The School of Social Work at Texas State University-San Marcos will empower our students and faculty to be ethical leaders, skilled in both creative and critical thinking, who will be at the forefront of creating positive change and improving the lives of the most vulnerable members of society.

Our Motto

Leadership for Change

Our Mission

The School of Social Work at Texas State University-San Marcos aims to educate skilled, competent social workers for practice in a dynamic, diverse social environment. The School prepares social workers who can effectively and ethically lead human service efforts to enhance human well-being and productivity help alleviate poverty, and strengthen social justice. The School aims to create and refine useful intervention technologies while enhancing services, especially for people who are disadvantaged and often forgotten.

The health and well-being of children and families across the life span are crucial to creating a compassionate, productive society. Therefore, the School educates students and supports faculty for leadership roles in developing more effective, innovative, and consumer-oriented services and organizations that reflect shared responsibilities between public entities and private concerns. To accomplish its mission, the School partners with diverse organizations and disciplines in the university, the community, the state, and the nation to enhance the well-being and productivity of the most disadvantaged members of society, including vulnerable children and their families.

Our Goals

1. COMPREHENSIVENESS

The School will graduate baccalaureate social workers who can function competently using the generalist framework with systems of all sizes, and will graduate master-level social workers who can apply the generalist perspective to advanced specialized direct practice or administrative practice with systems of all sizes.

2. REASONING AND VALUING

The School will graduate social work practitioners who employ critical thinking and lucid self-assessment; understanding of professional history; ethical, value-based sensibilities; and scientific and creative processes to engage in competent, value-based social work with diverse clients and client groups in various settings.

3. DIMENSIONS OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

The School will graduate social work practitioners who comprehend, based on a broad array of liberal arts concepts and research knowledge, the needs of people (particularly the most vulnerable members of society), who grasp the ways those needs affect people’s behaviors, and who can plan and implement effective practice methodologies to foster productive behaviors and ways of thinking.

4. DIVERSITY AND JUSTICE

The School will produce graduates who appreciate and respect the amazing diversity of the human family, who grasp how that diversity is reflected in the families and organizations that people create, who embrace diversity as a strength, who value social justice, and who ethically lead the struggle to foster a compassionate, productive, non-discriminatory society.

5. ACQUIRING AND REFINING SKILLS

The School will graduate practitioners who employ theoretically-sound, evidence-based interventions and communication techniques, who use supervision efficiently to improve their practices, who are prepared to evaluate and refine their methodologies, who are knowledgeable consumers and producers of research, and who are life-long professional learners.

6. PROFESSIONAL LEADERSHIP

The School will produce leaders and competent organizational citizens who, because they understand the historical and contemporary contexts of social work, can develop innovative, humane, consumer-oriented policies and systems, can advocate for marginalized populations, and can build bridges between public entities, private concerns, and various disciplines to improve the well-being and productivity of people, particularly the most neglected members of society.

Our Learning Domains:

Cognitive Objectives and Behavioral Outcomes

The School, using its goals as a platform, moved to putting our objectives and outcomes into words. The faculty identified objectives as cognitive material—the knowledge that students learn. Faculty identified outcomes as behavioral material—the skills and behaviors that students exhibit as a result of learning cognitive material. Objectives and outcomes are inextricably linked, so we clumped them together as eight Learning Domains, under categorical titles which describe the Learning Domain.

1. Taking Professional Responsibility

OBJECTIVE: Students will incorporate the responsibilities and ramifications of being a professional social worker.

OUTCOME: Students will demonstrate responsibility for their actions guided by professional values and ethics (as articulated in the NASW Code of Ethics) and by law (under the Texas social work regulatory statute and its rules).

2. Thinking Professionally

OBJECTIVE: Students will learn to think in organized, creative ways in order to understand human situations and solve problems.

OUTCOME: Students will be proficient in expressing and applying ethical sensibilities, understanding the effects of history on modern events, and thinking critically and creatively about issues affecting clients, client groups, and professional concerns.

3. Analyzing Human Development

OBJECTIVE: Students will grasp the nature and course of human growth and will understand theories of assessing the development of systems of all sizes.

OUTCOME: Students will be accurate in analyzing human development using a variety of theoretical frameworks, and will apply this knowledge to systems of all sizes.

4. Seeking Tolerance and Justice

OBJECTIVE: Students will develop sensitivity to human needs and feelings that both acknowledges and transcends differences, and will create a more humane society.

OUTCOME: Students will explain, assess, and appreciate human diversity, and will articulate and apply principles of social justice to the complex human experience.

5. Refining Practice

OBJECTIVE: Students will become inquirers and searchers for truth, and will understand the critical role that effective communications play in understanding and intervening in human situations.

OUTCOME: Students will competently employ research, evidence-based interventions, and communication to enhance, evaluate, and refine their practice and to contribute to social work’s knowledge base.

6. Humanizing Services

OBJECTIVE: Students will learn how important resources and policies are, and will understand the how people are affected by gaps in resources and policies.

OUTCOME: Students will link people with resources and devise, develop, and advocate for innovative, humane, consumer-driven services and policies.

7. Pursuing Excellence

OBJECTIVE: Students will grasp the importance of professional growth and development, and will appreciate opportunities to learn from others.

OUTCOME: Students will evaluate their professional growth, participate appropriately in supervision, engage in activities beneficial to the profession, and be committed to life-long professional development.

8A. Honing Direct Practice Expertise

OBJECTIVE: Students in the direct practice concentration will become comfortable with the knowledge and skills necessary to intervene effectively with individuals, families, and groups, particularly those who are vulnerable.

OUTCOME: Applying advanced knowledge and skills of direct practice, direct practice students will analyze, intervene, and evaluate—with a high degree of autonomy and proficiency—to improve the well-being of vulnerable populations.

8B. Honing Administrative Leadership Expertise

OBJECTIVE: Students in the administrative leadership concentration will become comfortable with the knowledge and skills necessary to intervene effectively with and between organizations, particularly on behalf of those who are especially vulnerable.

OUTCOME: Applying advanced knowledge and skills of administrative leadership, administration students will analyze, intervene, and evaluate—with a high degree of autonomy and proficiency—to improve the well-being of vulnerable populations.