Social Work

Teaching of fundamental aspects of social work science, including a central introduction to the discipline and profession, definition of the subject of social work, discussion of methods in social work and fields of action in social work.

Descriptions and explanations of human behaviour and experience in a social context are taught within the general framework of a bio-psycho-social model of human development. The focus is on teaching basic (social) psychological concepts (learning, thinking/problem solving, motivation, emotion, personality, attitude, communication/interaction) that are relevant to the planning and implementation of social work tasks. Students acquire the basics for understanding and modifying human communication and behavioural structures for different fields of action and activities in social work.

The module offers an introductory approach to the basic concepts and findings of the disciplines of sociology and educational science. These provide reference knowledge and forms of knowledge acquisition for scientifically systematised social work. The module provides systematic knowledge to explain and understand social processes and structures, the social security system of exclusion risks and the identification and evaluation of professional help. This includes the following teaching content:

• Basic knowledge and fundamental knowledge of disciplinary educational science and sociological basic questions, methods of cognition and results.
• Basic concepts from educational and social sciences (including socialisation, upbringing, learning, education, social action, norms, values, social meaning, society, power, social inequality, normality, normalisation, exclusion-inclusion, life course, life situation, etc.)
• Fundamentals - areas, fields and functions of the education system in its historical-structural-genetic dynamics. Demarcations and structural links between the education system and the social welfare system as functional systems of society. First systematisations of functions and analyses of professional self-conceptions of social, school, special and cultural education, vocational education and adult education in their differences.
• Basic questions of the problematisation of different conceptual self-assurance and functional approaches in relation to current fields of action in social work.
• Familiarisation with sociology and educational science with their theoretical and methodological approaches as a means of observation and reflection for social work.
• Familiarisation with the sociological and educational science inventory of terms for observing social function and interaction systems and key pedagogical problems.
• Familiarisation with the social sciences as empirical sciences through exemplary initial empirical and theoretical research, investigation and reflection exercises.

The ability of social workers to act requires knowledge of the legal framework across all fields of action. Students acquire basic knowledge in the areas of law relevant to the theory and practice of social work. They learn to recognise the structural framework of social work and to assess the significance of law and legislation in the conception of professional assistance. This includes the following teaching content:

• Legal methodology: legal structuring options, hierarchy of legal sources, application of laws and legal case processing.
• Social constitutional law: Basic Law and social work (in particular human dignity), democratic principle, rule of law principle, welfare state principle.
• Social administrative law: interpretation and application of undefined legal concepts, exercise of discretion, basics of social administrative procedures (in particular rights and obligations of the parties involved in administrative procedures, enactment and cancellation of administrative acts).
• Social and welfare law: structure, logic and fundamentals of social law, overview of social insurance, basic income support for jobseekers (legal requirements, citizen's allowance, sanctions), social assistance (types of assistance, their requirements and amount).

Competence assessment alpha levels, catalogues, bibliographies, research techniques, tools and strategies (truncation, masking, thesaurus etc.), basic reading techniques (excerpts, summaries, summaries).

Practical activity for orientation in exemplary fields of action in social work as well as practice transfer and reflection on the theory-practice link.

Theoretical, ideological, social and institutional-historical aspects of the development of welfare and youth care, social work and social pedagogy - social work, development of social work as a context of interpretation and action, subsidiarity principle, political, organisational and institutional structures of current social work.

The module offers an extended and in-depth approach to the concepts and findings of the disciplines of sociology and educational science that are relevant to social work. As reference sciences, they provide forms of knowledge acquisition for scientifically systematised social work. The module provides systematic knowledge to explain and understand social processes and structures, the social security system of exclusion risks, social inequalities (e.g. in the education system) and the identification and evaluation of professional help.

On the basis of a life-span perspective, students acquire systematic knowledge of developmental tasks in different phases of life, they are familiarised with the analysis and modification of developmental threats and risks, but also with the recruitment of resources. The range of social work services is reflected upon in terms of its developmental psychological fit. On the basis of the paradigmatic ICF model, students are enabled to reflect on the life situations of chronically ill, disabled and elderly people; they are informed about the health-relevant effects of social inequality. They are familiarised with basic (social) therapeutic intervention approaches in prevention, therapy and rehabilitation for target groups at all stages of life.
 

