issue of social justice relevant to gender
You will first select a specific topic for your project. This paper will examine a gender issue and explore the
issue in detail. It is recommended, but not required, that it be related to the topic of the book you are reading
this semester. The paper must include suggestions for responses in social work practice that reflect the
generalist perspective and therefore the recommendations will include intervention/prevention at all levels of
practice – micro (individual/direct work), mezzo (families/group direct work), and macro
(organizational/community indirect work).
The paper must address an issue of social justice relevant to gender. Additionally, the paper must examine
intersectionality and its impact within the gender topic being explored. This may include the experiences of
marginalized and minoritized populations. The paper must examine your topic from an activist’s vantage point.
That means that it must go beyond an issue identification model to a solution approach.
This paper must be well researched and clearly written. It must demonstrate your learning in terms of the topic
of the course competencies i.e., self awareness, advocacy for empowerment, and the generalist approach.
Please use the APA style manual for guidance in citations—which includes internet sites. Overall, you should
have a variety of sources—print and media references, interviews, review of model programs, and any other
relevant information. The paper should have the following sections: USE THESE HEADINGS!
1. STATEMENT OF THE TOPIC: define the topic (i.e. date rape, teen pregnancy, hate crimes, equal
marriage, human trafficking, etc.) Describe who it affects and include related strengths and resiliency factors.
It is important to have statistics from reputable sources in this section and provide a strong foundation to
understand the topic. You will finish this section by narrowing the focus of the paper to one particular issue
related to the topic.
2. SCOPE OF THE ISSUE: explain why it is an ISSUE in our society, and give evidence of its existence,
i.e. how widespread is it? How do we know? Give evidence of the scope. Include issues of different
cultural factors that may increase or decrease the scope in some sub-populations, i.e. people of color, LGBT
community members, people with disabilities.
3. POSSIBLE SOURCES/CAUSES OF THE ISSUE: here you would review literature that provides
theory as to the “roots”/causes of the issue and provides evidence to support the theories. If you have
already addressed that earlier, you have put too much in the statement or the scope. Revise.
4. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Here is where you talk about what can be done to address the
issue. As social workers, be sure to cover micro, mezzo, and macro solutions by describing existing
programs and addressing unmet needs with suggestions for new programs. You are addressing the
issue from an activist’s standpoint. Model programs are useful in this section.
REFERENCES AND PAPER STRUCTURE: you will be graded on the quality of the references you use
and whether you have followed the general guidelines for references discussed later in these directions. You
will also be graded on your writing quality and organization and structure of the paper. College level writing
is expected.
General Guidelines:
1. The length of the paper should be 6-8 double spaced pages with 1 inch margins.
2. Submit the paper to the dropbox on D2L.
3. There should be at least 8 citations/references.
a. Only 3 sources/citations/references can be internet websites. Professional articles retrieved from
library databases are not included in this category.
b. The use of the APA style manual for guidance in citations, which includes internet sites and
electronic database retrieval, is required. Papers not properly cited will either lose points or be
handed back for revision based on the professor’s evaluation of the effort put into the paper by the
student.
c. Overall, you should have a variety of sources— academic/professional articles, books, websites
which meet departmental criteria for academic usage, interviews, review of model programs, and any
other relevant information.
d. Newspaper articles are only acceptable if addressing media issues and using them as an example. If
you use newspaper article, only one newspaper article permitted and then reduce the number of
websites used.
e. Professional literature, which includes academic journal articles that are either empirical research or
program descriptions and books written by experts on the topic, should be the bulk of your resource
material.
Presentation (25 points)
Students will present their research near the end of the semester. You will use your research paper as the basis
for presentation, but you should not read your paper for the presentation. The presentation should be
dynamic, energizing, and move classmates to action in addressing the issue.
The presentation should provide an overview of the issue, but most importantly focus on what your
classmates can do to address the issue as a future professional social worker. This must be concrete and
specific. Your classmates should feel inspired and motivated to make change at the end of your presentation!
We will use the “Pecha Kucha” model for presentations and will review what this is in class. This model for
presentations requires 20 slides that are presented for 20 seconds each, and they advance automatically. Slides
include images or brief phrases that you then expand on verbally. Your total presentation will be 6-7 minutes
and then you will have 5 minutes for discussion with the audience. You should have 1 question that you can
pose to your classmates at the conclusion of your presentation that will generate discussion. You will be
graded on the quality of your images, the content of what you present, and your ability to inspire.