Course:SW 521 – Advanced Anti-Oppressive Practice

Discipline:School of Social Work

Instructor:Ann Curry-Stevens, M.S.W., Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Social Work

e-mail:

Phone:(503) 725-5315

(800) 547-8887

Office hours: by appointment

I. Course Description

This course is a practice course that builds student capacity for anti-oppressive practice in the micro and mezzo practice arenas, with an emphasis on the micro levels of intervention. It centers one particular form of oppression and privilege – that of the positional privilege of social worker and the oppression experiences of service users (clients) and communities that depend on the vitality and responsiveness of our services. While other forms of oppression and privilege will enter the course, and many readings are contextualized on specific forms of oppression, we will engage most fully on the positional privilege of those in the social work profession.

Much of AOP encourages a stance of “not knowing” how to practice, so that curiosity, humility and openness to the leadership of communities and service users characterize practice. This course is offered so as to both advance such openness as well as provide some core practices that seek to build the confidence and capacities for students to act in ways that advance equity, social justice and reduce disparities. It is as much about building agency to take action as it is about detailing what such actions incorporate. Integral to the course is the straddling of tensions that are inherent to the field of AOP: knowing and not knowing, acting while continuing to be implicated in relations of domination, and the vulnerability that flows from becoming willing to challenge traditional canons of social work practices.

In recognition of this formative and inter-subjective dynamic within AOP, we emphasize that this course is not appropriate for students who simply want to know the “how-to” dimensions of AOP. This course is as much about troubling oneself and one’s practice as it is about figuring out ways to move forward. It will simultaneously involve unraveling what is known and what we thought we knew, as well as working with the humility of figuring out productive avenues for practice. By the end of our course, we will have ideas for effective practice but the field and the nature of the AOP constructs are such that no roadmap for AOP has been written.

Specific skills advanced include the ally skills of daily life, conducting micro- and mezzo-level anti-oppressive practice, understanding and responding to the depths of power throughout the engagement and service delivery processes, and becoming more capable of critically self-reflective practice. The course also aims to build an understanding of effective AOP infrastructure for practice. This includes accountability practices at the micro and mezzo levels, and self-accountability, through emphasizing critical self-reflection on the situated dimensions of practice, particularly the positional privilege held in being a professional social worker.

The course pedagogy will rely heavily on case study practice. We will use an established set of case studies (selected thematically) and work with these to practice interventions via discussion, role plays and modeling. In this way, the practice dimensions of each week’s materials will be integrated into our classes in an experiential manner.

Prequisites of this course are SW 539 and SW 532 or SW 589.

II. Learning Objectives

At the completion of this course, students will be able to:

  1. Identify micro and mezzo practices that are congruent with an anti-oppressive analysis.
  2. Exhibit beginning anti-oppressive practice competencies in the micro and mezzo arena, such as ally skills, AOP counseling skills, critical self-appraisal in the practice context, inviting service user feedback, and assessment of avenues to increase service user power in the organization.
  3. Understand the requirements for effective anti-oppressive practice.
  4. Deepen one’s own understanding of self and other, and the complexities of how to use oneself effectively to build effective working partnerships with clients and community members.
  5. Develop effective partnership practices for partnering with colleagues to deepen one’s own skills and insights and to help colleagues achieve the same.
  6. Gain practice knowledge about how to reduce the oppressive nature of the social work profession, with concrete ideas for increasing the power of service users in the delivery of services.
  7. Understand and advance the social justice mandates in the NASW Code of Ethics.

III. Required Texts

  1. Mandell, D. (2007). Revisiting the use of self: Questioning professional identities. Toronto, ON: Canadian Scholars Press. (approx. $35)
  2. Course Kit – a course kit is available through the PSU Bookstore. It is a required text for the course. (approx. $50)

Students with Disabilities

PSU and the School of Social Work are committed to providing accommodations for students who have disabilities in order to equalize their ability to achieve success in academic classes and to ensure physical access to student activities or university-sponsored events. The Disability Resource Center (DRC) provides academic accommodation for students in both classroom and testing situations and coordinates registration for students with disabilities. The DRC is located in Room 435 Smith Memorial Center and can be reached at 725-4150 and through TTY at 725-6504. Students with disabilities should contact the DRC by the third week of class. A staff member from Disability Resource Center will specify in a letter the accommodations that will be required for this class. The Writing Center in Cramer Hall can provide assistance with writing skills (Room 188F, 503.725.3570, ;

Populations at Risk

Social work education programs integrate content on populations-at-risk, examining factors that contribute to and constitute being at risk. Course content (including readings, lectures, class discussions and assignments) educate students to identify how social group membership influences access to resources, and present content on the dynamics of risk factors and responsive and productive strategies to redress them. Populations-at-risk are those who are intentionally or unintentionally discriminated against because of one or more attributes or statuses that fall outside of what is considered normative by dominant social identity groups or are not valued by the dominant society.

