Equity Case Studies Report - School of Social Work - University of ...

UBC school of social work equity and diversity strategic plan: A compilation of case studies 117
marginalization and understanding the dynamics of oppression. These goals are in line with
social work’s agenda of anti-oppression and social justice; however, the ability to articulate the
issues and conceptualize ways to work against oppression is crucial in work with, and on behalf
of, people from disenfranchised backgrounds.
Description of Required Courses:
SWK 4510H – Research for Evidence-Based Social Work Practice
SWK 4512H – Creating Knowledge to Inform Critical Practice
This course focuses on the tenets of critical and feminist methodology. Of central concern in this
course is the utility of the research process for understanding and changing the social conditions
that oppress different social groups whom we encounter in our practice as social workers. The
course assumes that knowledge is power and thus its production is socially and historically
determined. The course does not privilege one approach to research. During the course students
will have the opportunity to: develop criteria for assessing the social nature of methodology;
learn the dimensions of critical methodologies; assess the effects of research methodologies on
the shape of social work theory, policies, programs and practices; develop conceptual
frameworks and related researchable questions in their area of social work practice; master at
least one approach to research design, data collection, analysis and dissemination; develop a
research proposal that reflects a critical perspective.
SWK 4304H – Globalization and Trans-nationalization: Social Work Responses Locally and
Globally
This course will critically analyze concepts and contradictions of trans-nationalization and
globalization as seen locally and globally, and explore ways in which social work can respond
creatively and effectively. Key concepts such as power, culture, human rights and social justice
will be central to our discussions. Theories and problems of colonization, nationalism,
capitalism, and development will be reviewed, and the issues of environment and peace will be
addressed. Practice models and skills often used in transnational contexts will be identified (e.g.,
popular education, empowerment, advocacy). Further, students will explore the examples and
possibilities of local, international and transnational practice to work against/with/ around
globalization.
SWK 4306H Process of Social Exclusion, Marginalization and Resistance
This course will examine a number of core notions, which, over time, have come to reflect
different social realities of injustice, oppression, and inequity. It will link micro and macro
dimensions, personal experience/and institutional realities. The three core courses offer
converging lenses. In this more theoretical course, genealogy of certain terms, the kinds of social
realities they have covered over time, what they miss, and how different frameworks highlight
particular practices, will be focussed. This course will adopt a historical perspective to the
examination of a selected number of critical concepts. Multiplicity of concepts drawn from
various schools of thought, modernist, post-structural and post-modern thought, including critical
feminism, and (post)colonialism will be examined. Issues traditionally associated with social
exclusion (marginalization and resistance, including poverty, racism, anti-Semitism, gendered