M.S.W. Program
Welcome to the Master of Social Work Program at The University of Alabama. For all but advanced-standing students, the M.S.W. program at The University of Alabama is a sixty-semester-hour course of study. The first part of the program is professional foundation content and is normally completed during the first year of enrollment. Students can complete professional foundation content several ways: weekday program, Saturday program (Tuscaloosa, Mobile, Montgomery, Gadsden), advanced-standing program (42 semester hours) (Tuscaloosa, Mobile, Montgomery, Gadsden), or the Hong Kong program. These are discrete programs and students may take courses only within the program to which they have been admitted. Concentration-year courses, usually taken in year two of the degree, are taught at all geographic sites. However, they are only taught during the week. Students may also elect to complete a dual degree M.S.W./M.P.H. offered in collaboration with University of Alabama Birmingham.
The School offers field placements throughout the state of Alabama and occasionally in neighboring states. Through a cooperative agreement with Hong Kong Shue Yan College since 1982, the School also offers the first year of the MSW degree (including field-education) in Hong Kong. The School additionally offers second year graduate students the opportunity to complete their field education in Washington, D.C.
Program Goal
The goal of the Master of Social Work Program of The University of Alabama is to educate social workers for advanced practice and leadership roles.
Program Objectives
Foundation Year Objectives
Students will demonstrate the ability to:
1. Apply critical thinking skills within the context of professional social work practice.
2. Understand the value base of the profession and its ethical standards and principles, and practice accordingly.
3. Practice without discrimination and with respect, knowledge, and skills related to clients’ age, class, color, culture, disability, ethnicity, family structure, gender, marital status, national origin, race religion, sex, and sexual orientation.
4. Understand the forms and mechanisms of oppression and discrimination and apply strategies of advocacy and social change that advance social and economic justice.
5. Understand and interpret the history of the social work profession and its contemporary structures and issues.
6. Apply the knowledge and skills of generalist social work perspective to practice with systems of all sizes.
7. Use theoretical frameworks supported by empirical evidence to understand individual development and behavior across the life span and the interactions among individuals and between individual and families, groups, organizations, and communities.
8. Analyze, formulate, and influence social policies.
9. Evaluate research studies, apply research findings to practice, and evaluate their own practice interventions.
10. Use communications skills differentially across client populations, colleagues, and communities.
11. Use supervision and consultation appropriate to social work practice.
12. Function within the structure of organizations and service delivery systems and seek necessary organizational change.
Concentration Year Objectives
In one of two available concentrations, Social Work with Children, Adolescents and their Families, or Adults and their Families, students will demonstrate:
1. The ability to apply effectively selected models and methods of advanced social work practice, consistent with social work values and ethics, with an emphasis in public and non-profit social services.
2. The ability to use reflectively the theoretical approaches and knowledge bases underlying their practice with particular attention to the life course perspective.
3. The ability to evaluate their own practice.
4. The ability to analyze the impact of social welfare policies on clients and practice situations.
5. The ability to practice in ways that are culturally and gender appropriate with low income persons and with those who have experienced social and economic injustice.