S Courses

Cross-listed: AAST 320.
The African American Family as a social system influenced by institutions of the larger American society.

Notes: may be stacked with SOWK 518.
Pre-requisites: junior standing.
Building financial capability for all is one of the grand challenges for social work. This course equips students with financial knowledge and skills to empower themselves and their clients to move along the path of financial stability and economic security.

Cross-listed: GWSS 425.
Pre-requisites: ENGL 201.
This interdisciplinary course addresses contemporary concerns about family violence and discusses feminist perspectives on violence in the family. Theories about the historical and socio-cultural context of family violence and other explanatory theories provide frameworks for understanding personal and societal responses to family violence. Discussions include dynamics of trauma and recovery and all forms of family violence. Treatment approaches are discussed.

Cross-listed: IDST 437.
Notes: The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA, United States Code Title 25, §1901-1963) is central to this course and child welfare practice.
Pre-requisites: ENGL 101.
Satisfies: a university graduation requirement–diversity.
This course meets diversity criteria by examining movements that shape or challenge systems of power, privilege, oppression, and colonization. American Indians challenged state removal of their children resulting in federal law affirming tribal rights to protect families and children. Indian Child Welfare (ICW) covers legal, historical, and cultural issues applying to work with American Indian and Alaska Native families. Tribal and state child welfare perspectives are needed to understand ICW.

Cross-listed: AGST 456, GWSS 456.
Pre-requisites: junior standing.
This course examines the research and practice knowledge on the social, economic and health problems confronting older women. Older women’s needs and potential for change are considered. The course explores U.S. social policy and program alternatives that work to improve the status and quality of life for a growing and diverse population of older women.

Cross-listed: AGST 457.
Pre-requisites: junior standing or permission of the instructor.
An introduction to the assessment skills required for professional social work practice in mental health and other clinical settings dealing with the elderly. The course is intended for social work practitioners.

Cross-listed: AGST 458.
Notes: may be stacked with SOWK 574 or AGST 574.
This course is designed to assist students in the helping professions who wish to work with the terminally ill. Focus will be on an increased ability to deal with one’s own mortality; the development of beginning skills for working with the terminally ill and their families; an understanding of the complex social system which surrounds death in modern America; as well as the current moral, ethical and philosophical issues in the field.

Pre-requisites: BASW Major.
This course covers descriptive and inferential statistics. Students are introduced to software for data analysis.

Experimental course, title and credits vary.

Cross-listed: AGST 515.
Pre-requisites: graduate standing.
Palliative care is an interdisciplinary and holistic approach for those who have a life threatening illness. It aims improve the quality of life of patients and their families through prevention, psychological and spiritual care, etc. This course will focus on identifying current gaps in end of life care and emerging models of palliative care, assessment of the psychological, medical, and spiritual needs of someone living with illness, the importance of cultural sensitivity in service delivery.

Notes: may be stacked with SOWK 418.
Building financial capability for all is one of the grand challenges for social work. This course equips students with financial knowledge and skills to empower themselves and their clients to move along the path of financial stability and economic security.

This overview of spirituality and social work provides a framework of knowledge, values and skills for spiritually sensitive social work practice and prepares students to respond competently and ethically to diverse spiritual perspectives through a comparative, critically reflective approach.

This course provides an introduction to Indian child welfare with an emphasis on understanding legal, historical and cultural issues applying to work with American Indian and Alaska Native youth. This course emphasizes Indian child welfare issues relevant to the Pacific Northwest (Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Montana).

Students will identify factors related to stress in families, socioeconomic and cultural patterns, historical traditions and societal values and investigate how these may relate to violent behavior.

Pre-requisites: baccalaureate degree.
This course will review Federal and State legislation as well as local policies which affect the role of the social worker in the public school. We will review how the school system functions as a part of our total society. The course will describe how social work knowledge, skills, and values provide an ecological approach to preventative, crisis, and remedial care for school children and their families.

Cross-listed: AGST 574.
Notes: may be stacked with SOWK 458 or AGST 458.
This course explores issues related to death, dying, grief and loss as well as their relevance and application to social work practice. The content draws from an interdisciplinary knowledge base and emphasizes the acquisition of practice skills. Topics include loss events throughout the life span; psychological and sociological theoretical perspectives in death, dying, grief and loss.

This course applies the biopsychosocial perspective to the addiction field. The emphasis is on an examination of the reciprocal interaction between the individual experiencing addiction and the various systems that impact misuse, addiction, treatment and recovery. Topics will include harm reduction, the biology of addiction, the psychology of addiction, co-existing disorders and social aspects of addiction, including family risks and resilience, racial and ethnic issues, gender and sexual orientation, the nature of mutual help groups and public policy issues. The content of the course will draw heavily on current research and emphasize critical thinking and analysis of the current controversies in the addiction field. The overall framework of the course rests on the foundation of the strengths perspective and client-centered practices. Although alcohol and drug problems will be emphasized, the course will also address other related disorders, including eating disorders, pathological gambling and compulsive shopping.

Pre-requisites: permission of the instructor, department chair and college dean.
Individually supervised research work.

