Has Social Work Heeded the Call? Sex Offender Content in Social Work

The relationship between theory, research and practice in the contemporary UK social work curriculum is examined in the context of the New Labour Government's insistence on making explicit the connections between knowledge, research, standards and ‘best practice’ in its regulatory discourse. The argument suggests that far from being obvious, settled or predictable in the way in which this discourse suggests, the relationship between research, theory and practice is highly contentious and certainly unresolved. The article then goes on to look at concepts of theory and research. ‘Theory’ is seen as having evolved with little reference to evidence and ‘research’ is seen as having established a new intellectual hegemony without having engaged with or contributed significantly to the development of practice theory. The article concludes that the trend towards a professional and intellectual fragmentation of the social work discipline needs to be reversed if students are to develop their own ‘research mindedness’.     

Enjoying Women's Work

FATE is full of opportunities. Before going to college, I studied in a middle school in the suburban area of Changchun, Jilin Province. Because I studied hard, I had been a cadre in class. Some villagers said, "This girl is so capable. She could take charge of the work concerning women in our village." I was very glad to hear these words.     

Art Work Qipao

Zhang Oihas altered traditional Chinese dress, the qipao by widening the neckband and sleeves and adding shoulder pads These changes especially the frumpet-shaped Sleeves bring an elegant modemity to this traditional costume Zhang uses wax-printed cloth tiedyed cloth, hand-woven blue cloth with designs in while, minority-style hand woven colorful cloth and Miaostyle embroideries for her desiqns     

Concerns Raised in Sex

NEARLY a decade after the first human sexuality research was begun in China, nine associations and four research institutions have been established to further explore the science of human sexuality. As a result, the country's first large-     

So Man-yee's Design Work

SO Man-yee started to learn Western painting in1971. In 1973 she graduated from the Linhai ArtSchool in Hong Kong after spending three yearsstudying commercial design. After leaving the schoolshe started work with advertisement agencies. Thatexperience prepared her for further development inthe design field. So founded her own design company in 1976 withher friend Han Binhua. Apart from this project, So isalso involved in art education. So is a member of theboard of the Hong Kong Zhengxing Design School,executive member of the Association of Designers inHong Kong, member of the board of Hong KongArtists, chief director of the board of Hong Kong'sKinggraphic Co. Ltd., and also chairperson of theHong Kong Women Painters Association. A famous watercolorist in Hong Kong, So has heldseveral eye-catching exhibitions there. Her exhibitionsinclude the one-woman show entitled "So Man-yee'sRhythm of Watercolors" held in 1987 at the HongKong Art Center. In 1996 a grand exhibition of HongKong artists hosted by the     

The Work of Halida

28The Work of Halida     

Sex Inversion Operations in China

IN July 1992, Dr. Xia Zhaoji, 58, and his assistants surprised the world by successfully completing the world's first operation to partially replant human internal reproductive organs. BBC broadcast this 8-minute news story ten days later, followed by AP, Reuters and AFP, as well as some other domestic and international media. What is a sex inversion operation? Why should people change their sex? And how is it     

“I Am Tired But If I Don't Try to Have Sex,My Wife Will Think I've Been Fooling around in the City”: Work,Migration, and Sex Among Vietnamese Migrant Laborers

Mostly operating from a risk and risk-reduction paradigm, existing research on migrants in Vietnam tends to conceptualize sex and risky sexual behaviors as isolated life domains. This study begins to develop a contextually rich understanding of migrants’ sex lives by examining the relationships among sex, work, and the constant pendulum-like migrating movements of 23 Vietnamese married migrants in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Using data from in-depth interviews, it was found that most participants had no sex in the city; this was followed by visits to the home village, where they had sex with their spouses as often as possible to make up for the “long drought” in the city. Within this sexual schema, sex came secondary, and even peripherally, to migrants’ working lives; thus, exhaustion from work was cited by migrants as the overwhelming factor leading to their sexual problems. This study suggests that migrants’ intimate lives are more strongly linked to their working lives than has previously been recognized, and that their sexual behaviors should be viewed in tandem with the hardships of their working lives.     

Social Work Training or Social Work Education? An Approach to Curriculum Design

Population ageing, economic circumstances and human behaviour are placing social welfare systems under great strain. In England, extensive reform of the social work profession is taking place. Training curricula are being redesigned in the context of new standards of competence for social workers—the Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF). Students must be equipped on qualifying to address an extensive range of human problems, presenting major challenges to educators. Critical theory suggests an approach to tackle one such challenge—selecting the essential content required for areas of particular practice. Teaching on social work with older people is used to illustrate this. Habermas' theory of cognitive interests highlights the different professional roles served by the social work knowledge base—instrumental, interpretive and emancipatory. Howe's application of sociological theory distinguished four social work roles corresponding to these. It is suggested that curriculum design decisions must enable practitioners to operate in each. When preparing students to work with older people, educators therefore need to include interpretive and emancipatory perspectives, and not construct social work purely as an instrumental response to problems older people present. This approach provides one useful rationale for curriculum design decisions, which is applicable to other areas of practice, and to contexts outside England.     

