Master of Social Work Program

Dr. Sharon Templeman, Ph.D.
MSW Program Director

MSW Program Overview

     The MSW program at Stephen F. Austin State University is accredited by the Council on Social Work Education. The program is comprised of 63 credit hours and is designed to be completed in two years of full-time academic study. A part-time program of study is also offered, but all degree requirements must be completed within four calendar years from the date of enrollment. The program does not require an undergraduate degree in social work for admission, but does require that students who are deficient in the liberal arts perspective complete additional course work in order to prepare them for the social work professional foundation courses.

     To be admitted to the program students must have earned a bachelor's degree. Undergraduate content in human biology, multicultural studies and social statistics are specifically required before students are allowed to enroll in graduate courses that require knowledge of that content. All prerequisite course work must be completed prior to or during the first semester of enrollment in the program.

     The MSW program has an advanced standing program of 38 credit hours that is completed in approximately 10 months of full-time study (one summer session and two semesters). Advanced standing students who are part-time must complete the program requirements within two years of enrollment. Advanced standing is only awarded to students who have earned the bachelor’s degree in social work from a CSWE accredited program and who achieve clear admission status (2.8 GPA overall and 3.0 GPA in the last 60 hours). No program credit is given for course work or field instruction for students’ prior life, volunteer, or work experiences.

     The MSW program has six distinct program goals that directly support the school mission. The goals are as follows:

1. Prepare professional social workers who will demonstrate integration and
   autonomous use of social work knowledge, values, and skills in advanced generalist
   social work practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and
   communities within a rural and global context.
   
2. Prepare professional social workers who will demonstrate critical thinking and ethical
   social work practice with systems of all sizes within a rural context based upon the
   knowledge, values, and skills that encompass a generalist perspective and advanced
   generalist practice.
   
3. Prepare professional social workers who will identify with the profession, take an
   active role in professional leadership, within their local communities and larger
   systems, and be lifelong learners.
   
4. Prepare professional social workers with research knowledge and skills to evaluate
   and advance social work practice, influence rural policy, advocate for social and
   economic change with attention to diversity, rural communities, and people with rural
   lifestyles, and add to the knowledge base of rural social work practice.
   
5. Maintain reciprocal relationships with social work practitioners, groups,
   communities, and organizations in the region, nationally, and globally.
   
6. Strengthen rural social work through the School’s professional and community
   service, and scholarship.

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MSW Foundation (Generalist)

     The MSW program curriculum consists of foundation and advanced level content. The first full time year of the program is generalist in perspective and emphasizes a problem solving method in the helping relationship. The first year provides the social work professional foundation similar to that provided in a BSW program and serves as a base upon which the advanced level content builds knowledge and skills.

     Generalist practice is a practice perspective that serves diverse client systems utilizing an ecological systems approach focusing on persons, families, groups, organizations and communities within the context of the rural social environment. It is not confined by a narrow cadre of theories; rather it is versatile enough to allow problems and situations as well as strengths, capacities, and resources to determine the practice approach. Generalist practice employs a problem solving framework and a broad knowledge, value and skill base which demands ethical practice and on-going self-assessment. Briefly, generalist social work practice:

• Is multi-level to include individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities.
• Is multi-theory, allowing for the free selection of theories as appropriate.
• Utilizes a problem identification and solving focus that follows a problem-solving framework.
• Utilizes multiple interventions at multiple levels, as appropriate.
• Addresses the complexity of individual, family, group, organizational and community system interactions.
• Requires an integration of awareness, competence, and professional response to issues of values, ethics, diversity, culture, social justice and populations-at-risk.

    The MSW program has nine foundation objectives that are related to generalist practice and serve as a basis for building the advanced concentration: Advanced Generalist Practice in a Rural Environment. The foundation objectives are aimed at developing knowledge, skills, and values that comprise generalist practice and serve as a strong foundation for the advanced curriculum. The foundation objectives are:

1. Apply critical thinking and understand knowledge, ethics, values and skills of the profession and generalist practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities.
   
2. Analyze, formulate and influence social policies, understand the forms and mechanisms of oppression and discrimination and advocate for social and economic change.
   
3. Understand practice issues related to diversity, including rural lifestyles, understand the history of the social work profession, and recognize the global context of social work practice.
   
4. Use differential communication skills, use supervision and consultation appropriate for social work practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities. Apply theoretical frameworks supported by empirical evidence to understand individual development and behavior across the life span and the interactions among individuals and between individuals and families, groups, organizations, and communities.
   
