Description of the Doctoral program

Goals and objectives Organizing perspective Educational objectives

Goals and Objectives of the Doctoral Program

Graduates will be prepared to conduct a variety of theory construction and research activities that include:

1. building, testing, and refining both explanatory theory for understanding personal and social needs and problems, and practice theory for understanding change processes;
2. designing theoretically grounded social interventions;
3. assessing the effects of planned social interventions through process, outcome, and impact evaluations for purposes of testing and refining explanatory and/or practice theory.

Through providing education and research opportunities focused on expanding the frontiers of knowledge and addressing issues central to societal well-being, the program seeks to carry out the University's mandate to mold "carefully selected graduate students into scholars qualified and motivated to continue the pursuit of knowledge." It also extends in a significant manner the School's mission "...to train professional social workers to assume positions of leadership in addressing issues which adversely affect the quality of life for people...."

Organizing Perspective of the Program

SOCIAL INTERVENTION: AN ORGANIZING PERSPECTIVE

Based on an analysis of the current status and trends in doctoral education in social work, an assessment of professional social work practice and community needs, and a review of faculty resources in the School of Social Work and across the university campus community, the school chose an explicit organizing perspective for guiding the development of its doctoral program, focusing student recruitment activities, and coordinating and developing faculty resources: Social Intervention. Social intervention is defined as those policy, program, and direct practice interventions related to the "enhancement of social competency and functioning and/or the solutions to social problems" that affect the ability of people to meet life demands and realize their "potentialities for growth, health, and adaptive social functioning". This organizing perspective is distinguished by two features, each related to the primary theme of social intervention:

1. an emphasis on theoretically grounded analysis of personal and social needs and problems and testing and elaborating theory through the evaluation of social interventions
2. the recognition of the interdependency among levels of analysis and intervention in planning and implementing social interventions

Such an organizing perspective assumes the design of social interventions in accord with the mission and values of the social work profession. An important aspect of this mission is strengthening the level-of-fit between human needs and environmental and social resources and supports through empowerment and enablement within a value framework that respects the worth and dignity of all people and their need for self-direction.

In selecting "Social Intervention" as the doctoral program's organizing perspective, the faculty expresses its desire that the program encompass the entire field of social work and social welfare, whether at the level of policy, program, or direct practice. We have also chosen "social intervention" as our primary focus because of the paramount need in social work to advance empirically based theories of intervention, and because the evaluation of social interventions can be conducted in such a way to test both explanatory and practice theory. Social intervention provides a framework for inquiry in all fields of social work practice; it also expresses the conviction of the faculty that levels of intervention are interrelated and, cannot be viewed separately from one another. Although providing a definitive program perspective, this theme allows students considerable latitude in designing and tailoring programs of study that are responsive to their particular areas of interest.

Educational Objectives

Students who complete the doctoral program will demonstrate:

1. understanding of the theoretical frameworks, history, philosophy, values, and research base in social work and social welfare that influence the analysis of personal and social needs and the practice of social intervention;
2. application of the theories, perspectives, and research methods of a social or behavioral science discipline (the minor) to the analysis of personal and social needs and to the development, testing, and refinement of explanatory and practice theory within the student's specialized area of study;
3. understanding of the major theoretical, policy, and practice trends and issues in the student's specialized area of study, including attention to the specific issues affecting minority and disadvantaged groups and the identification of groups at risk;
4. mastery and application of the major theories, perspectives, and research methods in social work that inform the analysis of personal and social needs and the design of social intervention at each level of analysis within the student's specialized area of study;
5. competence in analyzing and addressing ethical and value issues and dilemmas faced by social work and social welfare researchers and practitioners in the analysis of personal and social needs and problems and in the practice of social intervention, particularly as they relate to the student's specialized area of study;
6. knowledge of the history, philosophy, and current organization of social work education and competence in the design, implementation, and evaluation of social work and social welfare curricula.

Students should demonstrate the following specific competencies:

1. Ability to draw on explanatory theory to analyze the etiology and dynamics of social problems and social needs within the specialized area of study, and the characteristics and needs of social groupings that are the focus of concern;
2. Ability to develop theoretically grounded research questions;
3. Knowledge of and skill in using research tools for theoretically grounded inquiry for the design and evaluation of interventions within the specialized area of interest;
4. Substantive knowledge about the range of interventive measures within the specialized area of interest;
5. Ability to design and evaluate alternate and improved forms and methods of social work intervention as tests of theory;
6. Ability to utilize results of research and evaluation to improve social interventions and to advance theory development.