PhD > Course Descriptions
Core Courses | Elective Courses
Students enrolled in the PhD in Social Work are required to take five core courses and three electives. All students are expected to complete four core and three elective courses by the end of the first four terms of study. The Doctoral Seminar is the final core course and will normally be taken in year three.
Core Courses
Social Work 7000 3.0: Social Justice within a Social Work Context
This course explores social justice in the context of social work by examining the relations between redistribution and recognition. The impact on social work perspectives of theories of social justice that analytically integrate material relations and identity politics is considered.
Social Work 7010 3.0: Epistemology
This course offers critical perspectives on the knowledge bases that inform and challenge social work today. Foundational philosophical approaches from the era of the Enlightenment to today, and various critical responses are covered, and their implications for social work considered.
Social Work 7020 3.0: Seminar on Research Design and Methodology
This course examines a wide range of research designs and methodologies which are appropriate for answering social work questions. Both quantitative and qualitative designs are examined. Emphasis is placed on examining research questions relevant to social work and selecting appropriate methods for answering these questions.
Social Work 7030 3.0: Quantitative and Qualitative Data Analysis
This course is designed to develop and enhance students’ skills in the analysis and interpretation of both quantitative and qualitative data. Emphasis is placed on issues and techniques of data analysis and interpretation.
Social Work 7040 3.0: Doctoral Seminar
The course is a required seminar designed to support doctoral students in developing a dissertation proposal. It is open to students who have completed their required core courses and electives.
Elective Courses
Social Work 5905 3.0: Spirituality and Critical Social Work
This course explores the interconnection between spirituality and critical social work and how the spiritual, personal and political are intertwined, and engages students in reflecting on spirituality in social justice and identifies its impacts on individual growth, community functioning and social change.
Social Work 5908 3.0: Social Work Professional Development Skills
This course gives students an opportunity to critically and reflectively examine ‘professional’ aspects of social work in the areas of writing, direct practice and formal interactions towards the honing of their own personal/professional identity as future social workers.
Social Work 5910 3.0: Topics in Social Aspects of Health
This course focuses on the nature of health and illness and on the role of the social environment in contributing to health and disease. The impact of illness and disability on individuals, families and communities is considered. Special emphasis is placed on the patient as a participant in health care, and on the social worker as participant in the health care team, on the role of prevention and on relevant ethical issues. Each session, one target population will be examined in depth: the elderly; women; and others.
Social Work 5912 3.0: Critical Perspectives in Mental Health
This course explores the meaning of mental health and health from several layers of reality: historical, social, political, economical, cultural and personal. Discourse on direct practice and social policy in constructing, maintaining and negotiating realities and myths are discussed.
Social Work 5915 3.0: Qualitative Research Methods in Social Work
This course begins with discussions on epistemology. It introduces selected qualitative research methods and explores issues around design, ethics and knowledge and diversity.
Social Work 5920 3.0: Critical Gerontological Social Work Seminar
This course addresses aging issues in both policy and social work practice from a strengths-based critical social work perspective. The course examines policy and practice as an integrated source of creative interventions for critical social work.
Social Work 5922 3.0: Feminist Approaches in Social Work
This course explores the broader themes of feminist theories/debates relevant to social work practice. From this foundation, differing positions of women in society are discussed in relation to the principles of anti-oppressive practice.
Social Work 5925 3.0: Globalization and Social Welfare
This course examines the economic and political consequences of a global market economy and considers their implications for social policy and social work. The challenge of globalization for social welfare is explored with reference to national and international strategies in defense of social rights and social justice.
Social Work 5930 3.0: Critical International Social Work
This course provides advanced contexts to critically examine international issues from local and global perspectives. It focuses on analyses of race, space, identity, nationalism and professional imperialism in the current context of globalization, development and international social work.
