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2024-25 Academic Catalog

Bachelors (BSW) in Social Work

Overview

The CSWE accredited bachelor of social work degree offers a 120-semester-hour course of study, 51 hours of which are prescribed social work coursework that is designed to prepare students for professional social work practice with diverse populations in a variety of settings. This includes work with individuals (micro level); families and groups (mezzo level); and organizations and communities (macro level). There is an emphasis on generalist social work practice that values the uniqueness, dignity, and needs of all people. Generalist social work practice is oriented toward analyzing and addressing needs and strengths with micro, mezzo, and macro skills and perspectives. Generalist practitioners work towards human rights and justice through advocacy, social policy, and change oriented prevention and intervention strategies. The program courses are designed to include academic social work and internship experience requirements within a liberal arts context. This enables the student to link social research with social work practice. The program prepares students to work in a variety of social work settings, as well as to seek admission into graduate programs like the Master of Social Work (MSW) program at George Fox University. Students are required to obtain a minimum grade of C in all courses taken for the major.

Degree Outcomes

Graduates with a BSW in social work will:

  • Acquire the social work ethics, values, skills, and knowledge needed to analyze and understand the development and interrelationship of diverse world views, issues of human rights and justice, and basic human needs
  • Demonstrate knowledge, skills, and values necessary to understand and affect the interrelationship between an individual and their environment at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels
  • Work effectively within diverse social contexts, structures, and change processes in their practice
  • Understand how their personal faith integrates with social work values and ethics and apply that to their practice
  • Be prepared for graduate social work education and will be committed to continual development in their professional field

Admission Requirements

Students interested in pursuing a degree in social work should consult with a social work advisor as soon as possible. All students interested in social work as a degree must make formal application to the program. 

Major Requirements

Required Coursework (51 credit hours)

Complete the following:

