As an advanced practitioner, you must be able to articulate your theoretical orientation to your clients, interns, and staff confidently. As a leader in the social work field,

As an advanced practitioner, you must be able to articulate your theoretical orientation to your clients, interns, and staff confidently. As a leader in the social work field, you will use your theoretical orientation to help drive programs and policies on behalf of your clients and agency. You began understanding the use of theory to help explain behaviors in context in your foundation courses, gaining the ability to apply various theories, perspectives, and models to the populations that you served. Over time you developed an understanding that certain theories are more aligned to your practice than others and you immersed yourself in understanding the application of those theories to the situations your clients brought to you.

Now it is time to take ownership of a theoretical orientation further. Your text and articles for this week introduce the concept of discourse, the social conversation that influences how we think about and discuss social work issues. These issues include service user needs and our profession’s response in light of dominant discourses, social science-behavioral discourses, and alternative discourses. As you consider your theoretical orientation, you must also place it in the context of the larger discourses, including those related to diversity and inclusion, informing your practice.

Use online resources you viewed to support you in writing your first assignment, a 3 page paper

The six main bullet points listed below correspond to the grading criteria for this assignment:

● Explain your individual theoretical orientation. ● Describe how specific discourses have shaped your theoretical orientation to

date. ● How have you integrated new perspectives or theoretical evidence? ● This is an opportunity to reflect on your own experiences and your

developing understandings related to theory and discourse. ● Describe your own journey in understanding the role of diversity and inclusion

in your practice. ● Explain how your current theoretical orientation influences your leadership

style and preferences. ● Write content clearly and logically, following the rules of grammar, usage, and

mechanics. ● Grammar refers to the basic rules for how sentences are constructed and

how words combine to make sentences (for example, word order, case, and tense).

● Usage refers to correct word choice and phrasing, particularly with regard to the meanings of words and phrases.

● Mechanics refers to correct use of capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.

● Support main points and assertions with relevant and credible evidence, correctly citing sources using current edition APA for

● You must support your statements with at least 5 scholarly sources (which may include your text and required readings), correctly cited in current edition APA style in-text and in the reference list at the end of the paper.