School: Arts and Humanities

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

  • Unit Title

    Social Work and Participatory Practice for Structural Change
  • Unit Code

    SWK6415
  • Year

    2026
  • Enrolment Period

    1
  • Version

    2
  • Credit Points

    20
  • Full Year Unit

    N
  • Mode of Delivery

    On Campus
  • Unit Coordinator

    Dr Norah HOSKEN

Description

This unit begins with a critique of the strong focus on individualisation in Western societies and introduces human rights along with key theoretical and practical skills for working collectively. Together we will explore collaborative and participatory social work practices for systemic structural change including transformative leadership, group work, community work, and activism. It emphasises a human rights approach through relationships and respect for diverse ways of knowing, being, and doing on Country. Students will apply these knowledges and skills in the context of organisations and communities to drive structural change. Students will explore the value of participatory practices in regional, rural and remote settings.

Non Standard Timetable Requirements

This unit includes a residential. On campus residential attendance is compulsory as per the professional body requirements.

Prerequisite Rule

Must have passed SWK6405

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Critically reflect on the societal focus on individualism in Australian and international contexts with particular attention on human rights discourses.
  2. Reflect on group work, including therapeutic group work, and community work as methods for structural change as a domain of social work and social services practice informed by values of social and ecological justice.
  3. Investigate collective and participatory approaches to social work practice for change real-world wicked problems, with particular attention on regional, rural and remote settings.
  4. Collaboratively construct a collective approach to contemporary social issue for real world change that contributes to professional practice, scholarship and society.
  5. Critically reflect on the use of self in participatory approaches for structural change with particular attention on building relationships for change and cultivating hope.

Unit Content

  1. Participatory practice approaches and frameworks.
  2. Collaborative and participatory social work practices for systemic structural change including transformative leadership, group work, community work, and activism.
  3. Use of self in structural change practice.
  4. Reflective journalling to develop insight about conceptual foundations and the relational experience of the unit.
  5. Collective and participatory approaches to social work and social services practice for change real-world wicked problems, with particular attention on regional, rural and remote settings.

Additional Learning Experience Information

We will cover the following professional practice skills: - advanced oral communication skills and professional documentation - assessment, engagement and decision-making with individuals and groups - developing the personal and professional insight and emotional intelligence - required for effective use of self as a professional. This unit includes a residential. Residentials comprise of 20 hours of face-to-face, workshop-based learning held at an ECU campus. All students, including those who are enrolled in the course online, must attend these sessions in-person to complete the unit. This is a requirement of set by the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) for accredited programs. Graduates of accredited programs are eligible for membership to AASW.

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

ON CAMPUS
TypeDescriptionValue
Case StudyGroup simulated community task developing and presenting an oral session on a social movement.40%
Presentation Group simulated community task identifying a community development approach to address the community's needs and aspirations on a particular issue and presenting an oral session.40%
JournalReflective journal on conceptual foundations and the relational experience of the unit. 20%

Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005)

For the purposes of considering a request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005), inherent requirements for this subject are articulated in the Unit Description, Learning Outcomes and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the support for students with disabilities or medical conditions can be found at the Access and Inclusion website.

Assessment

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. Informal vivas may be conducted as part of an assessment task, where staff require further information to confirm the learning outcomes have been met. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

Academic Integrity

Integrity is a core value at Edith Cowan University, and it is expected that ECU students complete their assessment tasks honestly and with acknowledgement of other people's work as well as any generative artificial intelligence tools that may have been used. This means that assessment tasks must be completed individually (unless it is an authorised group assessment task) and any sources used must be referenced.

Breaches of academic integrity can include:

Plagiarism

Copying the words, ideas or creative works of other people or generative artificial intelligence tools, without referencing in accordance with stated University requirements. Students need to seek approval from the Unit Coordinator within the first week of study if they intend to use some of their previous work in an assessment task (self-plagiarism).

Unauthorised collaboration (collusion)

Working with other students and submitting the same or substantially similar work or portions of work when an individual submission was required. This includes students knowingly providing others with copies of their own work to use in the same or similar assessment task(s).

Contract cheating

Organising a friend, a family member, another student or an external person or organisation (e.g. through an online website) to complete or substantially edit or refine part or all of an assessment task(s) on their behalf.

Cheating in an exam

Using or having access to unauthorised materials in an exam or test.

Serious outcomes may be imposed if a student is found to have committed one of these breaches, up to and including expulsion from the University for repeated or serious acts.

ECU's policies and more information about academic integrity can be found on the student academic integrity website.

All commencing ECU students are required to complete the Academic Integrity Module.

Assessment Extension

In some circumstances, Students may apply to their Unit Coordinator to extend the due date of their Assessment Task(s) in accordance with ECU's Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000001386.

Special Consideration

Students may apply for Special Consideration in respect of a final unit grade, where their achievement was affected by Exceptional Circumstances as set out in the Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000003318.

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