University of Minnesota School of Social Work
Syllabus
SW 5802-Social Welfare History
Part I: Course information
SW 5802-Social Welfare History
1 credit
Faculty contact:
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Email:
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Office Location:
Course descriptions:
Short description
Policies/ programs in social welfare examined in light of their historical evolution, along with themes that
have shaped development over time. Contributions of population subgroups to the development of the
welfare state are examined, and the impact of policies and programs on such groups. This history of social
work profession is examined.
Long description
In the fall semester students learn about the policies and programs that make up the American welfare
state. In this semester, we look historically to consider the influences that shaped the framework of the
welfare state, along with specific policies and programs. This course provides a broad survey of the
historical evolution of policies and program. In doing so, it identifies specific themes that have shaped the
American welfare state, and consider the perseverance of these themes over time. These themes include
areas such as less eligibility, public/private tension in provision, concepts of worthy and unworthy poor, and
the evolution of a two-tiered response to social and economic need. The impact of policies and programs
on historically oppressed populations is considered, along with understanding the contributions of these
same populations in shaping America’s response to need over time. Additionally, this course will consider
the development of the profession of social work as a major professional response to social need and
dependency.
Clinical Licensure Hours:
This course contains some clinical content, as required by the Minnesota Board of Social Work
for eligibility for the Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW). The number of hours
in each required category is listed below:
Area
Differential
Diagnosis
Assessment
based
treatment
planning
Clinical
Intervention
Methods
Evaluation
methodologies
SW values
and ethics
Culturally
specific
clinical
assessment
Other
areas
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Hours
0
0
3
0
7
0
5
Part II: Course outcomes
COURSE OBJECTIVES
Upon successful completion of this course, students are able to:
•
Think critically about issues related to social welfare programs, policies and practices in the
present through understanding the historical evolution of social welfare and through
developing conceptual tools for the analysis of social problems and policy responses.
•
Demonstrate understanding of the evolution of the American welfare state through
consideration of change over time in policies and programs.
•
Understand, appreciate and discuss the historical evolution of professional social workers,
including the lives and careers of significant individuals who have shaped American social
welfare policies and programs, as well as the profession, and the evolution of professional
social work behaviors and technologies.
•
Articulate major themes and issues in American social welfare policies and programs, and
their historical evolution including, issues of dependency, deviancy, empowerment,
oppression, and “worthy and unworthy,” as well as conflicting ideas about the role of
government in providing for citizens, the limitations and possibilities of social reform, and the
transition from charity to professional social work.
•
Understand the contributions and influences of gender, social class, ethnicity, race, age,
religion, spirituality, physical and mental abilities and sexual orientation on the development of
social welfare in the United States and the development or professional social work.
•
Analyze primary and secondary sources relevant to social welfare policy and its historical
evolution.
•
Explore, access and use a range of Internet-based resources available deepening one’s
understanding of social welfare history.
Social Work Practice Competencies
Successful completion of this foundation course implies that the student has achieved competency in
the following practice behaviors:
EP 2.1.1 – Identify as a professional social worker and conduct oneself accordingly
Social workers serve as representatives of the profession, its mission, and its core values. They know the profession’s
history. Social workers commit themselves to the profession’s enhancement and to their own professional conduct and
growth. Social workers:
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Practice Behaviors
•
Advocate for client access to the •
services of social work;
•
•
Practice personal reflection and
self-correction to assure
continual professional
development;
Attend to professional roles and
boundaries
•
•
•
•
•
Covered in class through (i.e.,
activity, reading, content)
Class readings and lectures
Modules on Settlements and
Professionalization
Class readings and lectures
Modules on COS & Scientific
Charity, Professionalization
Assessed
Document Analysis assignments
Document Analysis assignments
Class readings and lectures
Modules on COS & Scientific
Charity, Social Settlements,
Professionalization
Competency: 2.1.2 – Apply social work ethical principles to guide professional practice
Social workers have an obligation to conduct themselves ethically and to engage in ethical decision-making. Social workers
are knowledgeable about the value base of the profession, its ethical standards, and relevant law. Social workers:
Practice Behavior
•
Apply strategies of ethic
reasoning to arrive at decisions
Covered in class through (i.e.,
activity, reading, content)
• Document analysis assignment
– Early Draft of a Code of Ethics
Assessed
Document analysis assignments
EP 2.1.3 – Apply critical thinking to inform and communicate professional judgments
Social workers are knowledgeable about the principles of logic, scientific inquiry, and reasoned discernment.