Social Work 5932 3.0: Studies in Social Policy
Using contemporary issues as a base, this course examines approaches to understanding the context, formation and implications of social policies. The differential impacts of social policies are assessed, and the interrelationship between policies, services and practice is emphasized.
Social Work 5933 3.0: Social Exclusion: The Idea, Social Realities, and Responses
This course contributes a unique approach to the critical study of social work practice through an applied social policy concept. It will examine relationships between the popular notion of social exclusion and taken-for-granted assumptions of difference, and consequential social processes and outcomes.
Social Work 5935 3.0: Social Administration
This course provides a critical examination of social work administration and management in social service delivery. Emphasis is given to social service delivery in the current context of restructuring.
Social Work 5942 3.0: Critical Perspectives on Child Welfare
This course explores current debates in child welfare, including parents vs. children’s rights, justice vs. welfare, legal vs. professional mandates. Students are encouraged to critically examine the social context of debates, and develop a critique of practice based on this analysis.
Social Work 5945 3.0: Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Perspectives in Social Work
Issues are explored related to sexual orientation with respect to social work practice and policy development. The focus includes counseling and support of lesbian, gay and bisexual persons as well as the development and protection of communities.
Social Work 5950B 3.0: Family Mediation
This course acquaints students with an understanding of the family mediation process and the applicability of mediation to work settings. Mediation concepts and procedures are approached with sensitivity to race, class, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, age and ability.
Social Work 5952 3.0: Changing Nature of Community Work
The changing context and nature of community practice are explored with the goal of bridging divisions within social work practice. Discussions include understanding connections between systems and the informal sector; the complexity, fluidity, ecology and diversity of community.
Social Work 5955 3.0: Evaluation and Social Work
This course introduces students to a range of designs which can be employed in evaluating social work practice activities. This course enhances students’ critical knowledge and skill in evaluation and helps students recognize the ethical and cultural issues that underlie evaluation research in social work.
Social Work 5962 3.0: Social Work Ethics in Practice
A critical examination of philosophical and ethical theories that stimulates reflection on the values and ethical decision-making in social work. This course includes analyses of case studies from practice and directs the examination and assessment of professional actions.
Social Work 5970 3.0: Directed Readings
Individual students or small groups read under supervision in one or two selected areas. Students wishing to enroll are to contact the Director of the Graduate Program in Social Work for approval.
Social Work 5975 3.0: Race and Knowledge Production
This course examines the ways in which racial categories and racial supremacy organizes knowledge production and the practices social workers take for granted and (re)produce. It will explore how race/ethnicity is constructed historically, socially and culturally, and how racial discourses (re)produces oppression.
Social Work 5980 3.0: Violence in Families
Integrates theoretical and practical perspectives on violence in the family. A primary focus is working with survivors of violence. Emphasis is given to interventions with women and children.
Social Work 5982 3.0: Advanced Social Work Practice
This course analyzes interpersonal relations in social work settings by drawing on poststructural theory. Interpersonal practice is understood through key concepts such as intersubjectivity, critical reflection, multiple perspectives and identity construction.
Social Work 5995 3.0: Advanced Seminar on Social Work with Immigrants, Refugees and Diaspora: Local and Global Communities
This course addresses impacts of migration on individuals, communities and families. It examines theories and discourses of migration and diaspora, Canadian immigration policy, and social service issues related to immigrants, refugees and diaspora.
Social Work 7100 3.0: Social Work from Classical Liberalism to Neoliberalism
The course provides a searching reassessment of defining moments in the history of Canadian social work. Dominant social philosophies and social work practice modalities are extrapolated to discover why poverty and marginalization are still the main social problems.
Social Work 7110 3.0: Pedagogical Reflections on Social Work Practice
This course prepares doctoral students to act as effective university instructors and encourages the development of knowledge and skills for teaching critical social work.
Note: Students may select other elective courses at the graduate level at York or other universities, subject to approval by the Graduate Program Director. Doctoral candidates shall not receive credit towards the PhD for more than one full integrated course.
