Program Philosophy

SPP is based on interdisciplinarity and critical analysis. Training and instruction focus on:

• developing the qualities of curiosity, reflection and analysis in examining problems,
• integrating skills in research methods with critical inquiry,
• addressing the current impact of policy, organizational and professional changes in human services,
• exploring knowledge, theory, policy and practice of human service and community work,
• reflecting critically on the use of professional expertise,
• building on students' own knowledge as experienced practitioners and activists,
• engaging practices that challenge existing relations in community, government, and other relevant contexts, and
• envisioning participatory human services.
  
  

Courses in the program call upon students to:

• analyze contemporary practice,
• develop innovative strategies to effect social change,
• investigate the intersections of human service work, disciplinary boundaries and knowledge, and community relations,
• conceptualize and reconfigure connections among communities and institutions through analyses of power and oppressions at personal, local, national and global levels, and
• imagine and work toward possible futures through training in various types of analysis and action.