Anti-Oppressive Social Work

Catalog description

This course gives future social workers a grounding in anti-oppressive social work practice. Through the development of clear connections between social justice and social work practice, AOSWP offers a conceptual model for understanding the multiplicity of oppression, privilege, and power dynamics at a structural level. Students will be given the theoretical foundation for conducting ethical social work practice within existing social structures, and for navigating unequal power dynamics between social workers and service users. Course Learning Outcomes 1. Understand the ways in which the dualities of domination/subordination, superiority/inferiority, have been constructed historically and embedded in our institutions and cultures. 2. Understand the mechanisms of socialization and hegemony, and their role in hiding and justifying systems of oppression. 3. Apply an anti-oppressive lens to intervention strategies in social work practice in order to promote human liberation, equity and social justice. 4. Appreciate the ethical implications of the disparate power between social work practitioners and those with whom they work, and the importance of critically interrogating such power disparities. 5. Appreciate the centrality of integrating the micro, mezzo, and macro levels of social life for effective social work practice. View Class Schedule