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University of Montana - Missoula

The College of Health Professions and Biomedical Science

MSW Mission, Goals & Objectives

MSW Program Mission

The Mission of the Master’s of Social Work program is to prepare social workers who will promote and support the profession’s historic commitment to social justice and equality through direct-practice activities and community-based efforts that reflect the needs and dignity of all people. The program educates students to become competent, ethical, and collaborative practitioners, community leaders, and researchers who appreciate diversity, use critical thinking skills, and understand the intersection of rural and global contexts. Graduates will embrace advances in knowledge and practice, promote the well-being of people, and create a more humane society.

Program Goals

Goal 1: Prepare social workers to integrate and evaluate direct-level practice with community and social-change practice.

Goal 2: Prepare social workers to utilize substantive knowledge, skills, values/ethics base, and critical thinking necessary for effective social work practice in both rural and global contexts.

Goal 3: Prepare social workers to advance professional knowledge, to promote best practices, and to be aware of historical context, cultural diversity, and the political and economic challenges at the intersection of rural and global environments.

Goal 4: Prepare social workers to engage in life-long professional learning and to promote innovative practice responsive to emergent social conditions and human needs.

Goal 5: Prepare social workers to assume leadership positions in the profession, public and non-governmental human-service organizations, and community action and social policy-making arenas in the state of Montana and beyond.

Goal 6: Prepare social workers to promote democratic participation, human rights, and social justice through collaboration with policy makers, service providers, community members, and those affected by inequitable social conditions.

Goal 7: Promote program development and partnerships that enhance the quality of human services and social work education in the state of Montana.

Goal 8: Promote scholarly inquiry and professional development to advance social work knowledge and practice.

Program Curriculum Objectives

Graduates of the MSW program will:

  1. Apply critical thinking skills, including ongoing self-assessment and reflection, within the context of integrated social work practice.
  2. Use the value bases and ethical standards and principles of the social work profession and to engage in practice with diverse contexts and practice settings.
  3. Engage in practice that empowers, is nondiscriminatory, promotes human dignity, and utilizes knowledge and skills that respect differences based on age, citizenship, class, color, disability, ethnicity, family form, gender, marital status, race, religion, and sexual orientation.
  4. Understand forms, mechanisms, and consequences of oppression and discrimination and develop and implement strategies of advocacy and social change that promote social and economic justice and the empowerment of the oppressed and vulnerable at all levels of social work practice.
  5. Apply practice frameworks that consider the importance of historical, political, economic, and cultural contexts in shaping social problems and solutions.
  6. Utilize a historical perspective to understand the emergence and development of social work as a profession, critically examine the theoretical debates and value tensions, and analyze contemporary social problems, policies, programs, and practices within this context.
  7. Apply the knowledge and skills of generalist social work within the integrated- practice framework.
  8. Apply a range of empirically supported theoretical frameworks to understand individual human development and behavior throughout the life course and within the interactive contexts of families, groups, organizations, and communities while evaluating the values, assumptions, and empirical support that inform the frameworks utilized.
  9. Apply policy analysis frameworks to understand and critique social and organizational policies and to formulate and implement responsible and needed change.
  10. Utilize professional research skills to evaluate, apply, inform, and enhance the practice of integrated social work.
  11. Understand how communication, helping, and interpersonal skills are shaped by cultural and social contexts. and differentially apply these skills across client populations, communities, and cultural contexts.
  12. Use supervision and consultation appropriate to social work practice and context.
  13. Use knowledge of the culture, structure, economics, and processes of organizations and service delivery systems and strategies to effectively work with and within such systems and to effect organizational change when needed.
  14. Apply the knowledge and skills of integrated practice to work with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
  15. Understand and use various forms of leadership to support collaborative, interdisciplinary relationships and active participation of community members in addressing needs and concerns of individuals, families, groups and communities.
  16. Understand key social, political, and economic challenges facing communities of the Rocky Mountain West, the intersection of local and global issues therein, and the implications for social work practice, social-policy development, and the delivery of social and human services.

