SOSV3131 Child Welfare from a Minority Perspective Course description

Throughout the study programme, the students will increase their skills in social care and child welfare work with ethnic minorities in the Norwegian welfare state. This course will help to strengthen the students’ skills in working with adults, children and families with ethnic minority backgrounds. The students will develop the ability to reflect on the relationship between social workers and minority families. They will also acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes that encourage greater tolerance, understanding and knowledge when it comes to the situation of ethnic minorities in the majority society, as well as how one’s own culture can affect the cooperation. Emphasis is placed on further developing the students’ knowledge and experience from earlier courses in the programme. 

The student must have passed all exams in the first and second year of the programme.  

After completing the course, the student should have the following overall learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence: 

Knowledge 

The student has knowledge of 

• majority and minority relations from a historical, social and political perspective 

• the production of knowledge ideology, power and marginalisation processes 

• language and communication 

• anti-racist social work 

• identity, culture and cooperation 

• participation and inclusion in the majority society 

• integration strategies 

• domestic violence 

• work with unaccompanied minor refugees 

• the living conditions of minority ethnic groups 

Skills 

The student can 

• analyse structural, cultural and individual power relations 

• demonstrate an ethical and sensitive approach in social work 

• reflect on how one’s culture can affect the way they interpret things and cooperate 

• cooperate and communicate with the help of an interpreter 

General competence 

The student 

• has developed an understanding of how cultural diversity and complex power relations are related to people’s different needs, values and lifestyles 

• can analyse and assess what is special and what is common for social work with ethnic minorities compared to social work with ethnic majority persons 

• has acquired knowledge that encourages reflection on the power positions of social workers and child welfare officers as both representatives of the public authorities and representatives of a majority culture 

• has acquired knowledge of and skills in obtaining and using sources (basic reference and quotation techniques) 

Teaching methods used in the course are lectures, plenary discussions, group work and own reflection. Students will also work on specific theoretical and methodological issues related to their own experiences and will be given an opportunity to discuss them. 

The following must have been approved in order for the student to take the exam: 

1. One written coursework requirement in the form of a memo of up to one page long. In the memo, the student chooses a topic and research question for their in-depth assignment in the field of child welfare work, or social work and ethnic minorities, and gives grounds for their choice. The coursework must be completed and approved by the given deadline. If the coursework requirement is not approved, the student will be given the opportunity to submit an improved version once by a given deadline. 

Compulsory coursework must be completed and approved by the given deadline in order for the student to take the exam. 

An individual written in-depth paper. The students will work on the assignment throughout the course. The answer paper should be 8-10 pages long. Font and font size: Calibri 12 point. Line spacing: 1.5. The approved citation style APA for assignments must be complied with. 

A selection of self-chosen readings, which comprises of 400 pages must be attached in the assignment.

Students who were absent for a valid reason or who fail the exam may take a resit/rescheduled exam in the same format as the ordinary exam. If the student fails the exam, they will be given one opportunity to submit an improved version of the assignment for assessment. 

All aids are permitted, as long as the rules for source referencing are complied with.  

Grade scale A-F.  

All exam papers are assessed by one internal and one external examiner. 

Marianne Rugkåsa.