They use critical thinking augmented by creativity and curiosity. Critical thinking also requires the synthesis and
communication of relevant information. Social workers:
Covered in class through (i.e.,
Practice Behaviors
Assessed
activity, reading, content)
Document analysis assignment
• Distinguish, appraise, and
• Primary source document
integrate multiple sources of
assignment
knowledge, including research- • Class readings
based knowledge and practice
wisdom
Document analysis assignment
• Analyze models of assessment, • Primary source document
prevention, intervention and
assignment
evaluation
• Class readings
Class presentations on document
• Demonstrate effective oral and
• Primary source document
analysis
written communication in
assignment
In-class essay exam
working with individuals,
• Class readings
families, groups, organizations,
communities, and colleagues.
EP 2.1.5 – Advance human rights and social and economic justice
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Each person, regardless of position in society, has basic human rights, such as freedom, safety, privacy, an adequate
standard of living, health care, and education. Social workers recognize the global interconnections of oppression and are
knowledgeable about theories of justice and strategies to promote human and civil rights. Social work incorporates social
justice practices in organizations, institutions, and society to ensure that these basic human rights are distributed equitably
and without prejudice. Social workers:
Practice Behaviors
•
Understand the forms and
mechanisms of oppression and
discrimination
•
Advocate for human rights and
social and economic justice
•
Engage in practices that
advance social and economic
justice
Covered in class through (i.e.,
activity, reading, content)
• Class lectures and readings in
history modules 1-10
• Film: March Point
• Document Analysis
presentations: Indian Adoption
Project; Unemployment Study;
Inabel Lindsey
• Document analysis assignment
• Downtown Welfare Advocacy
center; Oral Interview with
Inabel Lindsey
• Document analysis
presentations
Assessed
In-class essay exam
Document analysis assignment
EP 2.1.8 – Engage in policy practice to advance social and
economic well-being and to deliver effective social work services
Social work practitioners understand that policy affects service delivery, and they actively engage in policy practice. Social
workers know the history and current structures of social policies and services; the role of policy in service delivery; and the role
of practice in policy development. Social workers:
Practice Behaviors
•
Analyze, formulate, and
advocate for policies that
advance social well-being
•
Collaborate with colleagues and
clients for effective policy action
Covered in class through (i.e.,
activity, reading, content)
• History modules, including
lectures and readings
• Document analysis assignment
o Downtown Welfare
Advocacy Center
o Rihaldaffer Paper
o Unemployment Study of
1927
• History modules
Assessed
Document analysis assignment
History essay exam
Part III: Course requirements
CLASS FORMAT
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This class covers 10 learning modules that are organized both by topic and chronologically. Most of the
modules have a lecture presentation, along with discussion that focuses on readings and in-class
presentations. Many of the modules will be available online. The class also makes use of student
presentations focusing on the use of primary source materials, in-class work groups and discussions, guest
speakers, and video materials. In-class discussion will be limited and based on assigned reading, lecture
material, and student presentations.
REQUIRED TEXTS:
Purchase the following texts at the St. Paul Bookstore:
•
Trattner, Walter (1999). From poor law to welfare state: A history of social welfare in America, (6th
edition), New York: The Free Press.
•
Additional required and recommended readings are available through e-reserve or through electronic
journals through the University of Minnesota library system.
ASSIGNMENTS/EXAMS
Online Quiz 1
Conceptual Review of Historical Themes – in-class essay exam
70 points
Two-thirds of the way through this semester, students will be able to access web-based forums that contain
study questions for the in-class exam. The questions will appear at the beginning of each forum, and all
students will be able to review the questions. This exam requires students to integrate learning from class
lectures, readings, student presentations, and document analysis assignments to answer a comprehensive
question related to the material from this course. If they wish, students may participate in online discussions
related to the questions. The instructor strongly encourages students to work with others in small work groups
try to address these questions. The actual writing of the exam is an individual process. Each question asks
students to review information from the class, and to use this information to build an argument about the
position that they take on the question. On the day of the exam, students will be given two of the questions that
originally appeared in the online forums. They will have to write on one of the questions. Students will have two
hours to answer the question.
Document Analysis – due dates vary – 20 points
Working in small groups with a set of primary documents, student review and interpret documents related to
some aspect of the history of social welfare. Students write and submit a group paper, and do a short (no longer
than 15 minutes) on their document set to the class. The grade for this assignment is divided between the paper
and the presentation.