School and Faculty Program Objectives:

The faculty will:

  1. Recruit and retain faculty members who have demonstrated a commitment to an integrated model of practice.
  2. Assume leadership in developing and disseminating social work knowledge; promoting best practices; engaging in public advocacy; responding to changing social, political, and economic conditions; and promoting social justice and the empowerment of poor, oppressed, and underserved populations.
  3. Engage in ongoing professional and programmatic development and renewal through interdisciplinary and inter-professional dialogue; participation in diverse campus, community, regional, national, and international teaching, service, and research efforts; and creation of opportunities for student participation in the above.
  4. Promote collaboration in teaching, research, and practice by providing consultation to community agencies, partnering in program development, serving on boards, lending expertise to social welfare advocacy organizations, and creating opportunities for community participation in workshops, training sessions, and other learning opportunities.

Foundation Year Program Objectives (1st year)

  1. Provide students with the analytical skills needed to critically examine the cultural, historical, political, and economic contexts that have shaped the meaning of social work and its practice.
  2. Provide students with the knowledge and skills of generalist social work practice as a foundation for assessment and intervention with diverse systems and client populations.
  3. Introduce students to the integrated-practice model and the epistemological and theoretical issues that inform it.
  4. Develop students’ knowledge of dominant theories of human behavior and the social environment, of their relationship to social work practice, and of the challenges and possibilities posed by alternative perspectives (e.g., feminist and other critical perspectives).
  5. Provide students with the theoretical perspectives and practice frameworks necessary for them to understand and address questions of difference and diversity and forms and mechanisms of oppression, inequality, and discrimination, paying particular attention to special populations in the region.
  6. Promote understanding of key social, political and economic issues facing communities in the Rocky Mountain West, the intersection of local and global issues therein, and the implications for social work.
  7. Provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to engage in integrated practice with individuals, families, groups, and communities, to assess the process and outcomes of practice, and to promote best practice approaches.
  8. Provide students with knowledge of different styles and skills of community and organizational leadership.
  9. Prepare students to analyze social policies and their influence on social work organizations, services, and client populations and to contribute to their development and improvement.
  10. Develop students’ knowledge of diverse fields of service and the particular challenges posed by practice in a rural context.
  11. Socialize students to continually assess and evaluate their professional competence and pursue opportunities for self-awareness and professional growth and development.
  12. Promote understanding of research as a fundamental component of practice and prepare students to use research to inform and evaluate practice.
  13. Develop students’ knowledge of key issues in individual and family practice and their relation to contemporary federal and state social welfare policy and programs.
  14. Provide students with the skills and strategies of participatory, collaborative practice that include the voices of client populations in the decisions that affect their lives.

Concentration Year Program Objectives (2nd year)

  1. Prepare students to apply the principles of integrated practice to work with individuals, families, organizations, and communities in both rural and global contexts.
  2. Prepare students to apply practice frameworks that consider the importance of historical, political, and cultural contexts in shaping problems and solutions.
  3. Develop students’ capacities to conceptualize and implement collaborative partnerships with relevant community, state, and federal organizations.
  4. Provide students with opportunities to apply policy analysis frameworks to agency settings and social problems and to develop action and/or advocacy plans to effect change.
  5. Provide students with opportunities to carry out supervised organizational or community-based research (e.g., community assets /needs assessment, program evaluation), to present findings, and to receive feedback from faculty, colleagues, and community members.
  6. Provide students with opportunities to engage in critical self-reflection and to examine the values and assumptions that underlie theory, practice, policies, and programs.
  7. Develop students’ capacities to engage in various forms of leadership and to engage in leadership styles that promote the active participation and voice of community members in addressing needs and concerns.
  8. Provide students opportunities to implement intervention strategies in practice settings based on empirical, theoretical, and experiential knowledge and to apply social work values that address individual and social problems and propose modifications and innovations.
  9. Promote students’ capacities to engage diverse stakeholders in decision-making processes that respect difference and promote social and economic justice.
  10. Provide students with opportunities to apply research knowledge and derive intervention strategies that are based on understandings of urban and rural communities and that enlist the cooperation of organizations and citizen groups in arriving at collaborative decisions.
  11. Provide students with opportunities to develop intervention strategies that illustrate understandings of the forms and mechanisms of oppression and discrimination based on gender, ability, race, age, class, and sexual identity and that respect difference and the dignity of human life.
  12. Provide students with the opportunity to create a professional portfolio that demonstrates knowledge and skills in the application of the principles of integrated practice in response to an identified social problem or practice area.
  13. Engage students in teaching/learning relationships with faculty, one another, first year MSW students, and BSW students.