Educational Linkages between Undergraduate Education in Social Welfare and Professional Social Work Education

Schools of social work in the United States and in Canada have for many years, supported and encouraged their faculty to accept visiting professorships or research appointments in foreign schools of social work. This program has benefited both faculty and students through enriched course content. However, only in recent years have more than a few faculty from foreign schools of social work joined the faculties of schools of social work in the United States and Canada as visiting professors. There is no question that these faculty members have made a contribution to social work education in the schools where they were resident. This author provides insights on how visiting professors might affectively contribute as members of faculty and questions the emphasis we are presently giving to methodology at the expense of our commitment to the ideological and moral base of social work.     

Educational Ingredients for Occupational Social Work Practice

Abstract

This article reports on the procedures and findings of an exploratory study to determine future educational requirements for engagement in the re-emerging field of occupational social work. This study utilized the “Delphi method” to determine what an informed group of geographically dispersed social work educators and practitioners from across the United States and Canada could agree upon with respect to the educational offerings considered essential in preparation for engaging in occupational social work in the 1990s. A combined total of fifty-one educational ingredients were accorded an above-average priority rating and ranked within the categories of knowledge and skill. With the identification of the items of agreement, a strong basis is provided for sound curriculum planning and development. The study concludes with a discussion of educational issues and implications.     

Social Work Education

The authors assess the current state of social work education and make suggestions for its improvement, which include distinguishing between specialized and professional knowledge courses, teaching interpersonal skills for working with organizations and communities, differentiating subventionary and instrumental interventions, reformulating course content on policy and administration, dealing with the problems of social work’s expanding curriculum, broadening the range of activities and methods taught in social work research courses, providing incentives for collective faculty participation in curriculum development, and acknowledging the persistent anti-intellectual undercurrent in social work.     

Education for Cross-Cultural Social Work Practice

Abstract

Little attention has been given to the needs of international and American social work students who are preparing for direct practice outside of the United States. A preliminary model of cross-cultural social work practice is described as the basis for a course in direct social work practice in international settings.     

团结求索不断前行——中国社会工作教育协会20年

至2014年底,中国社会工作教育协会已走过了20年的历程.从呱呱坠地到进入弱冠之年,中国社会工作教育协会在各方支持和社会工作教育群体的不懈努力下,摸索创新、砥砺前行.在新的现实条件下,面对新的社会责任,社会工作教育群体要总结经验、真诚反思、开创进取.中国社会工作教育协会在探索中前行1994年底,中国社会工作教育协会正式成立.协会的宗旨是团结国内社会工作教育的教学、科研和实际工作者,同心同德,互相合作,促进中国社会工作教育事业发展.在这一宗旨的昭示下,为了实现共同的目标,20年来,社会工作教育群体脚踏实地、团结合作、开拓前进.在教育部、民政部等政府部门的支持下,在境内外同仁的大力帮助下,促进了社会工作教育的较快发展,也推动了社会工作事业的发展.     

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.     

Sustainable Social Work: An Environmental Justice Framework for Social Work Education

Environmental degradation is not experienced by all populations equally; hazardous and toxic waste sites, resource contamination (e.g., exposure to pesticides), air pollution, and numerous other forms of environmental degradation disproportionately affect low income and minority communities. The communities most affected by environmental injustices are often the same communities where social workers are entrenched in service provision at the individual, family, and community level. In this article, we use a global social work paradigm to describe practical ways in which environmental justice content can be infused in the training and education of social workers across contexts in order to prepare professionals with the skills to respond to ever-increasing global environmental degradation. We discuss ways for social work educators to integrate and frame environmental concerns and their consequences for vulnerable populations using existing social work models and perspectives to improve the social work profession's ability to respond to environmental injustices. There are significant social work implications; social workers need to adapt and respond to contexts that shape our practice, including environmental concerns that impact the vulnerable and oppressed populations that we serve.     

Antiracism Expanding Social Work Education: A Qualitative Analysis of the Undoing Racism Workshop Experience

The importance of addressing implications of racism has reached a critical point at colleges and universities across the United States, and schools of social work are no exception. This study uses grounded theory methods to thematically analyze data from student participants (N=30) on their thoughts and reactions during a 2 1/2-day Undoing Racism workshop sponsored by the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond. Qualitative data were collected to answer the research question, How do students experience an intensive Undoing Racism workshop, and what are the implications for integrating antiracism into social work education? Findings imply that workshop-based learning may be more effective than solely using course content to teach antiracism material and also indicate the importance of activity-based learning, as well as an emphasis on developing concrete strategies to combat racism.     

Social Work Values in Human Services Administration: Implications for Social Work Education

The perceived wisdom in the social work education community, based on empirical research from the 1990s and the early part of this century, says that the master of social work (MSW) degree is not competitive with the master of business administration or the master of public administration to obtain top-level administration jobs in nonprofit agencies. This article reviews recent information on hiring preferences of board chairs that provides new hope that the MSW degree with a concentration in management or administration is perceived as a viable and useful degree for top-level positions in human services agencies. Thus, current board chairs are more inclined to value the MSW than administrators and academics from years past. The reason is that the values of social workers are seen as quite valuable in the current environment.     