Social and economic justice content is grounded in the understanding of different models of justice, e.g. distributive justice, human and civil rights, and the global interconnectedness of oppression and privilege. Vulnerable, oppressed and/or marginalized persons and groups are at increased risk of social isolation and economic disadvantage and its consequences because of the pervasive effects of structural inequality and lack of access to power. Diverse population that are vulnerable due to poverty, age, gender, ability, citizenship status, linguistic tradition, nationality, religion, race, and sexual orientation are discussed. Inclusion of content on populations-at-risk directly and explicitly seeks to prepare social workers to practice within the NASW social work code of ethics.

Academic Honesty and Integrity

All work submitted in this course must be your own, and it must be produced specifically for this course. (If you wish to incorporate some of your prior work into a course assignment, you must have the prior approval of your instructor.) All sources used in your work (ideas, quotes, paraphrases, etc.) must be properly acknowledged and documented.

Violations of academic honesty will be taken seriously. Consequences may include failure in the course and suspension from your academic program. It is your responsibility to familiarize yourself with the academic honesty and integrity guidelines found in the current student handbook and online.

Access to instructor

Please contact the instructor to set up an appointment. Please use the Blackboard course website to connect with her electronically.

Instructional Methods

This class blends lecture, discussion, films, role-plays, and small group process.

Expectations for Attendance and Classroom Behavior

PLEASE TURN CELL PHONES OFF OR TO SILENT RING DURING CLASS.

The profession of social work requires a high level of personal integrity and self-awareness. The demonstration of professionalism in classroom behavior, as well as being present and engaged in classroom activities, is expected in this class. Your participation in a respectful learning environment includes: arriving to class on time, coming back from breaks on time, turning off your cell phones, not talking to another student(s) during lecture(s) or when a classmate is speaking, and staying for the entire class. In other words, please be mindful of what might detract from the learning experiences of students and the teacher alike.

Course content, class discussions, and assignments for this class rest on an assumption that human diversity is normative. This course and our profession require and expect critical thinking about, and sensitivity to, the impact of diversity (race, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion/faith, culture, ethnicity, physical and cognitive ability, and other considerations), both in relation to the populations we serve, and in the classroom. Students are encouraged to develop and expand their respect for and understanding of diverse identities and experiences.

I expect you to be in class and stay for the entire class. I do not make judgments about what is a permissible reason to miss class. Please ask your colleagues for missed notes and/orhandouts as you are responsible for course content when you are absent. If you miss a video, that material cannot be borrowed unless it is a video available through PSU’s library.

Attendance

If you miss more than three full class sessions, your grade may be lowered by one half letter grade. If this occurs, you must contact the instructor and establish how you will make up the material, if possible. If you miss four full class sessions or the equivalent, you are unlikely to get credit for the course.

Assignments & Evaluation

  1. Presentation: Practice digest, role play & student activity (worth 35% of the course grade)

DUE: As per assigned date

In the first week of class, students will be organized into presentation groups. The task for these groups is three-fold:

  • To summarize the practice that will be illustrated in your presentation. Identify what it is, why it is important, and the ways it can be applied to social work practice.
  • To display a practice that is informed by the assigned case study for the class. You can use video, role play, or other teaching methods to illustrate one or more practices that are indicated in the full set of readings for the class.
  • To then assign to the rest of the students a follow-up activity to be done in small groups that flows from the readings and the role play

This participation will be graded by the instructor and each group of students will receive the same grade for this assignment. Please see the grading rubric that will be used for this assignment at the end of this document.

Your presentation and activity will occur after the break in each class.

All students in the group are required to read all the articles in their assigned week. This is likely to increase your collective wisdom about the role play and activity.

