concentrations

The term used by social work educators for clusters of courses, parts of courses, or other formal learning experiences that provide the social work student with deeper and more-focused knowledge and skill in certain areas of professional concern. After students have acquired formal education in basic areas of social work knowledge, they are often required, as part of their education, to select one or more concentrations that reflect their own interests and professional directions. Schools of social work have different concentrations and ways of defining their concentrations. In most schools of social work, concentrations are defined according to specific methods in social work, fields of practice, special populations, and special problems. Methods concentrations may include social casework, social group work, community organization, research evaluation, direct clinical practice, administration–policy–planning combination, family– marital treatment, and generic social work practice combining a macro orientation and a micro orientation. Fields-of-practice concentrations include child welfare, mental health, health care, school social work, criminal justice, gerontology, rural social work, industrial social work, family and child welfare services, and various combinations. Special problems concentrations include substance abuse and poverty, and special populations concentrations include such groups as people of color and women.