Social Work Commons^™

Relationship As An Energetic Exchange: A Key Theory For The Nurtured Heart Approach, Inga Eanes

Master of Social Work Clinical Research Papers

“Relationships as a form of energy exchange” is a concept used by Howard Glasser’s Nurtured Heart Approach to explain the relationship dynamics between children and their adult care givers. This energy exchange can sometimes lead to challenging behaviors in a child when their energy is too intense for the child to regulate independently, or for the parents to moderate through traditional parenting approaches. The concept of relationships as an energy exchange is written about by Howard Glasser in regards to the Nurtured Heart Approach, a parent training and behavioral modification program used to treat children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. …

Why Do Some Single Mothers Struggle More Than Others?, Tania Rhiger

Master of Social Work Clinical Research Papers

This qualitative study explored the interviews and stories of 4 single mothers, ages 25-41, with unique situations. Each mom was different with how their support systems and father-child relationships varied. These moms provided a fair representation of how some of these complex factors can vary and play out in single mother households. Single mothers and their varying levels of struggles are the phenomena that this project studied while considering family systems. The review of existing research guided the framework of the interview questions using grounded theory; this approach was also used to further explore the data found in this project. …

Defining Success: Reconsidering A Successful Transition Into Adulthood For Ethnic Minority Former Foster Youth, Benjamin T. Bencomo

Doctor of Social Work Banded Dissertations

The following banded dissertation is comprised of three separate products that together provide a complete exploration of the dominant markers of success for former foster youth as they transition into adulthood. This banded dissertation reveals how those markers may not be adequate when applied to ethnically diverse members of this vulnerable population. The first product is a conceptual manuscript that provides an overall theoretical and contextual orientation from which to examine these concerns, namely a sociocultural and situational framework. The second product details findings from a thematic analysis of eight semi-structured individual interviews with youth who had recently emancipated from …

An Innovative Approach To Helping Students Overcome Bottlenecks In Social Work Education Using Self-Study, Jeanne Goins Dulworth

Doctor of Social Work Banded Dissertations

This banded dissertation focuses on a new teaching method called Decoding the Disciplines Model and how it can be used to help students move past difficult concepts. The conceptual framework through which this model will be applied also includes a comprehensive self-study and the use of reflection in the classroom. When using this model and framework, educators can improve student learning as well as become more informed educators. The banded dissertation contains three products.

The first product is a manuscript which makes the case for the Decoding the Disciplines Model to help students become unstuck on concepts, theories, or ideas …

Exploring The Flipped Classroom Model: In Social Work Education, Debbie Gonzalez

Doctor of Social Work Banded Dissertations

This dissertation explores the use of a flipped classroom pedagogy in social work education. Flipped classroom pedagogy, a methodology which inverts the common instructional paradigm, has potential to offer an engaging framework for social work educators to implement in the classroom. The flipped pedagogical design provides a method in which to organize course content and promote innovative methods of student collaboration. In addition, the flipped classroom promotes an interactive learning process, in contrast to the passive learning environment of the traditional classroom. Currently, there is a lack of literature in social work regarding the implementation of this pedagogy into the …

Expanding The View: A Look At Online Social Work Education Through A Liberatory Lens, Rachael A. Richter

Doctor of Social Work Banded Dissertations

This Banded Dissertation explores the use of an alternative paradigm known as liberatory pedagogy in online social work education. Liberatory pedagogy has the potential to enhance the quality of online education because of its strong alignment with social work professional values, ethics, and required educational competencies. This compilation of research includes educator and student perspectives.

The first product of this Banded Dissertation is a Scholarly Personal Narrative that delves into the author’s development as an educator and her understanding of liberatory pedagogical concepts including body, mind, spirit, and voice. The author reflects on pivotal teaching and learning experiences and shares …

Towards A Strengths Orientation In Child Welfare: Theory, Pedagogy And Practice, Mary M. Kirk

Doctor of Social Work Banded Dissertations

Underpinning social work education and social work practice are approaches that embrace strengths and resilience perspectives. Social work education aimed at students preparing for work in child welfare is no exception. This banded dissertation consists of three products that address linkages between strengths and resilience perspectives to social work education and practice with families involved in child welfare. The first paper is a conceptual article that discusses engaged pedagogy, transformative learning and reflective teaching pedagogies specific to child welfare-focused social work education. The paper explores the cogency of these pedagogies as powerful approaches for educating and preparing social work students …

Reconsidering The Social Work Education Continuum: Social Work Education At Community Colleges In The United States, Rex J. Rempel

Doctor of Social Work Banded Dissertations

The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) will soon revise the social work education continuum by welcoming practice doctoral programs into membership, leaving community colleges as the only excluded level of higher education in social work. The three connected products in this banded dissertation use critical pedagogy and post-positivist perspectives to explore how and why social work education evolved independently at community colleges, one of the largest, most diverse, and most affordable educational systems in the United States.

