Dominican University’s Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW) curriculum provides a professional education that prepares our graduates to successfully fulfill the purposes of the social work profession. This is accomplished through an integrated course of study that builds on a liberal arts core, grounded in the values, knowledge, skills and ethics of social work, and focused study in a globally-focused family-centered empowerment approach to practice with all populations, especially marginalized groups. Through focused study at both the foundation and concentration levels of our program, students are exposed to knowledge, values, and skills in the core curriculum areas of Practice, Human Behavior in the Social Environment, Policy, Research, and Field, which provides them with the basis for professional practice and leadership roles from an ecological perspective with micro, mezzo and macro client systems.
The GSSW’s distinctive focus on family-centered practice from a global perspective builds upon the United Nation’s recognition of the family’s special status as the basic building block of civilized society. The GSSW curriculum reflects a proactive commitment to the international consensus that “families, as basic units of social life, are major agents of sustainable development at all levels of society, and their contribution is crucial for its success” and further that “families are the fullest reflection, at the grass-roots level, of the strengths and weaknesses of the social and developmental environment” (UN, 1994).
We employ an expansive definition of the family recognizing that the family is an evolving social entity that can be defined by blood or legal ties as well as emotional ties, subjective perceptions, and personal choices by the members, thus a wide range of variant family forms are recognized and addressed in the curriculum.
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