Year
2020
Units
4.5
Contact
1 x 2-hour workshop weekly
Prerequisites
1 SOAD2002 - Human Social Development
1a SOAD2111 - Human Social Development
Must Satisfy: ((1 or 1a))
Enrolment not permitted
1 of SOAD3103, SOAD3108 has been successfully completed
Course context
Bachelor of Social Work
Topic description
Power, privilege and oppression are the central themes of this topic and much of social work practice. Week by week we will examine the operations of privilege and oppression on the basis of class, gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity, age and ability. Guided by an egalitarian social justice agenda, the topic will explore how unearned entitlements and undeserved penalties are distributed across diverse populations. Insights drawn from these analyses will form the basis of the practice interventions promoted.
Educational aims
This topic aims to :
  1. Critically analyse the notion of diversity and diverse populations, especially as they are applied in education, health and welfare
  2. Conceptualise power, privilege and oppression in relation to social workers and the practices they employ with diverse populations
  3. Examine how specific groups identified as diverse, can see the world differently from others.

Expected learning outcomes
On successful completion of this topic, students should be able to:
  1. Explain how power, privilege and oppression pattern the lives of diverse populations
  2. Articulate why, and how, critical social work practices may be undertaken with diverse populations
  3. Explicate how 'different ways of knowing, doing and being' relate to oppressed groups, especially those most likely to use social work services.