Course Description
Course provides students with the ability to analyze contemporary social welfare policy issues/programs and understand the relationship between social policy theory and social work practice. Students will learn to use policy analysis tools to understand how policy influences practice and planning decisions and how to influence social change.
Athena Title
Adv Policy Practice and Analys
Pre or Corequisite
[(SOWK 7118 or SOWK 7118E) and (SOWK 7121 or SOWK 7121E) and (SOWK 7117 or SOWK 7117E) and (SOWK 7115 or SOWK 7115E) and (SOWK 7125 or SOWK 7125E)] or permission of school
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student learning Outcomes
- Students will be able to discuss and interpret the relationships between social problems and social policy.
- Students will be able to explain important concepts, theories, and related evidence-driven literature regarding the impact of policies, race and ethnicity, and institutional concerns on social policy systems.
- Students will be able to identify the effects of policy on individuals, families, groups, and organizations as social units during periods of social-environmental stability and flux.
- Students will be able to analyze the effects of social policy related to family well-being and community empowerment.
- Students will be able to understand the forms and mechanisms of oppression and discrimination that impact most on communities and, in turn, on families, and be prepared to advance social and economic justice for those individuals and/or groups who are most vulnerable in those systems.
- Students will be able to assess the dynamics of geopolitical and economic power and leadership through the design and presentation of symbols and agenda framing in public relations and negotiating processes.
- Students will be able to evaluate social policy from a regional, national, and global perspective to develop a coherent social work practice approach.
Topical Outline
- A review of the place of social welfare policy in the U.S. context
- The policy process and development at the federal and state levels
- Models of policy analysis
- The effect of policy on women’s rights and welfare
- Poverty and poverty reform in the U.S.
- Persisting evidence of power, oppression, social justice, discrimination in the U.S.
- A comparative analysis of various welfare policies in the OECD
- Data gathering and policy formulation
- Organizing for policy change
- Policy advocacy at the agency and state or federal levels
- Recent controversial welfare policies
Institutional Competencies Learning Outcomes
Critical Thinking
The ability to pursue and comprehensively evaluate information before accepting or establishing a conclusion, decision, or action.
