Overview
This unit presents ethical theories and principles and their relationship to social work professional practice in human services. Students should be able to demonstrate knowledge of the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) code of ethics and explore ethical decision making in relation to different practice contexts. Students should also be able to analyse the role of personal and professional value systems and their place in various practice settings, and the legal and organisational context of social / welfare work. Students should be able to identify and engage appropriate use of self and self care strategies by students in the professional context as a component of devising an ethical professional framework for future practice. The students should be able to analyse the ethics of practice within different cultural contexts and devise appropriate strategies of intervention.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Successful completion of 48 credit points in any course.
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 2 - 2026
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from Student evaluation
The amount of reading was overwhelming.
Reduce weekly readings and reiterate to students how to utilise study modules and prescribed and supplementary readings in completing assessment tasks.
Feedback from Student evaluation
The Indigenous and Cross Cultural Issues study module needs to be introduced earlier in the term.
Social workers' ethical responsibilities to culturally safe and inclusive practice are integrated throughout the study modules, and key ethical concepts related to this specific study module are not introduced until later in the term. However, the first two study modules will incorporate a further emphasis on social workers' ethical responsibility to culturally safe and responsive practice.