Pre-requisites: SOWK 553 or currently enrolled in SOWK 561.
This course examines evidence-based treatments across the lifespan from a social work perspective, with a specific focus on the most common mental disorders and evidence-based treatments. Students will demonstrate application of the most current version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and become critical consumers of evidence-based treatment research with diverse populations. The course emphasizes strengths and ecological systems perspectives, risk and resiliency.

Satisfies: a BACR for social sciences.
Sociology seeks to develop a body of interrelated scientific propositions or generalizations that explain social behavior in non-psychological terms. Its fundamental goal is to understand how human beings fit their activities into a system of stable (sometimes unstable) social arrangements. Hence the course introduces the concepts, principles, and theories of sociology.

Satisfies: a university graduation requirement–global studies.
An overview of major perspectives on social problems and a demonstration of their relevance for contemporary issues. Topics may include poverty, racism, sexism, aging, alienation, colonialism and the Third World, human ecology, crime, deviance and the law.

Pre-requisites: sophomore standing.
Provides an introduction to the field of criminology, including descriptions and explanations of crime and efforts to control it. Topics include theories of crime causation, measurement of crime, criminal law, the criminal justice system, and street, victimless, white collar, political and corporate crime.

Pre-requisites: SOCI 101.
Examines the conditions under which deviance as a social reality emerges, develops, and changes over time. Typical concerns are the process of social typing; official responses to deviances; managing the deviant identity; and the role of bureaucracies and social class in promoting deviance as a political construction.

The African American family as a social system influenced by institutions of the larger American society.

The beginning Spanish sequence of courses, covering grammar, composition, conversation and discussion of cultural topics.

Pre-requisites: SPAN 101 or equivalent.
The beginning Spanish sequence of courses, covering grammar, composition, conversation and discussion of cultural topics.

Pre-requisites: SPAN 102 or equivalent.
The beginning Spanish sequence of courses, covering grammar, composition, conversation and discussion of cultural topics.

Pre-requisites: SPAN 310 or SPAN 312.

Pre-requisites: ENGL 201.
Overview of definitions, causes, characteristics and educational approaches concerning students with disabilities and exceptional students.

Pre-requisites: admission to the MEd Special Education program.
The purpose of this course is to give students an accurate, objective overview of: special education services; special education legislation; historical backgrounds; educational approaches; etiologies of disabilities; and characteristics of individuals with disabilities.

Pre-requisites: admission to the MEd Special Education program and SPED 500 or taken concurrently with SPED 500.
The purpose of this course is to give students the knowledge of evidence-based teaching methods that support the inclusion of students with disabilities in the general education classroom. Students will learn about the big ideas of instruction in reading, writing, math and spelling. They will gain an understanding of principles of explicit instruction and specific strategies to differentiate instruction for students with disabilities included in the general education classroom.

Pre-requisites: SPED 500 or concurrent with SPED 500.
The purpose of this course is to give students the knowledge of the principles of behavior and experience assessing behavior and developing effective management strategies in classrooms. Students will learn vocabulary and methods for explaining behavior and promoting positive social behavior. Students will study a range of topics from principles of reinforcement and punishment to methods of analyzing the effectiveness of an intervention.

Pre-requisites: SPED 500 or concurrent with SPED 500.
The purpose of this course is to give students the knowledge and skills to implement evidence-based academic intervention programs commonly used with students with disabilities to teach reading, writing, spelling and math. Students will learn about the research base for these programs and gain practice teaching with them.

Pre-requisites: SPED 500 or SPED 500 concurrently.
The purpose of this course is to give students the knowledge and skills to evaluate, interpret, select, develop, and use formal and informal assessment tools specifically for individuals with special needs. Students will gain an understanding of the professional and legal guidelines that must be followed when assessing students in the process of special education service delivery.

Pre-requisites: SPED 500 or SPED 500 may be taken concurrently.
The purpose of this course is to give students the knowledge and skills to implement instructional techniques and skills for working with children and youth who have severe disabilities. This course will include information on how to evaluate, plan and implement community-based interventions based upon current best practices and philosophical priorities within the field. The focus will be on techniques and strategies that lead to independent and generalized behaviors.

Pre-requisites: SPED 500 and SPED 540.
The purpose of this course is give students the knowledge and skills to participate in the writing of legally compliant Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) for students with disabilities that reflect best practices in the field of special education. Knowledge of legal requirements and how to collaborate with students, educators, parents and community agencies in this process will be emphasized.

Pre-requisites: SPED 500 or SPED 500 may be taken concurrently.
The purpose of this course is to give students the knowledge and skills to teach young children with disabilities in the public school system. Students will learn about the unique needs of young children and approaches to providing interventions for young children with disabilities. Students will learn to plan, implement and evaluate developmentally and individually appropriate curricula and intervention techniques.

Notes: should be taken at the end of the program.
The purpose of this course is for the student to prepare reflections and evidence to document her/his knowledge and competence in the Washington State Special Education Competencies for an add-on endorsement in special education as established by the Professional Educator Standards Board (PESB). The student provides a formal presentation of her/his electronic portfolio as a culminating experience in the program.