SOWK 321: Social Welfare Policy
Prerequisites: SOWK 320
Credit Hours: (3)
This course intends to help students raise and answer questions concerning the use of social policy in the development and delivery of social services and programs. Students will learn about and use a social policy analysis framework to examine historical and persisting dilemmas-ethical, political, social, cultural, and economic-explicit and implicit in social welfare provisioning. The purpose of the course is to develop the student’s analytic and critical understanding of social programs, policies, and issues; and how policy is shaped and used to perpetuate oppression and unequal access, with a special emphasis on practicing policy skills.
Detailed Description of Course
I. Understanding of social services programs, policies, and issues, nature of policies,
and policy practices.
II. Focus on agencies and service delivery structures and policy analysis models.
III. Focus on Congress and budget issues and institutional factors.
IV. Examination of Social Welfare policies and programs and vulnerable populations.
Detailed Description of Conduct of Course
I. Students practice skills in use of various frameworks and models of social policy analysis, a written paper, oral presentation, and research will be expected from students.
II. Format - combination of the following:
Goals and Objectives of the Course
1) Exhibit substantive knowledge of the process by which social welfare policy is developed, implemented, monitored, and evaluated at the local, state, and federal levels.
2). Demonstrate skill in the use of a policy framework and models of social welfare policy analysis.
3). Demonstrate an understanding the historical evolution of underlying values, ethics and ideologies within selected services and policies to better understand the interdependence of service delivery with past, present and future social welfare policies.
4). Demonstrate critical thinking as it pertains to the relationships between economic, social, political, and cultural forces in social policy development and analysis, and the relationship to oppression and unequal access.
Assessment Measures
Other Course Information
None
Review and Approval
September 2001 Updated Marilyn Rigby