Course Catalog

SWK 231E Social Welfare: Historical Perspectives and Development (3 credits) 9729

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course follows the development of social welfare efforts from early civilization to the present time. How have societies in the past met the needs of their people and what have they done about those who are particularly needy such as children, the poor, disabled, and elderly? It focuses on the emergence of the profession of social work and explores the question: "Am I my brother's keeper?" in the light of biblical principles. This course, either in the online or on campus form, is a requirement for completion of the social work major at Taylor University.

LEARNING RESULTS

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Define social welfare and distinguish it from public welfare, social work, and sociology
• Understand and explain concepts that are foundations of the social welfare system; public and private
• Describe the impact of social welfare programs upon the less powerful and oppressed groups in our society
• Identify any personal values and attitudes that may interfere with being helpful to those in need
• Identify key persons who influenced the development of social work as a profession and describe the contributions each made
• Identify fields of service in the social work professional and areas of personal interest
• Discuss the historical foundations of social welfare and the connections these have to current systems and developments
• Effectively locate and utilize literary resources toward better understanding of social welfare history and development
• Basic understanding of the knowledge base regarding historical developments of social policy, social research, and social work practice
• Successfully complete part of the curriculum needed for acceptance into a Masters in Social Work program
• Demonstrate critical and creative thinking skills
• Obtain knowledge about and evaluate systems that provide people with services, opportunities, and resources; historically and currently
• Demonstrate ability to use professional written communication skills

REQUIRED TEXTS and MATERIALS

Trattner, W.I. (1999). From Poor Law to Welfare State. 6th edition. New York: The Free Press.

Keith-Lucas, A. (1989). The Poor You Have With You Always. St. Davids, PA: North American Association of Christians in Social Work.

Perrin, R. (2004). Pocket Guide to APA Style. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. (This book will be useable for writing assignments for other courses in the major.)

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Integration of Faith and Learning

In this course there are various ways that attention will be drawn to the matter of how faith relates to the material being studied.

The author of one of the required textbooks, Alan Keith-Lucas, was a Christian (he no longer is living). In his book he writes a lot about the impact of philosophical views and values in determining how a society will respond to the disadvantaged and needy in its midst. Comments are included in each assignment about the chapters that have been read from both texts, some of which will seek to highlight the influence of spiritual beliefs on the historical events. There will also be some questions for the student to answer about the unit and they too may ask for their personal reactions to the material and will explore Christian ways of solving social problems There will be a final paper on biblical principles that the church and Christians could use to guide them in caring for the poor and needy.

Learning Documentation

There are assignments in most of the units. Normally they involve writing short papers about issues, people and experiences that will give the instructor an idea of how you are processing this material. Although the papers are only worth 15-30 points a piece they all add up to 300 points, the same number of points as are in the four exams that you will be taking every three or four units. For those students who don't do as well on tests that have quite a bit of objective content, this will be a chance to bolster their grade. The tests will be a combination of multiple choice and short answer questions. The final paper is worth 100 points.

• Assignments (12) 300 points
• Exams (4 x 75 pts.) 300 points
• Final Paper 100 points
• TOTAL POINTS = 700

  Learning Evaluation

Grade Percent Point Range 

A 93 - 100% 700 - 651 

A- 90 - 92% 630 - 699 

B+ 88 - 89% 616 - 629 

B 82 - 87% 574 - 615 

B- 80 - 81% 560 - 573 

C+ 78 - 79% 546 - 559 

C 72 - 77% 504 - 545 

C- 70 - 71% 490 - 503 

D+ 68 - 69% 476 - 489 

D 62 - 67% 434 - 475 

D- 60 - 61% 420 - 433 

F Below 60% Below 420 

  

Student End-of-Course Evaluation

Located in the Policies & Guidelines section of this course, you will find a Forms folder, within this folder is an End-of-Course evaluation.

Academic Integrity

Academic dishonesty constitutes a serious violation of scholarship standards and can result in substantial penalties, including the denial of credit in a course as well as dismissal from the university. Any act that involves misrepresentation regarding the learner's academic work or that abridges the rights of other students to fair academic competition is forbidden. Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating on assignments or exams, plagiarizing (misrepresenting another's work as one's own original creation), submitting the same paper (or substantially the same) paper in more than one course without prior consent of all instructors concerned, depriving others of necessary academic sources, sabotaging another student's work, having others do the student's work, inappropriate use/choice of proctors who oversee the proctored exams, and inappropriate or disruptive behavior during classes, seminars, or online learning environments.