The ability of social workers to act requires knowledge of the legal framework across all fields of action. In addition to the legal knowledge acquired in the Law I module, students acquire further basic knowledge in areas of law that are particularly relevant to the theory and practice of social work. They learn to recognise the structural framework of social work and to assess the significance of law and legislation in the conception of professional assistance. This includes the following teaching content:

• Elements of civil law: legal capacity and capacity to contract and their significance in the law of obligations, representation, tortious capacity and tortious liability for one's own behaviour and the behaviour of others (e.g. children)
• Family law: requirements and consequences of marriage, civil partnership and kinship (e.g. maintenance obligations), content and limits of personal custody law, guardianship, care, guardianship
• Child and youth welfare law: youth (social) work, educational child and youth protection, promotion of upbringing in the family, promotion of children in day care centres, educational assistance, integration assistance, assistance for young adults, data transfer in the event of a risk to the child's welfare by persons subject to professional secrecy, taking into care, participation in court proceedings, other "other" tasks of child and youth welfare, cost sharing, data protection, state law on child and youth protection

Lecture on social forms and discussion of methods:

• General concepts of methodological action as well as the three classic methods of social work - individual case help, social group work, community work and cross-method approaches
• Historical-theoretical development of social work
• Practical procedures and current variations of methodological action against the background of social changes (e.g. case management, socio-educational counselling, citybound)
• Importance of theoretical-scientific thinking in the theory-practice structure of social work
• Classical and current theoretical approaches such as social work science discourse, critical-emancipatory approaches, diversity approach, social space orientation
• Social work as a field of research

Seminar/exercise on skills and methods

Following on from the content of the lecture, exemplary exercises are realised in the seminar. General points of orientation are as follows:

• Structural and working principles of individual case help, group work and community work
• Planning, implementation and evaluation of methodical action processes (e.g. help planning process, experiential education, dialogue management)
• Group exercises as well as self-reflection and reflection on others

Practical activity for orientation in exemplary fields of social work as well as practice transfer and reflection on the theory-practice link.

As part of the social work studies programme, the module has the function of laying the theoretical foundations for the justification and constitution of social work. The focus is on perspectives from cultural anthropology, cultural sociology and cultural pedagogy, which place human habitus and long-term changeable mentalities in interaction with the socio-culturally mediated frameworks of human society. On the other hand, students should acquire basic qualifications in cultural education. In this respect, the module serves to round off the qualification objectives of the introductory educational and social science foundation modules and, on the other hand, prepares students for intercultural teaching content.

The module offers an introductory approach to the basic concepts and findings of cultural anthropology, sociology, philosophy and education. These provide reference knowledge and forms of knowledge acquisition for scientifically systematised social work. The module imparts systematic knowledge for the explanation and understanding of culturally mediated social structures and processes as well as exemplary selected skills for the didactically and methodically planned design of socio-culturally relevant educational processes. This includes the following teaching content:

• Basic knowledge and basic knowledge of basic disciplinary cultural studies questions, methods of cognition and results.
• Basic concepts of cultural studies (in particular culture, enculturation, culture and civilisation, high and everyday culture, habitus, mentalities, patterns of interpretation, etc.).
• Fundamentals - theories and models of cultural development and cultural change in their relevance to processes of social change and structures of social inequality.
• Target groups of cultural education work
• Didactics and methodology of cultural education work
• Media of cultural education work
• Basic questions of the problematisation of different conceptual self-assurance and functional approaches in relation to current fields of action in social work.

With the welfare state paradigm shift from the welfare state to the activating state, the relationships between service providers and service providers have changed into client-contractor relationships; service providers are also under increasing competitive pressure due to the opening up of social legislation to private commercial providers. This means that the social economy and social management are becoming increasingly important. Social workers and their target groups have the most points of contact with politics in local politics. In this field, social workers advocate for the interests of their clients in accordance with their dual mandate. Students learn about the political-administrative structures and processes at the municipal level. They distinguish between different types of social work organisations and are familiar with different forms of funding.

In the context of gender, diversity and interculturality, relevant terms and concepts are discussed and the opportunities and challenges in the context of social work are presented and discussed. The following aspects, among others, can be addressed:

• Basic principles, challenges and legal foundations of gender- and diversity-sensitive social work
• Basic models of socialisation and coping from the perspective of gender, diversity and interculturality
• Forms of work and problem areas of social work in the field of tension between gender, diversity and interculturality
• Gender and diversity studies and gender and diversity policy

Discussions will be initiated on the complex topic of profession, professionalisation and professional action, preceded by an examination of selected approaches. The following aspects, among others, will be addressed:

• History of social work
• Professional ethics and professional behaviour
• Understanding of the profession
• Competence to act
• Social work and its relationship to other professions (e.g. health and education)

The module is dedicated to the fundamental transformation of our learning, living and working environments in the course of ongoing digitalisation and the associated opportunities and risks for the field of social work. New working environments as well as changing lifeworld settings require extended digital competences and rely on agile formats of learning and working. Acquiring these skills therefore also opens up career prospects for students in changing working environments.

