Training Police Social Workers: A Neglected Area of Social Work Education

This article begins with a discussion of the vital need for collaboration between social work and law enforcement professionals, with particular emphasis on the need for comprehensive training programs combining criminal justice and social work knowledge. It then documents several historical recommendations for training police social workers that are relevant today, and suggests that social work education programs of the future include provisions for transmitting social work knowledge to police officers. Similarly, social workers planning to practice in criminal justice settings need to have training in the administration of justice.     

Author's Response

This paper presents an overview of the content on women from the social science and social work literature that needs to be incorporated into the social work curriculum to eliminate sexist content and to provide a substantive and nonsexist knowledge base concerning women. The body of knowledge reviewed includes the literature that identifies the influence of sexism on established theory and research. Also, the paper highlights literature concerning the effects of sexism on social workers, on social welfare policy and services, and on social work practice.     

Between universal and national ‘social therapy’? Professional interventions by Jewish social workers in British Mandatory Palestine

ABSTRACT

This article explores the interrelated affinity between social work, nationality and universal humanitarianism through the case study of professional interventions by Jewish social workers in Mandatory Palestine. Given the limited literature on these professionals and the significant contribution of women in particular, it focuses on Siddy Wronsky and other German Jewish immigrants whose pre-immigration international heritage has been relegated to the margins. The article examines the therapeutic theory and practice of this unique group of social workers based on a qualitative analysis of archival texts. Several leitmotifs guiding these women emerge from the documentation of their work: the German-Jewish tradition that represented the past, the Zionist ideology that represented the future, and the encounter with a diverse immigrant population in a new geopolitical reality that represented the present. The findings indicate how, together with the transnational transfer of knowledge from the Jewish community in Germany to that in Palestine, social workers created a new profession inspired by a value system that sought to be simultaneously Zionist and universal. The article contributes to historical knowledge on social work and its ambivalent approach to a nation-building ideology as opposed to a universal commitment, as well as to an understanding of social work’s attitudes and techniques in working with immigrants and refugees.     

From Liberal Pluralism to Critical Multiculturalism: The Need for a Paradigm Shift in Multicultural Education for Social Work Practice in the United States

The mandate to educate students to work toward ending oppression and other forms of injustice is clear, but there has been little discussion in the multicultural literature about the kinds of knowledge that are needed to prepare students for such work. This article discusses the need for a paradigm shift from liberal pluralism to a critical approach to social work education and practice. It also outlines a set of core themes to guide multicultural curriculum development. These include (a) culture, (b) race and racism, (c) oppression, (d) multiple identities, (e) power, (f) whiteness and privilege, (g) historical context, and (h) social change. Obstacles to incorporating these ideas into the curriculum and recommendations for overcoming such obstacles are also discussed.     

Common and Specific Learnings for a Graduate of a School of Social Work

Abstract

Developing new scholarship on women is a recognized need in social work education. It can be furthered by applying a “gender lens” to the knowledge of the relationship between women and the welfare state. Reflecting historical concerns about providing public aid to the able-bodied male pauper and the impact of relief on the work ethic, social welfare literature has focused on male recipients while generalizing its findings to women. As a result, the story of the female pauper remains largely untold. This paper suggests that the relationship between women and the welfare state is shaped by a “family ethic” that in many ways parallels the work ethic known to shape the relationship between the welfare state and men. The family ethic is defined and applied to major income maintenance programs: public aid and social security. This article suggests foci for change.     

Epistemology of the Bottle: The Social Construction of Alcoholism and Alcoholics in Social Work Literature in the United States Between 1950 and 1959

ABSTRACT

This article examines selected social work literature that has been published in mainstream social work journals in the United States from 1950 to 1959 in order to deconstruct how alcoholism and alcoholics have been historically constructed within the social work profession. The theoretical framework employed is that of social constructionism and deconstruction. The methodology is qualitative research, specifically historical analysis. The findings of this article are discussed for their relevance to social work practice and social work education.     

Processes Employed by Social Work Practitioners in Child Welfare for Exchanging and Using Knowledge

Organisations in the health and social services sector expend a considerable amount of energy promoting the implementation of better practices and research data use in their establishments. In the field of social work, several studies suggest that social work practitioners do not make great use of scientific knowledge and tend to favour knowledge acquired from their colleagues or through their own occupational experience. However, interactions between types of knowledge are rarely analyzed in explanations proposed by the scientific literature. Based on research conducted with social work practitioners in child welfare, this article discusses the different ways that they acquire knowledge.     

