Unit rationale, description and aim

Social workers are required to understand and respond to the interface between people and their social, cultural and physical environments. Social workers also respond to human needs in the context of socio-political and environmental factors. This unit introduces students to community development work as a method of social work practice. This unit focuses on developing knowledge and skills for practice with communities. The unit requires students to develop beginning level capacities to identify, analyse and critically evaluate the role of social work in professional practice with communities in Australia and internationally, with particular reference to community development. Through critical examination of a range of community projects, campaigns and initiatives, students will identify, and appraise a range of theoretical underpinnings, methodological approaches, and ethical and values issues involved in social work with communities. Ethical issues in community work and particular themes for diverse populations, including rural communities, Indigenous populations, racially and ethnically diverse groups, and international communities, will be explored. This aim of this unit is to provide students with knowledge and skills in community work, an essential area of social work intervention and the profession's commitment to wellbeing and social justice, including community engagement activities that the opportunity to participate in a community project to put their theory and skills into action.

2026 10

Campus offering

No unit offerings are currently available for this unit.

Prerequisites

SWTP333 Social Work Field Education 1

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

Analyse the roles of social workers in various com...

Learning Outcome 01

Analyse the roles of social workers in various community contexts with demonstrating an understanding of the roles of ethics and self.
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC9

Appraise social work theories relevant for communi...

Learning Outcome 02

Appraise social work theories relevant for community practice, that address ethical issues and personal values that influence practice.
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC2

Propose culturally responsive and decolonial commu...

Learning Outcome 03

Propose culturally responsive and decolonial community work approaches and strategies for social work, particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC2, GC4, GC5, GC6, GC12

Design innovative strategies to identify strengths...

Learning Outcome 04

Design innovative strategies to identify strengths, diversity and build social capital in response to community needs based on analysis of the strengths and limitations of existing strategies
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC3, GC4, GC6, GC7, GC11

Engage with community organisations to plan and ev...

Learning Outcome 05

Engage with community organisations to plan and evaluate community interventions utilising appropriate theories and models of community work practice
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC4, GC8, GC11, GC12

Content

Topics will include:

The Concept of Community

  • The relationship between community work and social work
  • Ethical issues in community work
  • Differences between 
  • community development
  • social development
  • social action
  • community organization

Contextualising Community

  • Historical development of community work
  • State intervention and the community
  • Community as arena for social policy

Social Action

  • Radicalism and community work
  • Activism and the labour movement
  • Social movements and building alliances (Australian and overseas examples)
  • Activism and the social justice movement and the role of social media

Social Development

  • Integrated development
  • Concept of social planning
  • International development
  • Aid programs and developments
  • Role of agencies
  • World Bank
  • Civil Society in Development

Community Organising

  • Understanding community organisations
  • Legitimacy
  • Accountability
  • Representativeness
  • Engaging with a community
  • Participation and power
  • Identifying inequality and discrimination in communities
  • Strategies for working together
  • Collaboration or competition


Community Development in and with Diverse Communities

  • Local communities
  • urban
  • rural
  • International communities
  • Working with culturally and linguistically diverse communities


Social work practice with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities

  •  Decolonial community work approaches and strategies for social work,
  • centring the voices, rights and sovereignty of culturally and racially marginalised communities, particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
  • Concept of community work in these contexts
  • Understanding the community and self as practitioner


Doing Community Work

  • Capacity Building
  • Asset-Based Community (ABCD approach)
  • Needs and Wants
  • Doing a community profile


Community Development Roles and Skills in Social Work

Strategies:

  • using the media
  • lobbying
  • funding

Evaluation in Social Work with Communities

  • Program planning
  • Evaluation in community organisations

Assessment strategy and rationale

The assessment strategy is to align assessments very closely to the learning outcomes. It aims to prepare students to develop academic skills through reflection, review and analysis of good practice community development approaches and working in small groups to reveal good practice community development approaches in group presentation. 

The first two assessments comprise a reflective journal and group project presentation. These tasks assess students’ capacity to identify and reflect on good practice approaches in the field of community development. These directly relate to (LO2) examining strategies to work with communities to identify strengths, diversity and build social capital in response to local needs in the curricula. These assignments are authentic and adopt reflexive approaches key to social work with communities. 

The third assessment directly assesses the ability of students to theorise about communities and ways to engage and work with communities. This assessment gives students an opportunity to articulate the importance of working with communities (LO5). Evidence of demonstrable competency and knowledge within these unit assessment tasks sets students on a successful path towards demonstrating sound understanding of and commitment to human needs in communities and exploration of good practice in capacity building with vulnerable communities. 

Students must demonstrate achievement of every unit learning outcome, pass hurdle tasks, and obtain a minimum mark of 50% in graded units in order to pass this unit. The hurdle task in this unit is at least 80% attendance at tutorials and community engagement activities.

Overview of assessments

HURDLE ASSESSMENT - 80% attendance requirement h...

HURDLE ASSESSMENT - 80% attendance requirement hurdle for tutorials and community engagement activities.

Weighting

Hurdle Assessment

Assessment Task 1   Reflective Journal. Enab...

