Social Work, M.S.W.

MSW Program

The mission of the Master of Social Work Program at The University of Alabama School of Social Work is to prepare advanced scholar practitioners to improve the lives of individuals and families, enhance community well-being, and advocate for policies that support systemic change.  

Graduates of the MSW Program will be able to:

  • Deliver evidence-based social work practice to diverse client systems.
  • Advocate for vulnerable populations across the lifespan. 
  • Engage in culturally competent advanced social work practice at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels.
  • Analyze, formulate, and influence policies that impact individuals, families, organizations, and communities. 
  • Apply social work values and ethics at all levels of practice.

Curriculum

The MSW Program is fully accredited by the Council on Social Work Education. The curriculum follows the curriculum policy requirements of the Council on Social Work Education. The curriculum focuses on the following: 

  • Social Work Practice: This area of the curriculum is designed to provide practice knowledge and competencies in working with individuals, groups, families, communities, and organizations.
  • Human Behavior and the Social Environment: This area of the curriculum helps the student to understand the whole person and the process of growth, change, adaptation, social functioning, and dysfunction of the environmental context, including family, groups, formal organizations, and communities. Courses in this area cover prenatal stages through the process of aging. 
  • Social Welfare Policy and Services: This area of the curriculum is designed to help the student identify, appraise, analyze, and understand social change in its dynamic perspectives; the role and responsibility of social work as a profession in influencing social policy; and the delivery of service to individuals and society.
  • Research Methods: This area of the curriculum is designed to help the student understand social work and related research and the use of research for the improvement of services to individuals, groups, organizations, and communities. 
  • Practicum Education: This area of the curriculum provides opportunities for students to integrate and apply knowledge, skills, and values in social work practice context. 

MSW Curriculum Themes

The MSW Program emphasizes the following five themes:

  • Life Course Perspective: Social workers understand that the growth and development of individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities are influenced by a range of psychological, social, historical, political, and economic factors. The interaction of these factors with life events and life transitions contribute to the subsequent outcomes. This theme also serves as the conceptual framework for the entire MSW curriculum.
  • Valuing Diversity: Social workers value and work respectfully with people who are different from themselves.
  • Critical and Reflective Thinking: Critical and reflective thinking that challenges assumptions, and that is based on evidence to arrive at creative solutions, is the basis for competent social work practice.
  • Evidence-Based Practice: Social workers favor interventions with demonstrated effectiveness. They are prepared to carefully evaluate practice and program outcomes.
  • Services to the Poor and Underserved: Alabama’s poor and underserved receive social services primarily from public and non-profit social service agencies. Social workers must be prepared to practice in these contexts and to challenge social injustice.

The MSW Program emphasizes the following theoretical frameworks:

Social Justice Framework

The University of Alabama School of Social Work is committed to educating students for advanced generalist practice by integrating a social justice framework throughout our MSW curriculum. This social justice framework reflects a commitment to ethical social work practice as described in the NASW Code of Ethics and includes the following three tenets: (1) Promoting the general welfare of society from local to global levels, (2) Challenging social injustice on behalf and with communities that have been marginalized, and (3) Practicing cultural humility and responsiveness thereby recognizing clients as experts of their own culture. These tenets will be discussed within a historical, social, environmental, and economic context to provide students with the knowledge, skills, and values they need to act as social justice advocates in collaboration with the persons and communities they are educated to serve.

Trauma-Informed Framework

The University of Alabama School of Social Work (UA SSW) is committed to educating students for advanced generalist practice. This model integrates behavioral health trauma-informed frameworks, community resiliency approaches, and the social justice framework into the concentration year of the MSW curriculum. Students will understand how the combined impact of disproportionate exposure to adverse childhood and life experiences can shape the biopsychosocial development across the lifespan. The UA SSW educates students with the knowledge, skills, and values necessary to implement a trauma-informed framework across micro, mezzo, and macro levels of social work.

MSW Program Objectives

MSW students will exhibit the ability to:

  • Demonstrate Ethical and Professional Behavior
  • Advance Human Rights and Social, Racial, Economic, and Environmental Justice
  • Engage Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ADEI) in Practice
  • Engage in Practice-Informed Research and Research-Informed Practice
  • Engage in Policy Practice
  • Engage with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities
  • Assess Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities
  • Intervene with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities
  • Evaluate Practice with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities

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