Empowerment:

It has been twenty years since Robert Hill's seminal research on Black family strengths revolutionized the perceptions, attitudes and modalities related to the coping abilities of Black people. His findings were instrumental in effecting changes in a body of knowledge from one that focused on a monolithic, ethnocentric deficit model to one that affirmed strengths within an historical, culturally diverse conceptual framework. Much of the information available is theoretically based on the Euro-centric worldview resulting in limited use, acceptance and credibility among social work practitioners, social policy analysts and social work academicians. This paper revisits the literature relative to the strengths of Black families. Utilizing recent works of Billingsley (1990), Boyd-Franklin (1989) and others, the strengths of Black families will be re-examined for the purposes of comparing Hill's strength model with the contemporary model of African-American families and its implications for social work education, practice and policy. Additionally, new imperatives are described that possibly will insure African-Americans greater power and control over life situations in the decade of the 90s and into the twenty-first century.     

Service Users,Social Work Education and Knowledge for Social Work Practice

This paper explores the implications of service user contributions to social work education in the light of historical critiques of disability research. The paper reflects on the authors' dual service user and academic perspectives as well as their dual disability studies and social work disciplinary affiliations. Referring back to early critiques of disability research, it argues that isolated user involvement in social work education can be problematic, particularly where that involvement is under the control of the academy. Drawing on feminist critiques of traditional social science, the authors present arguments for the collective involvement of service users in research and underpinning knowledge for social work as well as in social work education.     

Cross-cultural Child Development for Social Workers: An Introduction

Abstract

The transgender community represents a highly marginalised portion of the Australian population, frequently experiencing discrimination, social isolation, and harm. This review explores literature informing Australian social work with transgender people. It highlights the importance of generating a transgender-positive discourse within Australian social work to effectively engage with and advocate for individuals with nontraditional gender identities. Key themes emerged from reviewing the literature related to the medical model, the mental health of transgender people, interdisciplinary and alternative transgender literature, minority status of transgender people, existing social work approaches to transgenderism, and Indigenous transgender literature. The views of transgender Australians are largely absent from the literature. However, the Australian transgender community's emerging voice and political activism highlights the potential for collaboration to play a significant role in the process of building a working knowledge base for social work. Based on the identified gaps in literature, in this paper we call for continued progress in developing a theoretical and practical knowledge base that incorporates the lived experiences of transgender Australians. We argue for the development of an approach to practice that is responsive to gender diversity. Highlighted in the review are the conditions that promote greater engagement with the transgender community.     

Gender Dynamics in Social Work Practice and Education: A Critical Literature Review

This paper offers a critical analysis of existing literature on historical and contemporary gender dynamics in Australian social work education and practice. Analyses of gender dynamics and inequalities have the potential to illuminate pathways for inclusive social work education and practice, for both practitioners and people who access social work services. This critical review of the literature demonstrates that Australian social work education and practice have been shaped by gendered discourses, structures, and power dynamics since its inception. In a contemporary sense, women constitute the majority of social work educators and practitioners, while men disproportionately dominate positions of power and prestige, although rigorous Australian data on the roles and representation of men and women are not readily available. Our findings point to the need for further engagement with gender as a unit of analysis in Australian social work research, including further engagement with inclusive and intersectional feminisms.

IMPLICATIONS

• Enhanced knowledge of Australian social work history, particularly in relation to gender, allows for a greater understanding of current gendered power relations in social work education and practice.

• Gender dynamics are underresearched in contemporary Australian social work education and practice.

• Up-to-date data on the status and representation of men, women, and nonbinary people in social work are needed as the foundation for transformative and inclusive social work education and practice.

     

Teaching Globalization to Social Work Students: In and Out of the Classroom

This paper was part of qualitative research that sought to explore motivations of Masters-level students (n = 53) in taking an elective course in international social work at a large public university in the Southeastern US. A review of the literature includes the foundational aspects of globalization and its relationship with social work education. Through content analysis, results show comportment of students' stated motivations for taking the course and the contemporaneous literature on globalization. Themes expressed are the historical context of globalization, concern about global inequalities, and the varying impacts of globalization around the world. Discussion is directed towards exploring ways of effectively infusing globalization content in the social work curricula.     

Social Work: A Profession in Search of Its Identity

Micro social work practice can be understood in the context of its historical professional traditions and dialectics as well as the environmental pressures and demands placed on the profession. In becoming a profession, social work relied heavily on principles drawn from medicine and science. Although these bodies of knowledge provided the profession certain credibility, their application may have clouded social work’s distinctive social purpose and professional identity. In its search for a distinctive function and identity, the profession of social work has struggled with numerous dialectics, as discussed in this article. These help us to better understand the profession’s search for its distinctive identity and status and the importance of including this content in social work education.     

