The Nature of Social Work Knowledge
Prerequisites: Doctoral student standing at Loyola University Chicago; Students in other LUC Doctoral programs may register for the course with approval from the School of Social Work Doctoral Program Director.
This course aims to help students understand the variety of contemporary understandings of science in the social and behavioral sciences and foundational aspects of designing research to develop conceptual frameworks for social work practice. Emphasis will be on science as a problem-solving process, with scientific knowledge development being a major link for the social worker between the roles of practitioner and researcher.
Outcomes: Evaluate key aspects in philosophy of research for the social and behavioral sciences; Evaluate and analyze the major paradigms of knowledge generation in social work; Formulate an approach to scientific knowledge, with a focus on emancipation, anti-oppression as values key to the mission of social work, considering how approaches to science support or undermine those goals.
This course aims to help students understand the variety of contemporary understandings of science in the social and behavioral sciences and foundational aspects of designing research to develop conceptual frameworks for social work practice. Emphasis will be on science as a problem-solving process, with scientific knowledge development being a major link for the social worker between the roles of practitioner and researcher.
Outcomes: Evaluate key aspects in philosophy of research for the social and behavioral sciences; Evaluate and analyze the major paradigms of knowledge generation in social work; Formulate an approach to scientific knowledge, with a focus on emancipation, anti-oppression as values key to the mission of social work, considering how approaches to science support or undermine those goals.