SR20-33 - Advocacy in Social Work
| Course specification | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type of study | Bachelor academic studies | |||
| Study programme | ||||
| Course title | Advocacy in Social Work | |||
| Acronym | Status | Semester | Number of classes | ECTS |
| SR20-33 | elective | 5 | 2L + 2E | 6.0 |
| Lecturers | ||||
| Lecturer | ||||
| Lecturer/Associate (practicals) | ||||
| Prerequisite | Form of prerequisites | |||
| Upisana treća godina studija | ||||
| Learning objectives | ||||
| Advocacy for the interests of clients in social work is an ethical responsibility of social workers. This is implemented at the level of individual, social groups and communities. Rejecting the value principal of being neutral, social workers become an active and responsible actor in the process of making changes. Advocacy is always directed towards the decision makers. Therefore it is extremely important that social workers are capable to analyze the political environment and power, establish realistic goals, develop communication skills, identify target groups, strategies and critics. The final aim of advocacy is to empower individuals, groups and communities to successfully advocate for their interests. The objective of this course is to equip students with theoretical and practical knowledge and skills for advocacy as service for social work clients. | ||||
| Learning outcomes | ||||
| It is expected that students: (1) understand the importance and contents of advocacy in social work; (2) to distinguish different types of advocacy; (3) to develop basic communication skills for advocacy; (4) to show practical skills to identify goals, develop strategies and tactics depending on the target group whose interests they are advocating for (5) able to apply knowledge and understand the importance of having a professional approach to tasks. | ||||
| Content | ||||
| Definitions and characteristics of advocacy in social work; Types of advocacy: case advocacy, group advocacy, internal administrative advocacy, civil/independent advocacy, legislative advocacy; Advocacy theories: social work theories and influence of perspectives in social work, practice of advocacy in social work; Relation between advocacy and social work; Professional and ethical dilemmas in advocacy; Characteristics of good advocate; Advocacy process' Strategies and tactics in advocacy. | ||||
| Teaching Methods | ||||
| - Lectures and discussions in class, reading of different materials, tests and assessment papers as pre final exam tasks. Final exam. | ||||
| Literature | ||||
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| Evaluation and grading | ||||