Looking for ‘social work’ in school social work

School social workers can be seen as a professional group operating on the margin of an educational logic that dominates schools as institutions. This conditions what tasks they are assigned and what aspects of social work knowledge they will find relevant. On the other hand, the role as a sole professional and relative outsider in the organization provides a potential for school social workers to transcend established theories of social work practice. This article aims to investigate how social work theory is applied in school social work. Twelve semi-structured interviews with school social workers were analysed in terms of how they relate to four knowledge approaches derived from the literature: task-centred, systems theory, strengths and anti-oppressive. Contrary to claims within the sociology of professions that social work practice is formed largely by organizational context rather than a discipline-specific knowledge base, the interviewees seemed to lean on a robust professional foundation within social work theory. Interviewees strongly emphasised their role as working for the individual pupil and positioned themselves as somewhat in opposition to a somewhat oppressive school environment.     

Historical Knowledge of Oppression and Racial Attitudes of Social Work Students

Racism has a long history in the United States. For generations, people of color have been systematically oppressed, whereas White people have benefitted from unearned privilege. Despite major advances in civil rights, the ongoing presence and legacy of racism and White privilege result in pervasive inequities. Social work education prepares graduates to advocate for racial justice. The present study describes the historical knowledge of oppression that students (N=305) possess at the beginning of their MSW education and examines the relationship between this knowledge and the endorsement of a color-blind ideology. Students with more historical knowledge reported fewer color-blind beliefs; millennial generation students reported fewer color-blind beliefs than older students. Implications are discussed for race-conscious and competency-based social work education.     

Refusing to Listen: Are We Failing the Needs of People with Alcohol and Drug Problems?

This paper argues that social work education in the UK has persistently failed to equip its social workers with the knowledge to work effectively with people with alcohol and drug problems. In spite of continuing criticism of the profession's unwillingness or inability to engage with substance use issues, social work education has failed to respond to the calls for better training on this subject, even when specific guidance has been issued about course content. This results in a failure to meet the needs of our service users as well as social work staff who remain frustrated at their inability to intervene. The paper explores the historical and current debate about social work training in relation to alcohol and drugs and identifies the barriers to its inclusion in qualifying and post‐qualifying (PQ) curricula. Finally it offers a strategy for improving social work training as well as an overview of programme content requirements.     

Knowledge network dissemination in a family-firm sector

The literature on network often assumes that all firms in the net can benefit from knowledge externalities often reserved to the network area. Based on network analysis (historical and social) we will attempt to confirm the idea that social proximity plays a crucial role, especially in Italian clusters of small firms. We demonstrate that local knowledge relations are confined in the investigated area due to the high socio-familial substrate, the firm's capacity to recognise opportunities and co-ordination ability. The empirical analysis is based on the influence of both the characteristics of each entrepreneur and of each unit of innovation, and of the absorptive capacity (cognitive proximity) and social capital on relationships.     

Examining Two Facets of American Indian Identity: Exposure to Other Cultures and the Influence of Historical Trauma

SUMMARY

Specialized content about factors that influence the cultural identity of Native people must be included within the social work knowledge base to increase practitioners' effectiveness with this population. This article explores some of the factors which shape cultural identity for Native people and the implications of Native cultural identity for social work practice. The authors begin by recounting theoretical perspectives on culture, then report the findings of two studies that examine different factors which impact upon identity. The first study examines the impact of exposure to more than one culture on a sense of identity among Native youth in the Northeastern United States. The second study examines historical trauma and unresolved grief among the Lakota. Implications of multicultural exposure and historical unresolved grief for social work practice with Native people are discussed.     

Developing common ground for a sustainable knowledge base for social work education in the Netherlands

ABSTRACT

This article is about a research project focused on the development of a common knowledge base for social work education in the Netherlands. Recent substantial changes in society and social policy were the reason for a reconsideration of the educational content of social work education. A great urgency was established with regard to the adaptation of the study programs, including a higher level of knowledge. The aim of the project was to provide a knowledge base that creates a bridge between theory and practice and between social work practice and the societal context. The project started with an exploration of literature focusing on the significance of knowledge for professional practice and on existing classifications of the knowledge base in social work education. Subsequently a design-based empirical study was carried out using the Delphi-method. Experts agreed about the definition of the knowledge base and about the design requirements: practice-based, science-based, usable and sustainable. After an exploration of the content, a model was developed consisting of seven building blocks (BBs). The common knowledge base has been established by the Dutch Council of Schools of Social Work and is being used as the basis for the body of knowledge in all curricula of social work education in the Netherlands.