Applying critical social work to practice

Question: Applying Critical Social Work to Practice

Weight: 40%
Type of Collaboration: Individual
Due: 27 April 2025, 11:59 PM
Submission: Turnitin
Format: Essay
Length: 2,000 words

Use of Artificial Intelligence:

Use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools to brainstorm ideas, summarize reading material, or edit your submission is permitted. The content of your final submission must be your original work. Be aware that the output from generative AI tools may be incorrect, incomplete, or biased. The School of Social Sciences advises that working with another person or technology in order to gain an unfair advantage in assessment or improperly obtaining answers from a third party, including generative AI, to questions in an examination or other forms of assessment may lead to sanctions under the Student Misconduct Rule. Use of generative AI tools may be detected. More information is available on the Library web page.

URLs:
• Student Misconduct Rule
• Library Information

Instructions:

This essay asks you to analyze the prospects of Critical Social Work as applied to practice settings.

You are required to:
Develop a case study from your first placement, your place of work in a human services agency, or a hypothetical situation on a field of interest to you.

The term ‘case study’ is broad and could refer to:
• A specific intervention at an individual level
• An example of organizational policy
• A community setting focus

International students may wish to focus on an example from their country of origin if they wish to do so.

Essay Structure (Three Parts):
1. Briefly describe the context of your topic, including a brief overview of the agency and the case study you will be discussing, and the rationale for your selection.
2. Analytically discuss how critical social work practice could be applied to this context, selecting one or more theories that are relevant, such as:
• Human rights
• Anti-oppressive practice
(Note: The first lecture will provide an overview of critical social work theories, which, together with prescribed readings, will guide the analysis.)
3. Discuss the barriers that might exist to introducing a critical social work perspective to your chosen case study.
• Example: Agencies emphasizing more conventional modes of service based on psychological theories or systems theories.

Marking Criteria:
1. Articulation of the case study (25%)
2. Knowledge of critical social work theories and their application (50%)
3. Presentation of barriers (25%)

At least 10 academic references should be used, including books, scholarly book chapters, and refereed journal articles.