Document Sets:
o Rihaldaffer Papers – report from the first superintendent of the Minnesota Reform School in Red
Wing, late 1800s
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o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Early Draft of a Code of Ethics – papers from the Family Welfare Association, including exchanges
of professionals regarding ethical dilemmas in practice – early 1900s
Unemployment Study of 1927 – case records from the National Federation of Settlements study of
unemployment, conducted in 1927 and published in 1932. The case records include interviews
with immigrant families who experienced unemployment through no fault of the bread winner.
Oral interview with Inabel Lindsey – excerpt from an extended interview with Inabel Lindsey, an
African American social worker who got her training in the 1920s, and went on to become the dean
of the Howard University School of Social Work. Reflecting on the 1920s from a post-Civil Rights
Movement perspective, Lindsey recounts stories of a young African American woman who
pursues professional identity.
Ask Miss Bailey – Social Survey editor, Gertrude Spring, aka Miss Bailey, answers questions from
social workers in the field during the Great Depression.
Who Do You Kill? – A television script from 1963, shows social workers dealing dealing with
interpersonal and macro issues during a period of social unrest.
Indian Adoption Project – administrative papers from a joint project between the Child Welfare
League of America and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, describe project that ran from 1958 to 1963.
The intent of the project was to remove Native American children from their homes and place them
in adoptive what homes. This movement contributed to setting the stage for the Indian Child
Welfare Act of 1978,
Downtown Welfare Advocacy Center – training manuals and other organizational materials from a
primarily African American welfare rights organization that persisted in the 1980s, during an antiwelfare era.
Online Discussion – 10 points
Students participate in small group online discussions related to two films that are part of the class material. The
film The Orphan Trains is a part of History Module 2 – Indoor Relief and Institutions, and the film March Point is
part of History Module 9 – Social Welfare and Native Americans. Students will watch the films outside of class
time, and be assigned to a small discussion group for this film.
GRADE DISTRIBUTION
The grade weight for each assignment is listed below:
Assignment
In-Class Essay Exam
Document Analysis
Online discussions
Grading Scale:
A
AB+
B
BC+
=
=
=
=
=
=
93
90
87
83
80
77
Due Date
Grade Value
End of the semester; available 2/3 through semester
Varies – depends on collection
Varies
70 points
20 points
10 points
-
100
92
89
86
82
79
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C
CD+
D
•
•
=
=
=
=
73
70
67
60
-
76
72
69
66
To complete the course successfully a student must complete and receive a passing grade for each
assignment.
You must take this class for a grade. This class is offered on an A-F basis only.
COMPLETING ASSIGNMENTS AND INCOMPLETES
Assignments should be typed, double-spaced, and use inclusive language. While the School of Social
Work uses the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, (6th edition), as a guide for
writing papers and citing sources, this manual is less helpful when using primary source material. The
instructor will give specific instructions for citations for the Document Analysis assignment in class. No
citations are needed for the in-class essay exam.
Assignments are due in class on the date assigned. Failure to turn in an assignment on the due date
will result in a lowered grade: students will lose one point for each day the assignment is past due.
Course Policies
There are many University and School of Social Work policies that govern this course. Please go to
http://www.cehd.umn.edu/ssw/Documents/SSWCoursePolicies.pdf to see a complete description of
all the policies.
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Part IV: Course content
History Module 1 – Foundations of the American Welfare State
•
•
•
•
Early antecedents of the American welfare state
Elizabethan Poor Laws – 1601
Family and community life in the British colonies of North America
Welfare strategies in the British colonies
Class Lecture
Small group discussion
Required reading:
•
Trattner, Walter. (1999). Chapter 1: The Background; Chapter 2: Colonial America; Chapter 3: the Era
of the American Revolution. From poor law to welfare state: A history of social welfare in America, 6th
edition, (pp. 1-46). New York: The Free Press.
•
Abramovitz, Mimi. (1996). Chapter 2: The Colonial Family Ethic, and Chapter 3: Women and the Poor
Laws in Colonial America. Regulating the lives of women. (45-105). Boston: South End Press.