Product One employs qualitative historical research to identify the forces which led community colleges and CSWE down separate paths between 1950 and …

Self-Determined Service-Learning Framework: Enhancing Graduate Students’ Perceptions Of Competence, Jamie Langlois

Doctor of Social Work Banded Dissertations

Decades of research have demonstrated that service-learning is an effective pedagogy. However, service-learning practices in higher education were primarily designed for undergraduate students. Leading scholars in community-engaged research have begun to acknowledge that distinct practices are needed for graduate-level service-learning. This banded dissertation begins to fill this gap by infusing Self-Determination Theory (SDT) with service-learning pedagogy to meet graduate students’ needs and enhance their self-efficacy. The first product is a conceptual manuscript that explores the potential relationship between SDT and curricular service-learning on the graduate level. Initial findings suggest that infusing SDT allows students the freedom to follow their interests …

Advancing Social Work Education For Practice In Healthcare: Transforming Education And Bridging The Classroom To Practice Gap, Katrinna M. Matthews

Doctor of Social Work Banded Dissertations

This banded dissertation explores medical social work education as it relates to teaching social work students the skills and knowledge necessary to be effective in a healthcare setting. In addition, this banded dissertation identifies deficits in current curricula related to medical social work education and barriers to effective medical social work practice. This banded dissertation consists of three separate but closely related scholarly products. Bronstein’s Model of Interdisciplinary Collaboration, the Biopsychosocial-spiritual model, and the authors lived experiences serve as the conceptual framework that supports the findings of this research.

The first scholarly product is a conceptual article that examines the …

Harnessing Social Media For Good: How Human Service Nonprofit Organizations Use Social Media To Connect To Stakeholders And Clients, Angela C. Volpe

Doctor of Social Work Banded Dissertations

This banded dissertation examines how human service nonprofit organizations use social media to connect to stakeholders and clients and makes suggestions for how nonprofits can best utilize this powerful medium in their practice.

The first scholarly product was a qualitative systematic review that examined the existing literature regarding how human service nonprofit organizations use social media to enhance their provision of services for clients. Themes discovered included types of social media being used, levels of human service nonprofit organizations (HSO) social media engagement and reasons for use, and barriers to social media use.

The second scholarly product was a case …

Trauma-Informed Approaches And Ecological Theory: Intervening With Families Experiencing Domestic Violence, Jeannette Baca

Doctor of Social Work Banded Dissertations

This Banded Dissertation consists of three products connected through a focus on trauma-informed approaches directed at families impacted by domestic violence. In this dissertation a trauma-informed perspective is integrated with ecological theory as a framework to further understand trauma experiences while attending to the uniqueness of individual survivors and their children. This framework generates a foundation for application of supportive interventions for domestic violence survivors and their children, while at the same time maintaining awareness of the survivors as individuals, as families, and as members of their community.

Product One is a conceptual analysis examining the integration of trauma-informed practices …

Simulation As Pedagogy: An Experiential Teaching Strategy For Social Work Education, C. Jean Roberson

Doctor of Social Work Banded Dissertations

This banded dissertation is an examination of simulation as a pedagogy for social work education. While the Council of Social Work Education recognizes simulation as an accepted pedagogy, there remains little research on its use in social work education. To effectively utilize and structure simulation within the curriculum, more needs to be understood about its influences on social work student development and its fit within the social work educational context.

The first product of this dissertation, a conceptual paper, presents a framework for the use of simulation in social work education. The framework consists of three elements: holistic competency as …

Neurodiversity And Autism Spectrum Disorders: Grounding For Social Work Education And Praxis, Katie Terry

Doctor of Social Work Banded Dissertations

This banded dissertation includes three products that use neurodiversity as a theoretical framework to explore how autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been treated in the social work academy. Neurodiversity is a social movement amongst some individuals with ASD who see the diagnosis as a difference, primarily manifested neurologically, in how their brains, senses, emotions and beings are different than typical people, which itself represents a type of diversity.

