SWN023 Social Work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and Communities

Unit Outline: Semester 1 2024, Kelvin Grove, Internal

Overview

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities experience significant oppression within the Australian context and consequently are over-represented in many of the fields of practice in which social work is engaged. Social work has contributed to this oppression through its implementation of oppressive policies. For social workers to work in an anti-oppressive manner with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples they require an in-depth understanding of colonisation and related oppressive policies and practices, social work's historical role in implementing these policies and practices, contemporary invitations to continue to oppress through practice, and an understanding of how this historical and contemporary context continues to impact on the experiences of many Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander peoples. 

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:

1. Apply a critical understanding of the ongoing impact of colonising processes, including social work's role, on the contemporary experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities.
2. Critically analyse and explain the processes through which the ongoing oppression of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is perpetuated.
3. Construct and apply anti-oppressive practice with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities.
4. Articulate your critical awareness of how your own socio-cultural positioning, organisational context, and professional identity may impact on your interactions with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities.

Content

Learning Approaches

This unit uses a mixed delivery mode, with face-to-face engagement in lectures and tutorials on campus and as well lectures and some tutorials being made available online via zoom. These activities will be supplemented by material available on the Learning Management System. Collaborative, reciprocal learning is emphasised in workshop processes to assist in developing your critical understanding of issues in this unit and develop skills in interacting in ways that draw on Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing.

Specialist content will be provided face-to-face by guest lecturers. Lecture and tutorial materials will be made available regularly on the Learning Management System. The learning approach aims to build your critical thinking, communication, academic writing, time management and teamwork skills. 

Embedded learning support including connection to student support and success initiatives such as the Social Work and Human Services Peer Support Group and individual assistance via the Library will be included as part of the curriculum and online learning materials. This assistance is intended to be tailored to your individual learning needs.

The unit also promotes high quality interdisciplinary and interprofessional education through engagement of a range of First Nations guest lecturers. There is a strong emphasis on encouraging you to examine dominant assumptions, limitations, biases and efficacy of professional knowledges and building critical perspectives about the continuing impacts of colonisation, oppression and racism within Australian society.

Feedback on Learning and Assessment

Feedback from assessment in earlier units in the course will support your assessment in this unit. Your learning around cultural self-awareness and cultural safety (SWN004 Communication and Engagement in Professional Contexts) and social justice (SWN002 Introduction to Social Work Practice and Contexts) will give you a solid basis for assessment in this unit.

Participation in tutorials will also provide a forum for ongoing formative feedback from your peers as well as academic staff. Feedback on assessment items will be provided via comments on individual work and the assignment grading rubric. General feedback will be provided via the Learning Management System.

Assessment

Overview

The assessment aims to engage you to develop and apply critical analysis, and critical reflection and reflexivity to better understand the history and processes of oppression of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, your own socio-cultural positioning and its potential impact on your practice, and the ways in which social work can engage in practice that is anti-oppressive and supports the pursuit of human rights and an emancipatory agenda. The development of these skills will be actively supported in the on-line materials, lecture and tutorial processes.

Unit Grading Scheme

7- point scale

Assessment Tasks

Assessment: Social and Media Analysis

The purpose of this assessment is to analyse a social issue impacting First Nations peoples and communities in Australia and to examine how the issue is represented across a variety of Australian media (including mainstream media).

This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.

Assessment: Community development intervention plan

Using the social issue analysed in Assignment one, construct a community development intervention plan to outline your approach to working with the community. The community development intervention plan should apply critical theory and knowledge gained from the unit learning experiences and materials.  This is an authentic assessment piece as this is a task social work practitioners are frequently requested to do as part of their role in human service organisations. Please note:

a. the role is social work practitioner

b. the audiences are Indigenous communities, peers, supervisors and other stakeholders

c. the purpose is to create an intervention plan to outline your approach to working with the community

d. the product is an intervention plan

This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.

Academic Integrity

Students are expected to engage in learning and assessment at QUT with honesty, transparency and fairness. Maintaining academic integrity means upholding these principles and demonstrating valuable professional capabilities based on ethical foundations.

Failure to maintain academic integrity can take many forms. It includes cheating in examinations, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, and submitting an assessment item completed by another person (e.g. contract cheating). It can also include providing your assessment to another entity, such as to a person or website.

You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.

Further details of QUT’s approach to academic integrity are outlined in the Academic integrity policy and the Student Code of Conduct. Breaching QUT’s Academic integrity policy is regarded as student misconduct and can lead to the imposition of penalties ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.

Resources

Resource Materials

Prescribed text(s)

Kickett-Tucker, C., Bessarab, D., Coffin, J., Wright, M. (2016). Mia Mia Aboriginal Community Development: Fostering cultural security. Sydeny: Cambridge University Press.

Recommended text(s)

Bennett, B., Green, S., Gilbert, S. Bessarab, D. (2013). Our voices: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social work. South Yarra: Palgrave Macmillan.

Briskman, L. (2014). Social work with Indigenous Communities: A human rights approach (2nd ed.). Sydney: Federation Press.

Risk Assessment Statement

Video footage will be used throughout the semester to clarify key points and to provide depth of knowledge. Some students may find aspects of the footage distressing, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are advised that this unit may contain names and images of people who have died. Please discuss any concerns with the unit coordinator.