The following topics are covered in particular: counselling clients online/offline; digitalisation, organisational development and counselling in social work; the use of digital media in child and youth work and in intercultural educational work; big data in social informatics, data protection and ethics. In addition, in-depth insights into other selected topics are provided.

Through practical exercises, students learn how to use different forms of digital communication. They also learn how digital media can be used for their own empirical surveys.

The theoretical and methodological foundations of social space orientation are dealt with against the background of its historical development as community work.

In terms of content, a spatially sensitive examination of the topics presented from the field of social space orientation is carried out, e.g. in relation to the following exemplary topics: demographic change, migration and integration, practices of spatial appropriation, segregation, socio-spatial inequality. By analysing selected institutional settings, the course illustrates how social processes work in space and whether and how the respective spatial context influences these processes.

Through practical exercises based on selected examples and using different types of space (e.g. urban, rural), students learn concepts and methods that serve to assess socio-spatial needs and develop possible approaches for action.

Against the backdrop of a shortage of public funds and increasing competition for the allocation of services (service agreements), it is becoming increasingly important for social work organisations to acquire their own funds. Project funding is particularly important in this context and is now an established form of financing for social service providers.

Students thus acquire the qualifications and skills to apply basic action models and methods of project management to market-relevant field tasks in social work. The focus is on teaching relevant concepts, theoretical knowledge and methodological skills on the one hand and their application in specific project contexts on the other. In addition, personal development through the module plays a role, for example, students draw important conclusions for future project work from the failure of a project or develop a self-critical and reflective attitude through the project processes that have taken place

Fundamentals of the theory of science, paradigms of hermeneutic, critical-rationalist, critical and everyday-orientated understandings of research and science, research ethics, fundamentals of research design and test theory. Quality criteria of quantitative and qualitative research. Differences between empirical-experimental settings and empirical-descriptive analyses. Basics of statistics 1 and 2, basics of qualitative methods.

Students are familiarised with bio-psycho-social models of mental health and illness. They learn about the structures of the care and support system and the clinic, aetiology and epidemiology of selected psychiatric illnesses. They will be qualified to arrange, provide or implement appropriate help in the form of evidence-based counselling/treatment for those affected and their relatives. In-depth seminars provide a perspective on exemplary fields of action and care approaches in the context of, for example, educational support, drug help, school social work and parent and family counselling.

• Organisations and institutions in the education system, transition system, employment system and social assistance system
• Fundamentals of organisational theory in the field of tension between organisation (structure) and organisation (process) - including approaches from systems theory, structuration theory, organisational culture and power theory
• Organisations as independent social actors
• Organisations as rational vs. autopoietic systems
• Organisation and society: consequences of organisational decisions for individual and collective actors, inclusion and exclusion processes in/through organisations
• Bureaucracy and administrative behaviour in the context of social work
• differing organisational practices (organisational cultures and milieus, organisational games in social work institutions)
• Sub- and supraordination in organisations (power, hierarchy vs. heterarchy, teamwork, rotating functions, etc.)
• organisational decision-making (including lines of conflict between profession-specific expectations of social work and administrative logics of other disciplines)
• Reflection on the relationship between organisation and profession
• exemplary thematisation of organisationally initiated or conditioned marginalisation and exclusion processes in the field of social work (e.g. in the area of education and employment)
• exemplary concretisation of forms of help and support in the context of education and employment
• Organisation(s) of social work in the field of education and employment (exemplary insights into the organisational activities of social work institutions)

The social market is of particular economic importance. The number of employees is well above the level of total employment in Germany and has increased significantly in the last 10 to 20 years. On the one hand, staff are regarded as the main cost factor for social organisations and, on the other, as an essential resource for trustworthy and professional interaction with the recipients of social work. Social work organisations and services must assert themselves in an increasingly competitive market for funding and skilled staff. Students learn about an appropriate organisational structure (organisational charts) and process organisation (process management). They distinguish between basic organisational theories and management theories and are able to apply personnel selection and assessment tools to social work.

You choose this module according to your interests from the wide range of programmes offered by Ostfalia. The compulsory elective modules allow you to set individual specialisations and acquire practical skills that will open up a wide range of career prospects for you after graduation and provide targeted support for your career path.

You choose this module according to your interests from the wide range of programmes offered by Ostfalia. The compulsory elective modules allow you to set individual specialisations and acquire practical skills that will open up a wide range of career prospects for you after graduation and provide targeted support for your career path.

