Fall 2026 SOWK 430 Week 04 - My Experiences in Peru

title: Fall 2026 SOWK 430 Week 04 - My Experiences in Peru date: 2026-09-14 21:05:46 location: Heritage University tags:

Heritage University
BASW Program
SOWK 430 presentation_video: > “” description: >

In Week 4, we are finishing our discussion of the history of social work. There is much more to the story of the origins of this profession, but I hope you have a better understanding of its foundations. We will explore the story of the orphan trains. There are also forums about the code of ethics and how it has evolved through a couple of different view points. Finally, I have a short lecture video where I share some of my experiences in South America. The agenda of the video is:

Review week four content
Experiences working at an orphanage

Learning objectives this week

Be exposed to child welfare from an international perspective.
Describe the history of the orphan trains, including why children were placed on them and how receiving families were chosen.
Trace how social work ethics has changed over time, from the profession’s early focus on the morality of clients to today’s digital period.
Identify significant changes in recent revisions of the NASW Code of Ethics, including the 2017 and 2021 updates, and areas where it may still need to grow.
Begin to consider the ethical challenges technology creates for practice, such as consent, confidentiality, and boundaries.

Week Four Content

Read/Watch

Watch my lecture video Fall 2026 SOWK 430 Week 04 - My Experience in Peru
Watch an episode of Consider This with Christine Zak Edmonds (2021)
Read The Evolution of Social Work Ethics by Reamer (1998) and the Reamer (2014) with the same title
Optional Reading: Cook (1995) A History of Placing-Out: The Orphan Trains; Barsky (2017) and Barsky (2021) reviews the changes to the code of ethics; you can also see my travel blog posts from Peruvian Spring Break 2009;
Browse the current NASW Code of Ethics, or with highlighted revisions

W-04 A-01: Asynchronous Class Engagement and Participation

The expectation is that each of your replies will be substantive and provide meaningful perspectives, contributing to the forum’s conversation and scholarship. They can relate to the prompts or build on conversations shared by peers. There are four forums for this week, and you are expected to make at least 3 replies across any of the forums and read all of your peers’ replies. These forums include the following:

The PBS episode on the orphan trains is the starting point for Social Services in History, Vantage of The Orphan Trains (Sec 0 or Sec 2), which asks why children were placed on the trains, how families were selected, and what safety nets now keep poverty from separating families.
Evolution of the Code of Ethics: Early Ethics (Sec 0 or Sec 2) draws on Reamer (1998) to consider how the profession’s early focus on morality still plays out today, with its drawbacks and benefits.
Students weigh what has changed across the major revisions of the code, including the 2017 and 2021 updates, and where it still needs to grow in Evolution of the Code of Ethics: The Current 2021 Version and Previous Versions (Sec 0 or Sec 2).
Building on Reamer’s (2014) description of a new digital period, Evolution of the Code of Ethics: The Digital Period (Sec 0 or Sec 2) invites early thoughts about boundaries and ethical practice with current and developing technology.