Community-Based Research Strategies for Social Work Education

Teaching students to understand, appreciate, and utilize research based in the community is needed in social work education. This paper outlines five strategies for involving students in community- based research and discusses the advantages to this approach. Examples drawn from the authors' experiences are used to demonstrate application.     

Attachment-informed Supervision for Social Work Field Education

Supervisory relationships present a new population for the application of attachment theory, and conceptualization of attachment-informed supervision training offers a new direction for study. This paper presents an 8-month model of supervision training for social work field instructors of MSW students. The training’s design incorporates primary attachment concepts with an understanding of the supervisory working alliance and parallel process. An overview of the in-person and on-line pilot training is presented, including perceptions from the participants regarding the training’s usefulness. This training program has implications for effective social work field education, and recommendations are suggested for future attachment research on supervision.

Exploring Epistemologies: Social Work Action as a Reflection of Philosophical Assumptions

Abstract

Using Habermas' (1971) Grand Theory and Schaefer's (1979) notion of Theory as Fiction, two major philosophical assumptions that undergird the literature, practice and teaching of social work are reviewed. Empiricism dominates social work theory and aims at technical control. Existentialism has been an important but marginal voice and attempts to explain subjective meaning. Two newer theoretical positions also are introduced: Critical theory, which considers humanity's ability to reflect on history to be an agent of societal change; and deconstruction, which questions the validity of any structure. The article concludes with a consideration of the implications of using each position as a context for teaching.     

Working Together for Better Social Work Education

This article looks at the development of user involvement in social work education at national policy level. It is written by a group of service users who are involved in Shaping Our Lives, the national independent user controlled organisation and network. The article looks at the background of user involvement in social work education and the work that Shaping Our Lives has done in the past. The new social work qualification requires user involvement in all its aspects and stages. The results so far have been patchy. Service users have made it increasingly clear that they want to be more directly involved in developing this policy alongside other stakeholders. They are particularly keen that some of the funding available goes to user controlled organisations to help develop service users' capacity to get involved and to ensure diverse involvement. The article looks at problems there have been in taking this goal forward and a positive initiative that has developed to help make it happen, led by service users, working collaboratively with other stakeholders.     

Ideology and Education for Social Work Practice

Three approaches to social work practice (Personal Deficiency, Ecological, and Political Economy) which emerge from different ideological positions (conservative, liberal and socialistlfeminist, respectively) are summarized. Utilizing a case example demonstrates how the assumptions inherent in each approach result in different problem detinitions and practice interventions. Only one of these approaches (Political Economy) supports methods of intervention which foster social transformation. Guidelines and implications for social work practice and social work education adhering to a political economy approach are discussed. Substantively different practice methods and educational models are required if sociar transformation is to be supported.     

Tomorrow's Social Needs and Social Work Education

This paper presents a rationale and educational plan for teaching statistical orientation (not statistics per se) by means of a series of practice questions that are, at the same time, basic statistical questions. These questions include, for example, measures of central tendency, “What can typically be expected of the client's problem behavior?” and measures of variability, “What range of variation from the typical is typical?” Set in a context of practice, these types of questions do not seem to provoke the hostility among social work students that often typifies their reaction to traditional statistics courses.     

Social Work Field Education as Social Development

SUMMARY

This article will discuss social development models and their application to the establishment of social work field education in Lithuania. A model of field education as social development is presented and discussed, with reference to promoting core social work knowledge, values and skills, establishing relationships between educational and social welfare institutions, and identifying the impact of field education programs on community well-being. Examples from the authors' experience in educational program development and implementation are presented, along with implications for international social work education.     

Expanding the Postpartum Depression Construct Using a Social Work Paradigm

This paper describes and evaluates current definitions and models of postpartum depression. Research on prevalence, risk and resiliency factors is reviewed. A more comprehensive approach to postpartum mood disorders is proposed. The “Model Assessing Maternal Adjustment” (MAMA) is based on the biopsychosocial approach of social work and can be utilized for both client self-assessment and clinical assessments by professionals across various disciplines. The MAMA approach moves beyond sole focus on depressive symptoms to include anxiety symptoms and bipolar disorders and lengthens the time frame to include the pregnancy through the first year postpartum.     

Internationalism in Social Work Education

Internationalism is the study of social work programs and philosophies in other countries. It promotes a broad concept of generic social work that enables the social worker to function as a humanist with skills rather than as a specialist with humanistic inclinations. Knowledge of social work in other cultures provides valuable insight into dealing with cross-cultural and ethnic relationships in one's own country. It also suggests common linkages between diverse kinds of social work practices. International experience provides case examples and evidence of new kinds of skills that social workers need in a culturally pluralistic society.     

Microcomputers in Social Work Education

Microcomputer use has increased dramatically in the last five years. Use of this technology has expanded rapidly in social work education, but less rapidly in clinical practice. Trends in educational and practice uses of this technology are explored along with the limitations of and myths about computers in education and practice. Educational curriculum issues are identified and an outline for planning computers as transient information or enduring knowledge are covered. Concerns about availability of equipment and supports are raised.