Public health financial social work: a model syllabus for research practice for graduate social work students

ABSTRACT

Social work students consistently dread research and research classes, but studies suggest that integrating research with more appealing topics may help overcome this bias. As such, a new class integrating public health and financial social work was developed with an applied research project. The course objective is to foster and strengthen student interest in research methods related to public health and financial social work. We outline how integrating public health and financial social work topics in a graduate research course provides a practical connection to clinical and macro practice for students. Instructors may adapt this model syllabus for any research courses taught in the social work curriculum in any country. Recommendations for linking social work practice with research are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Financial social work
• public health social work
• teaching research methods
• collaborative research teaching
• social work research methods

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sally A. Hageman

Sally A. Hageman, PhD, MSW is an Assistant Professor at Idaho State University. Her research interests are the social determinants of health, Financial Capability and Asset Building (FCAB)/Financial Social Work (FSW), public health social work and geriatric social work.

Edward V. Pecukonis

Edward V. Pecukonis, PhD, MSW, LCSW-C is a Full Professor at the University of Maryland in Baltimore and the Director of the Center for Public Health Social Work Education. His research interests are social work pedagogy and the science of social work education in public health social work and interprofessional education.