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SWK 4606H – Diversity, Access and Equity in Social Work Practice - Required

This course provides an opportunity to “reflect-on-practice” through a critical and anti-oppression lens. Students are invited to critically examine what constitutes effective, justice infused professional practice through an interconnected set of course activities including, group process, assigned readings, consideration of historical precedents, engagement with guest speakers speaking about their own approaches to anti-oppressive practice, student-led presentations, and student’s own professional experiences in social work practice as case material for class discussion and personal reflection.

The goal of the course is to identify a professional skill set necessary to effect social change at different scales – personal, interpersonal, family/community, organizational/institutional, and macro (community, policy and legislation). Careful consideration will be given to assessing—in a theoretically and methodologically rigorous, reflexive way—how social work practice tools and strategies can replicate inequalities, or work towards developing more accessible and equitable opportunities for diverse communities.