Assessment Task 1 

Reflective Journal. Enables students to critically reflect on social work approaches to community development. 

Weighting

30%

Learning Outcomes LO1, LO4

Group Project Presentation    Ena...

Group Project Presentation   

Enables students to explain an effective social work community development approach and present this approach to their peers and/or the agency they have been working with during their community project.

Weighting

30%

Learning Outcomes LO2, LO3, LO5

Critical Analysis Drawing on theories of communi...

Critical Analysis

Drawing on theories of community development, students learn to critically analyse a community development project. 

Weighting

40%

Learning Outcomes LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

This unit involves a combination of face-to-face lectures, small group tutorials and engagement with Canvas. The unit entails engagement with human service and community organisations.

Tutorials will incorporate small group, collaborative learning with students engaging in active discussion of the theoretical unit content of community development, community capacity building, and asset-mapping of local communities. Virtual review of best practice community development initiatives will be utilised allowing students to better understand and explore good practice responses in building resilience and successful community development initiatives. 

Students’ learning experience will significantly impact on their capacity in identifying good practice approaches, reviewing community issues and identifying their relevance to building competency and knowledge in community development. 

ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS OF UNIT 

This Unit incorporates professional social work skills based teaching and learning, and therefore has an attendance requirement of a minimum of 80% attendance at weekly lectures and the skill development and practice tutorials.

An attendance record for weekly lectures and tutorials will be kept. 

An attendance record for weekly tutorials and community engagement activities will be kept.

Reasons why attendance is required: In tutorials, you will be interacting with other students and developing skills which you will use in your professional experience. Students who do not attend are at risk of not developing the required knowledge and essential skills. As this attendance hurdle task relates to a student’s attendance, there is only one attempt available to meet this requirement. 

AASW Practice Standards

This Unit has been mapped to the ACU Graduate Attributes and the ASWEAS Profession-Specific Graduate Attributes. The following table sets out the broad relationship between the Learning Outcomes, Graduate Attributes and the ASWEAS Profession-Specific Graduate Attributes provided in the Australian Social Work Education and Accreditation Standards: https://www.aasw.asn.au/document/item/13565  

Standards/Attributes/Criteria

1.Values and Ethics 

2.Professionalism

3. Culturally responsive and inclusive practice

4. Knowledge for practice 

5. Applying knowledge to practice 

6. Communication and interpersonal skills 

7. Information keeping and sharing 

8. Professional development and supervision

ASWEAS Profession-Specific Graduate Attributes

This Unit has been mapped to the ACU Graduate Attributes and the ASWEAS Profession-Specific Graduate Attributes. The following table sets out the broad relationship between the Learning Outcomes, Graduate Attributes and the ASWEAS Profession-Specific Graduate Attributes provided in the Australian Social Work Education and Accreditation Standards: https://www.aasw.asn.au/document/item/13565  

Standard/Attributes/Criteria

Standard/Attributes/CriteriaLearning Outcomes

1.1 Practise in accordance with the AASW Code of Ethics (2020)

1.2 Manage ethical dilemmas and issues arising in practice

1

5.1 Assess and analyse needs to inform practice

5.2 Work collaboratively

5.3 Use a range of social work methods and techniques appropriate to the area of practice

5.4 Apply critical and reflective thinking to practice

6.1 Communicate with a diverse range of people

6.2 Communicate the details and nature of the service offered to people

6.3 Work with others in a team environment

6.4 Use information technology to communicate and provide services

2

3.1 Work inclusively and respectfully with cultural difference and diversity

3.2 Respect and strive to understand and promote the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their cultures

3

2.1 Represent the social work profession with integrity and professionalism

2.2 Behave in a professional manner and be accountable for all actions and decisions

3.1 Work inclusively and respectfully with cultural difference and diversity

3.2 Respect and strive to understand and promote the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their cultures

7.1 Record and manage information appropriately

7.2 Keep and maintain information in accordance with the ethical principles and relevant legislation

8.1 Actively participate in professional supervision

8.2 Engage in continuing professional development

8.3 Where appropriate, to contribute to the professional development of others

4

4 .1 Understand higher level systemic influences on people with respect to area of practice

4.2 Understand and articulate social work and other relevant theories and concepts

4.3 Understand the role of research and evaluation in obtaining and generating new knowledge for practice

4.4 Understand and articulate how and when theories, knowledge bases and knowledge sources inform practice

5

Representative texts and references

Representative texts and references

Connolly, M., Harms, L. & Maidment, J.(2017). Social work: Contexts and practice (4th ed.). Melbourne, Australia: Oxford University Press.

Howard, A. & Rawsthorne, M. (2019) Everyday Community Practice: Principles and Practice. Allen & Unwin. Sydney, Australia

Ife. (2016). Community development in an uncertain world : vision, analysis and practice (Second edition.). Cambridge University Press.

Kickett-Tucker, Bessarab, D., Coffin, J., Wright, M., & Gooda, M. (2017). Mia Mia Aboriginal Community Development : fostering cultural security . Cambridge University Press

Kenny, S. & Connors, P. (2016). Developing communities for the future (5th ed.). Melbourne, Australia: Thomson.

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