Short course summary
This course provides an overview of key methods in the field of international social work. This includes reading material that refers to primary methods such as social case work, social group work and community organization as well as secondary methods such as social action, social welfare administration and social work research. Students can choose to learn about various practice approaches, such as the anti-oppressive approach, critical empowerment methods and community capacity building as well as critical development approaches based on their individual and group work choices. The course enables the students to gain a critical and self-reflexive perspective on global, transnational, international and transcultural fields of social work practices by learning about and discussing “the pedagogy of the oppressed” by Freire and critical social work action approaches methods of enquiry and practice. The seminar requires an active participation of students in teams planning their “year abroad” and present the literature on the methods of their choice and apply them to specific cases they are interested in. This team work process results in presentations that support the students in their individual year abroad plans in a collective, supportive, transcultural and bilingual (German/English) setting.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
- Demonstrate their understanding of key methods in international social work
- Use methods to develop and to transfer theoretical and practical questions and issues in research and practice questions relevant for international social work
- Identify key issues of international social work methods
- Critically reflect on the opportunities and limitations of international social work methods
- Self-reflect on their own positionality in international social work fields of research and practice
Assessment: In class presentation (graded) - please upload on Moodle