威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校

The MSW program is accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). Full-time students attending on a full-time basis generally complete the program in two academic years; Students from CSWE-accredited undergraduate social work programs may be granted up to one year of advanced standing in the full-time program.

Program Goals

• To provide students with generalist practice content for entry-level practice that builds upon a liberal arts perspective, reinforces the mission of the school, and fosters the values, ethics, and purposes of the profession of social work.
• To provide students with advanced generalist practice knowledge, skills, and values in an area of focus to be autonomous social work practitioners prepared to confront the realities of a changing social and human services environment, and to be leaders in the development of new approaches for practice.
• To provide students with a generalist social work framework for practice; foster a commitment to social, economic and environmental justice; and prepare students with the requisite knowledge, skills, and values for culturally competent practice.

The school's curriculum is generalist social work practice in orientation. In their courses across the curriculum, faculty interweave: content about social work values and ethics; content that promotes understanding, affirmation, and respect for people from diverse backgrounds; content on populations-at-risk, including strategies to respond to and strategies to redress risk factors; and content on social, economic and environmental justice grounded in an understanding of distributive justice, human and civil rights, and the global interconnections of oppression.

The generalist practice year curriculum emphasizes direct practice across system sizes (micro-to-macro). Students take courses in social welfare policies and services, human behavior and the social environment (including social work with ethnic and racial groups; and psychopathology for generalist practice), research methods, social work practice (including generalist practice with individuals, families, and groups; and generalist practice with organizations and communities), and a field course that includes a social work practice integrative seminar and social work field placement.

Social Work Competencies and Practice Behaviors

At the conclusion the MSW program we expect students have achieved the core competencies outlined below through practice behaviors learned in classroom and field experiences. Graduates should be able to:

• Demonstrate ethical and professional behavior
• Engage diversity and difference in practice
• Advance human rights and social, economic and environmental justice
• 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

Learning outcomes

• Engage diversity and difference in practice.
• Advance human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice.
• 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.
• Demonstrate ethical and professional behavior.
• Intervene with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
• Evaluate practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.