

  • How are you working with the service user in order to find out what their understanding of the situation is? How are you ascertaining the MEANING they give to the experiences and conditions that shape their lives, as well as their wishes and feelings?

Contexts (2 pages)

  • CONTEXT is the background and set of circumstances and conditions that surround and influence particular events and situations in the lives of all of us. Context allows us to look beyond the obvious and see things that might otherwise be missed. Within social work, the interwoven contexts are often interpersonal, sociopolitical, and community-based.  How are you taking into consideration the contexts in which the client’s experiences and conditions unfold? What are those contexts? How are contexts adding to the meaning given by the person to their lived experience and conditions? How are contexts impacting your understanding of the situation? 

Similarities in Positionality (1 page)

  • Consider how your approach is/may be affected by any similarities between you and the person (e.g., in age, gender, ability, ethnicity, sexual orientation, class status, and/or education).

Differences in Positionality (1 page)

  • Consider how your approach is/may be affected because of any of your social identities that are not the same as those of the service user (e.g., in age, gender, ability, ethnicity, sexual orientation, class status, and/or education).

Power & History (2 pages)

  • As an individual in a “professional position,” the social worker has to be aware of how their role might connote POWER to the service user. According to Finn (2016), there are different forms of power.  Power over, power within, power with, and power to act. 
  • Where is the service user experiencing someone having power over them and their life? Where in their life is the service user exercising power over people in their life?
  • Where is this happening in their personal life as in people close to them having power over them? Where is the service user exercising power to act with people close to them? 
  • Where is it happening in their external environment, as in a child welfare system having power over them? Or do the police and or justice system have power over them? Are the service recipients having issues with the school system? Where is the service user exercising power within relationships that are a part of their external environment?
  • How much weight/consideration are you giving to this person’s story about the experiences and conditions of their life as well as their wishes and feelings? 
  • How has HISTORY marked the person or their group or community for oppression? How has history shaped their resilience? What might their history tell us about POSSIBILITY for the service user? For example, the service user has had to deal with adversity since they were 12 years old due to sexual orientation and gender non-conformity or the service user has an immigration story.

 Power & Possibility (1 page)

  • What other avenues are there for the service user’s meaning, wishes, and feelings to be presented—including them doing so for themselves? Are you sure that you have adequately explored their meaning, wishes, and feelings?

Conclusion (half a page)

  • What is the biggest takeaway from this essay?
  • How will this information make you a better social worker?

Please Note: Your paper should total between 10-12 pages (not including the cover or reference pages) and use standard APA formatting.

Due date: last day of class

Please use references as appropriate. 

Due Date: Week 15 of the Semester

GRADING 

Assignments and in-class participation are graded as follows:

30% Written Journal Assignment & Book In-Class Conversations

20% Contribution to Decolonizing Social Work Knowledge

25% Just Practice Framework Assignment

25% In-class participation

Honors (97.5>). Indicates consistently outstanding achievement equivalent to an A+ or better.  It reflects work that meets all of the requirements for a grade of Credit but that, in addition demonstrates exceptional capacity for critical thinking which includes the contextualization, synthesis of main issues, integration of ideas from several readings, recognition of debated points, and creative application of material to practice and contemporary policy issues. 

Credit (82.5+). Indicates an acceptable graduate-level work equivalent to a B or better. It reflects a combination of satisfactory completion of all course work, the qualityof written and oral communication, adequate class participation, and regular and on-time class attendance. This includes ability to accurately report on the content of the readings, to identify main ideas, to draw relevant conclusions, to self- reflect on the material, to apply material to practice and contemporary policy issues and to reference assigned readings, Grades of Credit are given for work within the A to B Range.

No Credit (<82.5). A grade of no-credit indicates a combination of poor quality of work on assignments; insufficient mastery of reading and lecture materials, weak descriptive and conceptual skills, minimal class participation; and excessive absences or lateness. No Credit grades are given to work that is determined to be below a grade of B.

Incomplete. Grades of Incomplete may be given at the discretion of the instructor. Instructor and student must agree to a date for completion of the work. Failure to meet the agreed upon date will result in an automatic No Credit. Students who do not achieve Credit level work at the end of a course may not receive an incomplete grade.

Requests for a letter grade must be submitted via email to your professor by the end of the second week of class.

REQUIRED TEXTS

Finn, J. (2021). Just practice: A social justice approach to social work.(4th ed) New York: Oxford University Press

RECOMMENDED TEXTS

Burghardt, S. (2014). Macro practice in social work for the 21st century: Bridging the macro-micro divide. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

Suggested Books: 

Structural and Historical Conditions that bring issues of oppression into Social Work Practice

Stakeman, C., Schmitz, C.L., Sloan, L., Joyner, M. C., (2018). Critical multiculturalism and intersectionality in a complex world, 2nd Edition. New York: Oxford University Press.