Introduction to Social Work and Human Service Practice
UndergraduateTAS-HGW1012025
Course information for 2025 intake View information for 2024 course intake
Learn how social workers advocate for justice and empower communities. You’ll explore inequality and the role social workers play in creating a more inclusive and equitable society. Build your social work foundations. Reflect and engage with the class.
- Study method
- 100% online
- Assessments
- 100% online
- Enrol by
- 16 Feb 2025
- Entry requirements
- Part of a degree
- Duration
- 14 weeks
- Price from
- $2,440
- Upfront cost
- $0
- Loan available
- HECS-HELP and FEE-HELP available
Introduction to Social Work and Human Service Practice
About this subject
Upon completion of this subject, the student should be able to:
- Illustrate the role and value of micro, meso and macro social work responses to contemporary social justice and human rights issues using contemporary case scenarios.
- Use critical social work theories and critical analytical skills to reveal how historical and current inequalities of power and privilege are constructed.
- Identify personal beliefs and values and consider their impact for social work practice by using critical reflection skills and engaging with constructive feedback from others.
- Examine how social work is shaped and constrained by key national and international contexts and discourses by collaborating with others.
- Module 1: Working Relationally and Reflectively
- Unit Introduction, Social Work, and Working Relationally
- Reflection Skills
- Communication and Listening Skills
- Working Collaboratively
- Module 2: Introducing Social Work and the Human Services
- Fields of Practice and Practice Approaches
- Working in Human Service Organisations
- Exploring the Contexts of Practice
- Module 3: Key Issues for Contemporary Social Work
- Decolonising Social Work and Human Service Practice
- Contemporary Challenges for Social Work
- New Directions for Social Work
- Module 4: Social Work in Action
- Theories for Practice
- Practices of Resistance
- Review
This subject introduces you to the foundations of social work practice in human service organisations. You will develop critical analytical skills to explore historical and contemporary inequalities of power and privilege based on, for example, race, gender, sexuality, geographic location and health status. Through this examination, you will be able to clarify the role of social work to create more inclusive, just and humane societies. You will gain an understanding about the purpose and domains of social work practice, professional standards, knowledge for practice, and ethics. Practice fields and methods of intervention are covered to illustrate how social workers work in micro, meso and macro environments to create a more just society and to protect and enable human rights.
- Journal of Learning Provocations (40%)
- Group Class Presentation of Social Work Practice Challenges and Individual Written Reflection (40%)
- Respectful Online Discussion of a Social Issue and Participation in Discussions (20%)
For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).
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- Times Higher Education Ranking 2024:
- 19
Entry requirements
To enrol in this subject, you must be admitted into a degree.
Additional requirements
- Other requirements - Teaching arrangements: Weekly (online) lectures and other activities including readings (2 hours) and weekly online Zoom tutorials (2 hours). There is an 80% attendance requirement for tutorials.
Study load
- 0.125 EFTSL
- This is in the range of 10 to 12 hours of study each week.
Equivalent full time study load (EFTSL) is one way to calculate your study load. One (1.0) EFTSL is equivalent to a full-time study load for one year.
Find out more information on Commonwealth Loans to understand what this means to your eligibility for financial support.