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

    Addressing Violence and Abuse as Social Workers
  • Unit Code

    SWK6465
  • Year

    2026
  • Enrolment Period

    1
  • Version

    1
  • Credit Points

    20
  • Full Year Unit

    N
  • Mode of Delivery

  • Unit Coordinator

    Dr Norah HOSKEN

Description

This unit will provide students with an introduction to different forms of violence and abuse from critical social work, decolonial, and socialist feminist perspectives. Students will examine: the social and political underpinnings of interpersonal violence in society, with particular attention to their gendered and intersectional dimensions. It will provide an overview of definitions and causes of violence and abuse. the social, political and economic underpinnings of structural violence and abuse the ways in which social workers can support survivors, work with perpetrators and develop strategies for preventing violence and abuse. Students will gain understandings of the cumulative impacts of structural violences on people, families, and communities and ways to acknowledge and support survivors.

Prerequisite Rule

Must have passed SWK6400

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Explore the social, political and economic underpinnings of interpersonal violence and structural violence and abuse.
  2. Analyse a broad range of behaviours and practices which constitute domestic/family violence and childhood abuse.
  3. Promote practice that prioritises survivor safety and perpetrator accountability at individual, organisational and institutional levels.
  4. Demonstrate the ways in which social workers can support survivors, work with perpetrators and develop strategies for preventing violence and abuse.

Unit Content

  1. What is violence and abuse? Forms and effects of violence and abuse.
  2. Critical, feminist, Aboriginal, and Indigenous understandings and approaches to violence and abuse.
  3. Gender and sexuality.
  4. Class, race, violence and abuse.
  5. Ability and age as connected to patterns of violence and abuse.
  6. Front-line practices in the area of violence and abuse.
  7. The social, political and economic underpinnings of structural violence and abuse.

Additional Learning Experience Information

This unit includes a residential for the course. Residentials comprise of 35 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. The residential 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. [AASW Graduate Attributes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]

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.

Due to the professional competency skill development associated with this Unit, student attendance/participation within listed in-class activities and/or online activities including discussion boards is compulsory. Students failing to meet participation standards as outlined in the unit information may be awarded an I Grade (Fail - incomplete). Students who are unable to meet this requirement for medical or other reasons must seek the approval of the unit coordinator.

ON CAMPUS
TypeDescriptionValue
AssignmentRisk assessment and safety plan.30%
PresentationVideo recorded role play simulating social worker and client and written critical analysis.40%
Reflective PracticeWritten reflection demonstrating learning journey in this unit. 30%

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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