程序中的一个作业, students will create low-fidelity prototypes of products using paper and digital technologies. 图片来源:iStock.
的 太阳城网赌平台社会工作学院 is expanding its suite of academic offerings to include a certificate 程序 in design thinking, a collaborative process for generating innovative solutions to thorny problems.
Organizers said the 程序 will prepare master’s students to work with communities to create scalable interventions for positive social change, with a particular focus on prototyping and testing new products and services in partnership with the people who need them most.
“Design thinking is a natural part of what social work practice should be when we’re talking about how to solve social problems within organizations and communities,” 卡尔Halvorsen, an assistant professor who created the certificate in collaboration with faculty members 小塞缪尔·布拉德利., 托马斯·克雷亚, Praveen库马尔, 文森特Fusaro, 萨曼莎特谢拉, 玛丽娜Rakhilin. “It’s a way to think about how to engage people who are experiencing issues to find solutions.”
这个项目, “社会变革的设计思维” will go into effect in June and require students to complete three courses: Basic Skills in Macro Practice, 社会变革的设计思维理论, 以及为社会变革实践设计思维. It is part of a growing effort by the BC Office of the Vice Provost for 太阳城官网, 由设计与创新战略副教务长领导 Sunand巴塔查里亚, 推动设计教育的发展, 经历, 并在大学的多个层面进行太阳城官网.
Rakhilin, 谁计划教授这两门设计思维课程, said students will come away from the 程序 knowing how to amplify the voices of marginalized stakeholders at every step of the design process. Participants will master the use of several digital platforms to facilitate remote collaboration, 根据Rakhilin的说法, 兼职教员 经营一家咨询公司 这促进了设计师和太阳城官网人员之间的合作关系, learn how to test the impact of new products and services on the health and wellbeing of those in need.
助理教授卡尔Halvorsen.
“How do we engage communities, especially people who have been marginalized for decades? And how do we hold a space for them, whether it’s a virtual space or a physical space?拉希林说, listing the big questions that the 程序 will tackle. “How do we get to a place where those people can share their honest opinions, 不同意, 有冲突, 一起设计一些东西?”
的 assignments in the design thinking courses will build on each other. One of the first assignments in 的ories of Design Thinking will require students to write a proposal to incorporate community voices into a research study or existing initiative. 作为作业的一部分, students will be asked to describe how they would explain the purpose of the project in layperson terms, 他们将在哪里召开利益相关者会议, how they would center the needs of marginalized community members. 社会变革实践设计思维的最终项目, 顶点课程, will require students to create a high-fidelity prototype of a product, 程序, or service that solves a problem within an organization of their choice.
Halvorsen said students who complete the certificate will have a leg up in the competition for social work jobs that require leadership skills, 包括项目经理和运营总监的职位. 课程, 他说, will ensure that they have several well-developed projects in their portfolios to show hiring managers that they understand how to work with communities on the ground.
“Students will come away with very specific tools and skills that they can run with in whatever social work jobs they end up taking from the clinical to the macro levels,他说.
兼职教员玛丽娜Rakhilin.
BCSSW院长 Gautam N. Yadama said that the certificate 程序 aligns with the School’s commitment to addressing complex challenges in collaboration with those in need.
正如他所说, “Our approach to design thinking is at the core of what social work practitioners do: deeply engage those embedded in everyday social, 环境, 和经济困境创造和执行可行的解决方案.”
在夏季学期开始的时候, Design Thinking for Social Change will officially become BCSSW’s latest certificate 程序 in a subject-specific area of social work. 学生最多可以完成两个证书, 包括创伤项目吗, 儿童福利, 以及黑人领导, 在许多其他方面.
Rakhilin建议学生们考虑设计思维课程, saying it meshes well with the core values of the social work profession.
“你不需要精通技术就能专攻设计. 你可以以临床为导向，也可以采取系统方法,拉希林说, 谁毕业于BCSSW 兼职硕士课程 in 2023. “We’re trying to debunk who can be a designer—and it’s anyone who can communicate well, 把人们聚集在一起, 理解结构性不平等. 这要求很高，但这就是社工的工作.”
Halvorsen said Rakhilin was the first person he asked to help him create the 程序, noting that he got to know Rakhilin in his Basic Skills in Macro Practice course.
“Marina is a kind and empathetic person, but also brilliant,” Halvorsen. “I can’t think of anyone who is better suited to teach these courses.”