The first product is a paper that explores the emergence of the neurodiversity movement in the early 2000’s and the cogent factors that inspired this movement. The connection to social work’s strength-based …

The Case For Trauma-Informed Corrections, C. J. Van Wright

Doctor of Social Work Banded Dissertations

This banded dissertation focuses on the beneficial impact of trauma-informed practices with women in correctional facilities—a vital issue given that there has been a 700% increase in women’s incarceration rates since 1980. The conceptual paper argues that a trauma-informed correctional system benefits both incarcerated women and correctional staff. The qualitative case study presents findings from semi-structured interviews with correctional staff, officers, and administrators about their experiences implementing trauma-informed practice in a women’s correctional facility. The third product in this banded dissertation is a presentation of the case study findings at a peer-reviewed regional conference in the field of criminal justice …

Strengths-Based Theory In Direct Service For Immigrants And Forced Migrants, Dawn Brubaker

Doctor of Social Work Banded Dissertations

Global migration patterns are increasing due to human and environmental causes of displacement. Immigrants or migrants are people who chose to migrate to a new country and forced migrants are those who arrived into a nation but were forced to leave their home. Migration into the U.S. is positive because it offsets low population growth and supports economic engines. It is important to make support available due to the trauma of displacement for these groups.

The first product is a conceptual framework concept called intercultural service coordination, and trauma-informed care with service coordination. This conceptual framework for immigrants and forced …

Natural Connections: Social Work’S Role In Mending Human And Environmental Relationships, Leah L. Prussia

Doctor of Social Work Banded Dissertations

Just as seasons shift and migration patterns modify in response to human impact, so too must social work. Along with the human contingency silenced by oppression, climate change disproportionately burdens the voiceless: the rooted, Nibi – water, Aki – Earth, winged, fourlegged, swimmers, and crawlers. Though the natural world has become part of social work’s discourse in recent decades, it is time to move beyond contemplative words and take action. This banded dissertation consists of three scholarly products that explore the past and present state of social work’s relationship with the natural environment through the frames of Indigenous knowledge and …

A Historical Look At The Role Of Social Work In Ending Youth Homelessness: Moving Forward, Cheryl Pooler

Doctor of Social Work Banded Dissertations

This banded dissertation is composed of three products that identify common experiences of and contributing factors to youth homelessness in the Progressive and McKinney-Vento Eras. The first product is a conceptual paper that uses a historical lens to examine the administration of services for homeless youth during the two eras. Focusing on best practices implemented during these periods and their merits and shortcomings, this dissertation approached the eras using a Social-Ecological model, which helped to inform the proposed Nested Model for Ending Youth Homelessness. The second product is a Narrative Review using a qualitative (content analysis) approach to analyze research …

Birth And Pregnancy Termination Rates In The United States Since Perinatal Hospice Law Establishment, Chelsea Janey

Master of Social Work Clinical Research Papers

The purpose of this study was to find out if perinatal hospice laws have changed termination of pregnancy (TOP) rates due to fetal abnormality. This research applies secondary data analysis to determine if establishing informed consent laws have impacted these variables.

TOP rates due to fetal abnormality appear to have changed after enactment of perinatal hospice laws, however these results may be due to chance because the findings were not statistically significant. The average rate of TOP due to fetal abnormality was higher in states without perinatal hospice laws (M=710.67) than in states with them (M=243.33).

Perinatal hospice allows parents …

The Bond We Share: Sibling Relationships Within Severe Mental Illness Through The Lens Of Autoethnographic Research, Laura Rydberg

Master of Social Work Clinical Research Papers

The well sibling experience of a severe mental illness (SMI) is a wildly understudied component of behavioral health research. This should not be so: siblings can share a genetic makeup, similar upbringings, and value systems, and often remain voluntary, unofficial caregivers of their ill sibling. Through autoethnography, this writer seeks to understand her relationship with her ill brother and the ways that it has been affected by his SMI. This study aims to illuminate the experience of the well sibling in order to better assist practitioners and policy makers alike. Furthermore, this research hopes to inspire others to explore their …

Acculturation And Depression Among Older U.S. Immigrants: A Systematic Review, Sunghwan Cho

Master of Social Work Clinical Research Papers

This systematic review examines how acculturation affects depressive symptoms of older U.S. immigrants. Upon through review of the present literature, five articles were identified as meeting inclusion criteria and analyzed based on the ecological theory. Common themes identified throughout the reviewed studies include enhancing family support, community support, and cultural contexts. Results of this review conclude the micro and meso system such as family and social network supports help older adult immigrants interact with the mainstream American culture, which leads to a reduction of depressive symptoms of older adult immigrants. Also, the review identified that it is helpful for service …

The U.S. Globalization Of Social Work Education: The Impact And Implications On Practice In A Developing Country, Gabriel Donovan Carrillo

Doctor of Social Work Banded Dissertations

The focus of this banded dissertation, is the examination of the impact of a U.S. Social Work Education Curriculum on the practice of social work globally. Globalization of social work education is explored through the lens of cultural hegemony; the author then uses the principles of critical pedagogy to address the imbalances uncovered and to promote educational liberation especially in developing countries. The Banded Dissertation is comprised of three products, two of which will be research papers and the third, an overview of a peer-reviewed conference presentation.

The preparations or lack thereof, for international students who come to study social …