History Module 2 – Welfare Reform and Indoor Relief – online delivery
•
•
•
•
Changing social order in the 19th century
Welfare reform: from outdoor to indoor relief
The poor house – 19th century
Child welfare – 19th century
Class lecture
Online film and discussion: The Orphan Trains
Required readings:
•
Trattner, Walter J. (1999). Chapter 4: The trend toward indoor relief. From poor law to
welfare state: A history of social welfare in America (pp. 47-76). New York: The Free Press.
•
Abramovitz, Mimi. (1996). Chapter 4: A woman’s place is in the home. Regulating the lives of
women (pp. 107-135). Boston: South End Press.
•
Trattner, Walter J. (1999). Chapter 6: Child welfare. From poor law to welfare state: A
history of social welfare in America (pp. 108-139). New York: The Free Press.
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History Module 3 - The Civil War And Reconstruction: A Beginning Federal Role – online delivery
•
•
•
•
Social welfare responses in war time
The United States Sanitary Commission
Freedmen’s Bureau
Civil War pensions
Required readings:
•
Trattner, Walter J. (1999). Chapter 5: The Civil War and after - Scientific Charity.
From poor law to welfare state: A history of social welfare in America. (pp. 77-107).
New York: The Free Press. Also in Module 8, below.
•
Colby, Ira C. (1985). The Freedmen’s Bureau: From social welfare to segregation.
Phylon, 46(3), 219-230.
History Module 4 - Scientific Charity And The Charity Organization Society
• Economic and social conditions near the turn of the century
• Changing perceptions of social welfare
• Scientific charity: Philosophical and institutional expressions
Document Analysis Projects:
o Riheldaffer Papers
o Early Draft of a Code of Ethics
Required readings:
•
Abramovitz, Mimi. (1996). Chapter 5: Women and nineteenth century relief. Regulating the
lives of women (pp. 137-179). Boston: South End Press.
•
Trattner, Walter J. (1999). Chapter 5: The Civil War and after - Scientific Charity. From poor
law to welfare state: A history of social welfare in America. (pp. 77-107). New York: The
Free Press. Also in Module 7, above.
History Module 5 - Progressive Reforms and the Settlement Movement
• Reform movements of the Progressive Era: 1890 – 1912
• Political, economic and social contexts for reform
• Social settlements: Residence, research and reform
• Women and social welfare activism
Document Analysis Projects:
o Unemployment Study of 1927
o Interview with Inabel Lindsey
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Required readings:
•
Trattner, Walter J. (1999). Chapter 8: The Settlement House Movement. Chapter 10:
Renaissance of Public Welfare. From poor law to welfare state: A history of social welfare in
America. (pp. 163-191 and 214-232). New York: The Free Press.
•
Carlton-LaNey, Iris. (1994). The Career of Birdye Henrietta Haynes, a pioneer settlement
house worker, Social Service Review, 68(2), 254-273.
History Module 6 - Depression And The New Deal: Creating The Welfare State – online delivery
•
•
•
The Depression and New Deal: Social welfare implications
Protecting families and older adults
The Social Security Act
Class lecture
Required readings:
•
Trattner, Walter J. (1999). Chapter 13: Depression and a New Deal. From poor law to
welfare state: A history of social welfare in America (pp. 273-303). New York: The Free
Press.
•
Hamilton, Dona Cooper. (1984). The National Urban League and New Deal Programs. Social
Service Review, 58(2), pp. 227-243). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
History Module 7 – Professionalization - online delivery
• The emergence of social work as a profession
• Psychiatric social work and the influence of Freud
• Social work - cause and function
Document Analysis Projects:
o Ask Miss Bailey
Required readings:
•
Trattner, Walter J. (1999). Chapter 11: The Quest for Professionalization. Chapter 12: Social
Work and Welfare in the 1920s. From poor law to welfare state: A history of social welfare in
America (pp. 233-272). New York: The Free Press.
History Module 8 - Post War Through The Great Society
• Post-War years
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• The War on Poverty
Document Analysis Project
• Who Do You Kill?
• The Downtown Welfare Advocacy Center
Class lecture
Required readings:
•
Trattner, Walter J. (1999). Chapter 14: From World War to Great Society. Chapter 15: A
Transitional Era. Chapter 16: War on the Welfare State. From poor law to welfare state: A
history of social welfare in America (pp. 304-387). New York: The Free Press.
•
Sugrue, Thomas J. (1995). Crabgrass-Roots politics: Race, rights, and the reaction against
liberalism in the urban North, 1940-1964. Journal of American History, 82(2), 551-578.
