Social Workers as Game Changers:Confronting Complex Social Issues Through Cases

Social Work in Action: Confronting Complex Social Issues through Cases enables social work, and non-social work students, to increase their knowledge base about specific social issues while at the same time increasing their sense of efficacy in fulfilling their role in addressing complex social justice issues. Laura Lewis's case method approach will be used to cover a range of topics such as immigration, homelessness, education, health care, mental health, eminent domain, poverty, gangs, and community development. The ten to twelve cases will vary in length from approximately 5,500 to 7,500 words. Each stand-alone case will consist of an engaging fictional story framed around factual background information. Students will be challenged to think critically about vital issues, weigh the advantages and disadvantages of competing solutions, explore policy alternatives, and grapple with the unintended consequences of any decision. The content in the cases provide the foundation for different classroom activities, e.g. debate, creative writing assignments, role playing. An instructor could use this volume of cases for a core text for a course, but it is likely that it would be a supplemental text, and faculty may pick and choose different cases for different courses.