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Course Offerings
Fall 2024 Course Offerings
Please review the program requirements to ensure you are registering in the required courses for your program. The course registration guide will assist you through the registration process. Any questions regarding registration should be directed to fswphd@wlu.ca.
Days of the week are listed as M/T/W/R/F
- Section 1: 1:00 p.m. - 3:50 p.m., T, Shoshana Pollack
Description
This course will explore the development of social work theory and practice within the context of social and political changes since the Enlightenment. Micro level manifestations of ideological and material shifts including modernism, postmodernism, globalization and neo-liberalism will be explored by examining processes like medicalization, technology and moral regulation.- Section 1: 1:00 p.m. - 3:50 p.m., W, Ginette Lafreniere
Description
This course is a general introduction to central issues in contemporary epistemology or the nature of knowledge, primarily from a western perspective. The course focuses on some of the central questions of philosophy and is organized around several themes including the justification of knowledge, the nature of empiricism and knowledge as power. A final and critical theme engages with post-colonial discourses in considering the nature of non-European or non-Eurocentric epistemology.- Section 1: 1:00 p.m. - 3:50 p.m., T, Michelle Skop (For Year 2 Students)
Description
This course facilitates an advanced understanding of the processes involved in qualitative analysis. Utilizing a qualitative data set, this course provides students with an experiential opportunity to practice a range of approaches to qualitative analysis. This course prepares students for more in-depth study and analysis in their dissertations.
Prerequisite: SK805
Winter 2025 Course Offerings
- Section 1: 1:00 p.m. - 3:50 p.m., T, Lisa Fiksenbaum
Description
This course will examine research designs used in quantitative social work research and provide opportunities for students to explore their application to areas of interest. Particular attention will be given to survey research. Common statistical methods used by social work researchers will be discussed. The course will prepare students to conceptualize a quantitative project and critically appraise existing quantitative studies.
- Section 1: 1:00 p.m. - 3:50 p.m., W, Ann Curry-Stevens
Description
Application of qualitative research methods in a self or faculty-developed research project. Students acquire skills in data collection and analyses consistent with the nature of their qualitative investigations.
Spring 2025 Course Offerings
- Section 1: 1:30 p.m. - 5:20 p.m., T, Cheryl-Anne Cait
Description
This seminar provides a forum for PhD students to exchange and present material related to their independent program of scholarship. It is intended to contribute to the development of their comprehensive proposal, comprehensive paper and dissertation research. Course learning supports the student's identification of an appropriate advisor and dissertation committee.
- Section 1: 1:30 p.m. - 5:20 p.m., W, Magnus Mfoafo-M'Carthy
Description
This course taken by doctoral students in social work is designed to prepare students to write and publish scholarly articles. It is composed of reflective elements including: personal writing process, writing habits and impediments to writing. A second component of the course focuses on practical elements including: determining scope and focus of a manuscript, audience, content and language of writing, selecting journals, journal expectations and preparing different types of manuscripts (research report, theoretical, policy-related and practice). Students will learn to edit their own and others’ manuscripts. Issues of authorship and publishing ethics will also be addressed. An outcome of the course is expected to be a manuscript of publishable quality, a list of appropriate target journals and submission of the completed manuscript to the selected journal.
Electives
Please see the Academic Calendar for possible PhD electives. PhD electives are courses at the 700 level or higher. The elective course may be done as a Directed Studies/Independent Study course (under General Use Forms), SK751 Advanced Directed Readings, with a faculty member in Social Work or in a related discipline under certain conditions.
Field Learning Option
This course will be adapted to meet the needs of individual students for whom field experience in a particular setting will advance their ability to conduct rigorous research that will have relevance for social work practice.
The student is responsible for identifying the setting, negotiating the details of the role and submitting a written proposal for the Field Learning Option to the PhD committee for approval. A written paper related to the field learning experience and the student's program of study will be required. This paper will be graded by an individual approved by the PhD committee who meets criteria for membership in Laurier's graduate faculty.
The grade assigned to the paper will be the grade assigned for the course. Normally, full-time students must complete the option by the end of term four. Students choosing the Field Learning Option will be exempt from SK820: Doctoral Seminar and the required elective course.