History Module 9 – Native Americans and Social Welfare
•
•
Social welfare and relation to Native sovereignty
Indian Child Welfare Act
Class lecture
Online film: March Point
Online discussion
Document Analysis:
Indian Adoption Project
Required readings:
•
Mannes, Marc. (1996). Factors and events leading to the passage of the Indian Child
welfare Act. In Eve P. Smith and Lisa A. Merkel-Holguin (Eds), A history of child welfare,
(pp 257-275). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
•
Matheson, Lou. (1996). The Politics of the Indian Child Welfare Act. Social Work, 41(2),
232-235. (The link for this article is available through the course e-reserve. See page 6 of
the syllabus.)
•
Mooradian, John K., Cross, Suzanne L., Stutsky, Glenn R., (2006). Across generations:
Culture, history and policy in the social ecology of American Indian grandparents
parenting their grandchildren. Journal of Family Social Work, 10(4), 81-101. (The link for
this article is available through the course e-reserve. See page 6 of the syllabus.)
•
Public Law 95-608: Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978
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History Module 10 – Summing Up: Reluctant Welfare State
•
•
America’s reluctant welfare state
Factors that hinder and promote the welfare state
Class Lecture
Small group discussion
Required Readings:
•
Trattner, Walter J. (1999). Chapter 17: Toward a new domestic order? From poor law to
welfare state: A history of social welfare in America. (pp. 388-401). New York: The Free
Press.
Additional Bibliography:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Chambers, Clarke A. (1986). Toward a redefinition of welfare history. Social Service Review, (73), 407-433.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Rury, John L. (1985). Philanthropy, self-help and social control: The New York Manumission Society and free
Blacks, 1785-1810. Phylon, 46(3), 231-241.
Brace, Charles Loring. (1872). Chapter XIX: The best remedy for juvenile pauperism. Chapter XX: Providing
country homes. Chapter XXI: Results and facts of emigration to the west. The dangerous classes of New
York, and twenty years’ work among them. (pp. 223-270). Silver Spring, MD: NASW.
Haber, Carole. (1993) Over the hill to the poorhouse: Rhetoric and reality in the institutional history of the aged.
In K. Warner Schaie and W. Andrew Achenbaum (Eds.). The societal impact on aging: Historical Perspectives,
(pp. 90-113). New York: Spring Publishing Company.
Abel, Emily. (1994). Benevolence and social control: Advice from the Children’s Bureau in the early twentieth
century. Social Service Review, 68(1), 1-19.
Almgren, Gunnar, Kemp, Susan P., Eisinger, Alison. (2000). The Legacy of Hull House and the Children’s
Bureau in the American Mortality Transition. Social Service Review, 74(1), 1-27
O’Donnell, Sandra M. (1996). Urban African American community development in the Progressive Era. In Iris
Carlton-LaNey and N. Yolanda Burwell, (Eds). African American Community Practice Models: Historical and
Contemporary Responses (pp. 7-26). New York: The Haworth Press.
Ofman, Kay Walters. (1996). A Rural View of Mothers' Pensions: The Allegan County, Michigan Mothers'
Pension Program, 1913-1928. Social Service Review, 70(1), 98-119.
Berkowitz, Edward D. (1997). The historical development of Social Security in the United States. In Eric R.
Kingson and James H. Schulz, (Eds). Social Security in the 21st century. (pp. 22-38). New York: Oxford
University Press.
Curran, Laura. (2002). The Psychology of poverty: Professional social work and Aid to Dependent Children in
post-war America, 1946-1963. Social Service Review, 76(3), 365-386. (The link for this article is available
through the course e-reserve. See page 6 of the syllabus.)
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•
•
•
•
•
Walkowitz, Daniel J. (1990). The making of a feminine professional identity: Social workers in the 1920s. The
American Historical Review, 95(4), 1051-1075. (The link for this article is available through the course ereserve. See page 6 of the syllabus.)
Katz, Michael. (1996). In the Shadow of the Poor House: A Social History of Welfare in America, New York:
Basic Books.
Grob, Gerald.(1994). The Mad Among Us: A History of the Care of America’s Mentally Ill. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.
Lowe, Gary R., and Reid, P. Nelson (eds.). The Professionalization of Poverty: Social Work and the Poor in the
Twentieth Century, Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.
Abramovitz, Mimi. (1996). Regulating the Lives of Women: Social Welfare Policy from Colonial times to the
Present. New York: The Free Press.
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