Social Work
Bachelor of Arts, Accelerated Master's
About this program
The Bachelor of Arts in Social Work prepares you to support individuals, families, and communities. You will learn how to promote justice, respect diversity, and lead change. The program covers ethics, policy, research, and hands-on practice across many settings. Courses build skills in communication, problem-solving, and advocacy. Accredited by the Council on Social Work Education, this degree gets you ready for early career positions or further graduate study in social work.
Program Curriculum and Requirements
Program Scope
The mission of the School of Social Work is to provide educational foundations that promote just and secure communities, societies and global networks. It serves to educate human service providers for versatile, creative, and culturally sensitive practice in multiple settings and involving diverse populations. The School of Social Work promotes leadership, scholarship, activism, and change to achieve equity and social justice.
Our teaching incorporates a comprehensive range of knowledge, values, skills and experiences for social work practice at all levels of intervention. The outcome is to provide learning experiences that will instill critical consciousness and inspire students to become advocates for economic and social justice. The BASW Program at San Francisco State University is fully accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE).
The BASW curriculum emphasizes the integration of knowledge, values and skills. Commitment to professional values and ethics, to participate in constructive change, to support the right to self-determination, and to respect people’s capacity to learn and grow are integrated throughout the program. Students are expected to develop a spirit of inquiry and to achieve a critical posture toward the social situation, the functioning of the profession, and of social agencies and their own performance.
Program Learning Outcomes
Learn from and apply the rigorous SFSU social work education that achieves the nine Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) curricular competencies at the baccalaureate (BASW) level. Utilize education and research to inform and effectively engage in practice at micro (individuals, families, and groups), mezzo (organizations, institutions, and communities) and macro (societies and international arenas) levels.
Use knowledge and skills to affect all practice areas (direct and indirect). Know and understand multiple forms of power, and their forms, uses, and implications. Be skilled at giving, engaging and sharing power and instilling shared, delegated, and/or “other person” responsibilities in decision making and problem solving.
Expect, accept, and appreciate human differences in all areas, including diversity of ethnicities, cultures, values, backgrounds, learning styles, problem solving approaches, and more. Promote diversity to enrich environments, thought processes, experiences, and more.
Respect, value and honor one another’s personal and professional experiences, knowledge, skills, and values. Seek, receive, and utilize inputs from diverse persons, groups, and communities and make diversity- sensitive and appropriate decisions. Engage and utilize the voices of many through participatory means.
Engage in professional practices that are ethically sound and appropriate, consistent with the National Association of Social Workers’ (NASW) Code of Ethics. Create ideas and action plans from research and interdisciplinary knowledge; instill visions among team members; and enact innovative actions having substantial impact on individuals, groups, organizations, communities, and societies.
Expand and enhance cognitive and affective abilities through continuous development of knowledge, values, skills, and practices. Utilize research to develop best practices to improve human conditions and generate research agendas through practice experiences.
Know multiple forms and purposes of advocacy, and engage in change plans and efforts to achieve progressive change at micro, mezzo, and macro levels. Utilize evidence to set agendas, establish goals, create action plans, and move forward with efforts to enhance human conditions, including political, economic, legal, social, cultural,and physical environments.
Be equipped to work in a variety of settings, in a range of fields and forms of practice, and with diverse persons from multiple backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities, nationalities, ages, genders, experiences, abilities, orientations, classes, religions, and more. Be effective in systems processes through engagement, assessment, intervention, evaluation, and self-awareness.
Appreciate the fact that cultures and values evolve and change, and that one never “arrives” with respect to knowledge, skills, and practices related to diversity. Identify and analyze the intersectionality of forces that impinge on lives.
SFSU Accelerated Bachelor's + Master's
The SFSU Accelerated Bachelor's + Master's rogram offers students a unique opportunity to earn two degrees (B.A. in Social Work + MA in Gerontology) in five years. This blended, interdisciplinary program provides students with an academic roadmap and meaningful opportunities to: 1) be active learners fully engaged in exploring our most important societal issues, 2) promote life-long learning, 3) gain a richer understanding of aging in the global world, and 4) realize the activist potential of our disciplines. Successful completion of both degrees will enable students to master the knowledge and skills competencies needed to leverage themselves for advanced doctoral/professional studies, meaningful careers in the public and non-profit sectors, and worthwhile service to a diverse community of elders.