2 credit hours

Consistent with Spalding's social justice and service mission, this knowledge-based course provides learners with an interdisciplinary introduction to social justice and applies this knowledge to social work practice at the individual, group, organizational, and societal levels. Drawing upon social history, sociology, political science, social psychology, and political economics, this course will review the perspectives from other disciplines and apply them to the practice of social work in several different settings. The questions raised by this course are: Will social workers play an integral role in the process of promoting and facilitating social justice? Or will social workers impede those involved in social justice activities by ignoring, depreciating, or blocking the efforts of marginalized persons seeking their own empowerment or their fair share of societal resources? How can social justice be incorporated at all practice levels?