An introduction to the scientific study of human behavior. Major topics include the biological bases of behavior, sensation, perception, thinking, learning, memory, development, emotion, motivation, personality, social interaction, and abnormal behavior. Prerequisite to most other psychology courses.
An introduction to the study of society, including the study of the shared relationships that create social organization and social processes of society. Required for sociology minors and for admission into the social work major.
This course provides an introduction to the values, ethics, theory, roles, and responsibilities of social workers within generalist social work practice with a special focus on working with diverse populations. The course focuses on how students' personal experiences, evolving worldview, and self-awareness can be developed and utilized as a foundation for social work practice focused on service and justice. Special attention is given to the history of the social work profession, its response to current and historical contexts of oppression and racism, and how the social work profession empowers people to advocate and take action towards social, racial, economic, and environmental justice. This course requires volunteer work in a social work agency or with an organization serving individuals, families, or communities who identify with specific vulnerabilities. This course is required for those majoring in Social Work and must be taken prior to entrance into the social work cohort program or within the first semester following student's acceptance into the social work cohort program.
This course provides education in applied statistics for the social and behavioral sciences. Emphasis is placed on statistical logic and decision making. Prerequisite: high school algebra.
This course provides and seeks to apply a basic framework for creating and organizing knowledge of human behavior during the lifespan. Social systems, human development theories, and strengths approaches are critically examined to foster understanding of individual, family, group, organizational, and community behaviors and the impact of the larger environment on these systems. Special attention is given to the impact of human diversity, discrimination, and oppression on the ability of individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities to reach or maintain optimal health and well-being. Prerequisite: Formal admission to the Social Work Program, declared minor in Social Welfare, or instructor permission.
This course provides an introduction to practices that advance human rights and promote social, racial, economic, and environmental justice. Related concepts of oppression, power, privilege, and inequality will also be covered. Prerequisite: Formal admission to the Social Work Program or a declared minor in Social Welfare.
This course provides a study of generalist social work practice with individuals. Micro-level theory, skills and interviewing techniques are applied to generalist social work with an understanding of how bias, power and privilege, and personal values and experiences affect social work practice with diverse clients. Furthermore, this course assists the students in necessary self-exploration as it relates to self-awareness and future ethical social work practice. Additional course fee is required. Prerequisites: SWRK 180 Introduction to Social Work; formal admission into the Social Work Program.
This course provides a study of mezzo-level generalist social work practice with families and groups. Attention is given to a systems framework of generalist social work practice, with a particular focus upon assessment and development of culturally appropriate and evidenced-based intervention strategies. Prerequisites: SWRK 391 Social Work Practice I: Individuals; formal admission into the Social Work Program.
This course provides an overview of generalist social work methods practiced with organizations and communities with focus on planning, implementing, assessing, and evaluating macro-level systems. Special attention is given to macro-level advocacy for social justice issues, including, but not limited to anti-racism, discrimination, equity, and inclusion. Additional course fee is required. Prerequisite: SWRK 392 Social Work Practice II: Groups and Families; formal admission into the social work program.
This course provides an introduction to issues of diversity and difference in preparation for social work practice with cultural humility. Students will learn about vulnerable and marginalized groups and the environmental systems which impact them. Special attention is given to issues of intersectionality, bias, discrimination, power and privilege, and oppression. Students will explore their own personal identity and how their views, beliefs, values, and behaviors may support or hinder future social work practice with diverse populations. Prerequisite: SWRK 333 Human Rights and Justice and formal admission into the social work program; or a declared Criminal Justice Minor.
This course provides basic knowledge about research methods as it applies to social work practice. Students learn how to access, critique, synthesize, articulate research findings derived from interprofessional and diverse research methods, approaches, and sources. Students learn the inherent bias in research and evaluate design, analysis, and interpretation using an anti-racist and anti-oppressive perspective to inform decisions pertaining to practice, policy, and programs. Topics specific to social work research such as agency-based research, program evaluation, outcomes evaluation and single-subject design will be emphasized. This course demonstrates the need for and encourages the use of research in social work practice. Prerequisites: SWRK 240 Statistical Procedures; formal admission into the Social Work Program.
This course provides an in-depth analysis of how human needs and values are translated into social policy on community, state, national and international levels. Special attention is given to the ways in which values and power interests influence the creation of social policy. Emphasis is placed on the history of social welfare and related policies, the process of policy formation and analysis, and impact of policy on vulnerable populations. The course includes a critique of historical and current social policy and the systems related to social policy to provide a foundation for policy practice that is rights-based, anti-oppressive, and anti-racist. Implications for generalist social work practice and services will be explored through a variety of class activities. Prerequisites: SWRK 333 Human Rights and Justice, SWRK 420 Social Work with Diverse Populations; formal admission into the Social Work Program or a declared Social Welfare Minor.
This course provides a beginning level of supervised social work internship experience in a social service agency where students begin applying generalist practice skills of working with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. This is the first course in the internship experience/instruction sequence. Students integrate and apply concepts from social work practice courses focused on professionalism, ethics, policy, research, diversity, human rights and justice, anti-racism, diversity, equity and inclusion and the generalist social work perspective. Additionally, students attend a one-hour seminar each week that addresses the integration of classroom concepts and experiences at the agency. (225 clock-hours with the agency) Prerequisites: SWRK 391 Social Work Practice I: Individuals, SWRK 392 Social Work Practice II: Groups and Families; formal admission into the Social Work Program.
This course provides further depth and integration of theory, classroom learning, and experience within the student's internship experience/instruction, building on concepts developed in SWRK 476. This is the second course in the internship experience/instruction sequence. Ideally, SWRK 476 and 477 will occur in a full-year practicum during the student's final year. Macro-practice concepts will be emphasized and topics will include work with agency boards, communities, governmental systems; implementation of a research project in the agency; community analysis; termination with clients and the agency; addressing social inequities in the student's field experience/practicum; engage in Anti-racism, Diversity , Equity and Inclusion (ADEI) in practice; policy issues; and ethical conduct/NASW Code of Ethics. Required for majors. Additionally, students attend a one-hour seminar each week that addresses the integration of classroom concepts and experiences at the agency. (225 clock-hours with the agency) Prerequisites: SWRK 391 Social Work Practice I: Individuals, SWRK 392 Social Work Practice II: Groups and Families, SWRK 476 Social Work Internship and Seminar I; formal admission into the Social Work Program.
This course provides an opportunity for students to consolidate substantive knowledge regarding the CSWE Competencies found in the CSWE EPAS. Students apply knowledge and skills gained across their BSW courses to the social work profession, including ethical social work practice, advocacy for human rights and justice, generalist social work practice across the micro, mezzo, and macro levels. Students develop a framework for their social work practice focused on theory, self-awareness, ethics and professionalism, and the integration of spirituality and religion in social work practice. Additional course fee is required. Prerequisites: SWRK 440 Social Work Research Methods, SWRK 460 Social Policy and SWRK 476 Social Work Internship and Seminar I; formal admission into the Social Work Program.