If you decide to use a role play, I encourage you to make them as real as possible. Significant learning can flow from role plays – for those who take on roles, they can experience what the encounter feels like and they can evoke deeper insights into practice. For observers, they can be helped to better prepare for practice by seeing examples in action. Maximizing the use of role plays includes developing your own scripts (you may use some but not all of the segments that already exist in the text, and adding/revising sections to integrate the topics of your readings). It also typically involves letting go of these scripts and moving beyond them to find your own words and insights.

  1. AOP Portfolio (worth 65% of course grade)

DUE: March 11 (in class)

Page length – maximum of 8 pages, appendices can be used

In this assignment, you are to identify and develop 2 illustrations of your competencies in AOP. The assignment is intended to showcase your best AOP work, ideally that occur through the duration of this course. You must select one mezzo-level intervention and one micro-level intervention.

Ideas might include:

  • Social conversations with colleagues, families or friends
  • Advocacy practices at the micro or mezzo level
  • Case recording or client assessment
  • Interview with a client – using a transcript of an interview that either illustrates AOP or that would be redone to illustrate how, now, you might conduct this as an AOP.
  • Organizational assessment of user involvement in service delivery
  • Organizational reform initiative that you intend to undertake
  • Service user testimony of your competencies in AOP
  • Client assessments of your competencies through interviews or surveys
  • Any other AOP practice competency that has been previously approved by the instructor

Your task here is to represent this practice and your assessment of your competencies though conventional approaches such as written work, transcripts, or case recordings or less conventional approaches such as videos, drawings, poems, surveys, photographs or audio recordings.

Here are the required elements for each of the two practices that you document:

  1. Details of the practice
  2. Identify forms of AOP in evidence
  3. Identify the theoretical and/or conceptual dimensions of the form of AOP, relating these clearly with references to course materials and literatures
  4. Assess your competencies in this illustration, noting those that you affirm and those you intend to improve
  5. Define your beliefs about the outcomes and impacts of your intervention, with a rationale for these beliefs. Please note that this section is required for your assignment (often overlooked by students).

Conclude your paper by reflecting on what you have learned through preparing this review.

Customizing Assignments

Students may request an alternative assignment in two situations:

  • If they find it impossible to complete an assignment due to the limitations of their practicum opportunities or their experience.
  • If students do not find the assignments useful to their practice or their learning.

In these situations, students are asked to address the issue with the instructor outside of class time within the first two weeks of class. An adaptation of the assignment is the recommended resolution. If this is not possible, an alternate assignment is to be proposed by the student and approved by the instructor. In this situation, the student will submit a written proposal for the assignment, including the recommended criteria against which the assignment will be graded. The instructor has final authority for approving the proposal and/or modifying it to maximize clarity of expectations and integrity with the overall objectives of the course.

Format For All Assignments

Remember to format properly (1” margins, 12-point font, double spaced, Times New Roman font, left justify), reference properly, and to use APA 6th Edition.

Late Assignments

Assignments must be handed into the instructor at the start of class on the due date. Extensions can be granted for personal and health reasons. They must, however, be approved the day before the assignment is due in order to avoid a late penalty. Late assignments must arrive to the Faculty of Social Work (at Portland State University) by hard copy, and not electronically. To avoid the “clock” adding penalty to your late deduction, I suggest you discuss with your instructor the possibility of accepting the paper electronically, and then following up with a hard copy. Please note that if your last assignment for the term is late, your instructor will not likely be able to grade it in time for grade submission deadlines.

Rewriting Assignments

Students who receive a failing grade (C+ or below) for an assignment are permitted to rewrite their assignment. If this grade is obtained in a presentation, students may arrange with the instructor to reformat the presentation to a written assignment for their rewrite. The maximum value for a rewrite is a B+.

Grade Appeals

Students seeking to appeal their grade in a specific assignment are required to do the following:

  • Submit a written request to the instructor detailing the specific ways in which they believe their grade is too low. This written request must include the following: reference to the specific elements of the assignment details and the elements of the grading rubric that are perceived to have been graded too low.
  • The instructor will then respond to the student’s request by revisiting the original assignment and reconsidering the student’s perception of the grade. The instructor may at that time alter the grade and will notify the student of this decision.
  • If the student remains unsatisfied, the instructor will seek the input of another instructor who teaches the same course or a similar course, asking them to read the assignment, the student’s grade appeal, and provide their advice on an appropriate grade for the paper. This grade may be lower than the grade that the original instructor has assigned.
  • The new grade will be the average of the two grades.

Class Outline