The work placement organises educational and qualification processes in the career-oriented interweaving of practical work and exemplary learning. Theoretical prior knowledge is critically reflected upon and deepened, and further professional and personal experience is generated in dealing with the demands of practice.
The personnel support offers co-operating institutions additional opportunities to design, test or evaluate methodological approaches in social work.

In order to be able to address social and professional developments in a timely and innovative manner, accompanying events organised by the university can be modified.
The practice institutions represent the requirements profile and range of tasks of professional social work. 
The supervision by the lecturer responsible for the practice phase is an example of professional reflexivity in social work practice. Its object is the continuous improvement of practical action with regard to competence (attitude, knowledge, skills), professional understanding, professional identity and theory-practice transfer.

Various theoretical models from the social work and related sciences are used to analyse and process the experiences from the practical phase in order to demonstrate and practise the practical relevance as clearly as possible. The theory-practice link is also to be emphasised through the involvement of practitioners/experts from different professional disciplines.

The students situate their practical experience based on theory. They discuss the differences between public, non-profit and private commercial organisations. They reflect on their experiences regarding professional standing (e.g. proximity-distance, double and triple mandate, dealing with other professions, etc.). They further develop their attitude (e.g. expected vs. perceived value orientation, expectations of supervision, teamwork). They develop and concretise their expectations for their future field of work (practice), the modules of the 6th and 7th semesters (theory) and their Bachelor's thesis.

On the basis of the practical phase or the practical application of methodological action, the module serves the reflective examination of this action and the expansion of theoretical knowledge as well as the reflection of the professional attitude for the acquisition of action competence (attitude, knowledge, ability). Relevant contents include

• Expansion of methodological knowledge
• Deepening the theories of social work
• Professional competence to act
• Professional ethical behaviour and professional ethics
• Selected fields of research in social work

The content of the module conveys in-depth conceptual and didactic methodological basic knowledge and skills of social work competence in the fields of counselling and counselling. Person-centred, team/group-oriented and organisational concepts of interviewing and counselling are discussed, in particular systemic, solution- and resource-oriented approaches to (organisational) counselling.

Students are given perspectives on different fields of counselling (educational and family counselling, addiction counselling, corporate social work, personnel development). Various forms of evaluation and quality assurance of counselling processes are taught (supervision, counselling and intervention research, quality management.

Building on the content of Module 21 in particular, further in-depth study and exemplary concretisations are provided here. These are aimed at professional, co-designing participation in connectable offers for shaping transition, in particular in the area of education and work as fields of action of social pedagogy and social work; this both within the framework of regular structures such as in school social work and, for example, in "youth work as an educational project" (Lindner/Thole), "socio-pedagogical schools" (Schroeder), production schools and vocational rehabilitation, socio-pedagogical support for clients in the transition system and in the design of regional educational landscapes. In particular, the students' ability to determine the status quo with regard to questions of the scope of reform approaches with socially inclusive and participatory demands as well as didactic realisations in models of 'good practice' is addressed. In addition, students are supported in outlining their own didactic building blocks for participation either in regular structures of education and work or in educational programmes with a particular pedagogical character and in work programmes confronted with special social requirements.

Building on the content of the project management module, the theoretical principles of planning, developing and implementing projects are deepened and tested in an application-oriented manner.

Specific projects are developed in and/or with practice, drawing on and processing the experiences from the practical phase.

The presentation of project objectives, project planning, etc. enables a process-oriented synchronisation of the examination and teaching activities.

The module offers the possibility of a problematising approach to the current contextualisation and positioning of social work in social, political, cultural, economic and ecological development trends. These represent reference dimensions for the further development of social work. The module encourages the systematic clarification of the function and task of social work. It encourages students to discuss the ethical dimensions of social work at a fundamental level. Accordingly, open teaching content is taught.

Based on current specialist discourses and debates, their content is creatively integrated into the courses and dealt with discursively and reflexively. The learning content needs to be made more flexible.

Excursions into practice or the involvement of specialists from the field can support the exchange process.

• Repetition and refresher of essential standards of academic work, assistance in finding topics and structuring academic work, self-management and time management
• Thematically, reference is expected to be made to the theory, empiricism and history of social assistance and education or to specific social work target groups and fields of action in social work. Students are supervised by a first and second assessor. Students can submit suggestions for topics, which must be discussed with the examiners. If no qualifying suggestions of their own are submitted, the student may be given a topic to work on. Guiding questions, the chosen methodological approach and the results of the thesis must be justified and defended in a colloquium.