5. Understand and use the generalist social work perspective as a base for advanced practice without discrimination and with respect, knowledge, and skills,
   related to age, class, color, culture, disability, ethnicity, family structure, gender, marital status, national origin, race, religion, sex, and sexual orientation.
   
6. Evaluate research studies, apply researching findings to practice, and evaluate their own practice interventions with systems of all sizes.
   
7. Function within the structure of organizations and service delivery systems and seek necessary organizational change.
   
8. Commit to lifelong learning by participating in continuing professional education, conferences and other social work related activities.
   
9. Understand rural behavior, culture, communities, and lifestyles and how these aspects of rural life affect social work practice.

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MSW Concentration (Advanced Generalist Practice in a Rural Context)

     The MSW program offers one concentration, which is completed during the second full time year of the program. The concentration offered is Advanced Generalist Practice in a Rural Context. Advanced Generalist skills are applied to practice within the rural context and with people having rural lifestyles. The importance of examining issues of diversity, values and ethics, social and economic justice, populations at risk, and rurality is emphasized throughout the program.
Professional Foundation courses include content in the following areas: Human Behavior and the Social Environment, Social Work Policy and Services, Generalist Social Work Practice, Applied Research Methods, Rurality, and 460 clock hours of agency based Field Instruction.
Concentration (Advanced Generalist Practice in a Rural Context) courses include content in Advanced Generalist Practice Methods, Policy Analysis and Evaluation, Research (statistics/measurement and research practicum), and 500 clock hours of agency based Field Instruction. 

     Advanced generalist practice builds on the generalist foundation, incorporating the elements listed above, but characterized by a greater depth, breadth, and autonomy as demonstrated through specialized knowledge across problem areas, populations at risk and practice settings, with a greater selection of diverse interactions across practice levels. Briefly advanced generalist practice requires:

• The ability to differentially assess complex problems with systems of all sizes, with a variety of advanced assessment skills. 
• Specialized interventions with systems of all sizes.
• Differential evaluation techniques with systems of all sizes.
• Readiness for leadership in a variety of areas including: program development, coordination and administration; clinical and organizational supervision; policy creation, reform and implementation; leadership in research development and utilization, particularly in practice settings; professional development.

     The MSW program concentration objectives build upon the foundation objectives outlined above. MSW graduates demonstrate the ability to:

1. Apply critical thinking skills and understand how to integrate knowledge, values, ethics, and skills, of the profession into advanced generalist practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
   
2. Analyze, formulate, and influence policy, through providing leadership in advocating for social and economic change, particularly with regard to diversity in rural areas and on behalf of people with rural lifestyles inclusive of understanding of the forms and mechanisms of oppression and discrimination.
   
3. Understand the strengths, needs, and challenges faced in rural areas and by people with rural lifestyles and to recognize these within a global context.
   
4. Use differential communication skills throughout the problem-solving process and use supervision and consultation appropriate for advanced social work practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
   
5. Apply theoretical frameworks supported by empirical evidence for advanced practice with an understanding of development and behavior across the life span and in the interactions of rural individuals and between rural individuals and families, groups, organizations, and communities.
   
6. Empirically evaluate their own practice and investigate social issues that will add to the knowledge base of rural social work.
   
7. Function within the structure of organizations and service delivery systems and
   provide leadership in the provision and development of needed resources in rural
   communities.
   
8. Commit to lifelong learning by participating in continuing professional education,
   conferences, membership in professional organizations, and other activities of the
   profession.
   
   In addition,
9. School faculty will demonstrate leadership in the profession and the community
   through education, research, and service related to practice in rural areas and with
   people with rural lifestyles.

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     Rural practice is social work both in and with rural communities, and it is also social work with rural people. Rural communities in a limited geographic sense are non-metropolitan, in that they have populations of less than 50,000 and are not adjacent to a metropolitan area. Social work with rural people is characterized by social exchange between people and systems that is less formal and more personal than that of urban environments. Social exchange theory and Gemeinschaft and Geselschaft are appropriate theoretical bases for understanding these exchanges.

     Social problems such as high poverty rates, inadequate housing, inadequate health care, scarcity of resources and professionals, socioeconomic underdevelopment, and physical distance from services and transportation are frequently identified as important problems and issues for rural communities. Development of resources, use of natural helping networks, and community development are often proposed as appropriate interventions in these communities. Important opportunities and strengths such as “sense of community”, intimacy among community residents, orientations toward self-sufficiency, and an abundance of personal space, often go unnoticed by outsiders.

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