Talking About Sex with Your Child

MENGMENG paid no attention to her body's changes at age 10. She changed her underwear in front of others. "Dad, carry me out, please," she called just as usual when she finished bathing. Her mother thought at first it was good for her daughter's personality development, since she was not bothered by shyness at puberty. However, one day the father told his wife, "I can't hold our daughter in my arms any more as before." Until then, her mother realized it was time to give her daughter a lesson on sex     

How Women See Their Work

MOST modern women place a very high importance on earning the respect of society through the work that they do: they consider themselves very fortunate if they have a job which they are interested in. However, when been asked about what they regard as the most crucial thing in their working life they answered quite differently:- "I need to earn money for economic reasons"- "Earning money earns me respect from my family and society."- "Working is the focus and center of     

NGO Work Committee Visits Beijing

ON June 27, 19 members of the Work Committee of the UN FWCW's 1995 NGO Forum on Women arrived in Beijing. During their five-day visit in the capital they talked with representatives from the host country about preparations for the forum, the meeting place, facilities and other relevant matters. Huang Qizao, Vice-Chairperson of the FWCW's China Organizing Committee, Committee Director of the NGO Forum and     

Research Note—Is Social Work Education a Form of Social Work Practice?

ABSTRACT

The inclusion of social work education as a form of practice has been missing from the debates on the need for a unified definition of social work practice. This Research Note reports the findings from interviews with 20 social work educators who were asked whether social work education is a form of social work practice and were encouraged to elaborate on their response. The qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis and revealed five themes. The findings contribute to the debate on the need for clarification among social work authorities in shaping the definition of social work practice and the need to provide a clear stance on the extent to which social work education is a form of social work practice.     

“Live Social Work”: How to Bring Life Back into Social Work

Abstract

In this article I discuss how professional social work can entail critical, reflexive work. This is accomplished by adapting the concept of “live sociology”. It is mainly an exploratory article, trying to raise suggestions that can be adopted and be further developed. I argue that people coming into contact with contemporary social work are sometimes reduced to being “dead” objects, as they are pinned down into static categories. The demand for developing evidence-based social work risks substantiating this tendency even further. In contrast, I claim that social work needs to move away from these kinds of explanations and instead turn towards developing “live social work”; that is to say, social work where everyday life, agency, and what people do in what context needs to be the focus, not what people are.     

“Social Work Idealism” and Students’ Perceived Reasons for Entering Social Work

This article reports the results of a study designed to measure “social work idealism” and factors influencing career choice among beginning BSW and MSW students. Influence factors were categorized as altruism, professional concerns, and influence of others. The investigators explored the predictive capacity of idealism and student demographics on the career choice factors reported by students. Overall, idealism ran high among all students, and altruistic reasons were reported as more important than professional reasons in their career choice. Also, students who scored high on social work idealism tended to attach greater importance to altruistic reasons than to professional concerns, as did younger students and female students.     

Putting Aside the Tired Work Garb

GARMENT design may soundlike a sidetrack for someonewho majored in Russianlanguage and whose work experienceincludes more than ten years as ateacher.But it was a natural choice forWei Wenqiao,born into a family of     

A Youth Spent in Construction Work

■woman among ■peopie who are working at the ■site of China's world ■Three ■a driver of No One ■orporation under the Gezhouba Group,she ■drives a 34-ton Karter truck every day.     

Is Social Work Research Distinctive?

What makes social work research distinctive? And how is our answer linked to how we do social work research? Drawing on UK research council statements about social work research as a starting point, I argue that it makes some degree of sense to ask what is distinctive about social work research. But the more significant question is what might make social work research distinctively good? I suggest six benchmarks. These address the case for methodological excellence; inquiry marked by rigour, range, variety, depth and progression; active conversation with the social science community; consistency with broader social work purposes; attention to aspects of the research enterprise that are close to social work; and taking seriously aspects of the research mission that seem on the face of it far from social work. However, social work and social work research will be the poorer if we over‐emphasize the distinctives at the expense of commonalities in fostering and assessing best practice and best purpose.     

Business in Social Work Education: A Historically Black University’s Social Work Entrepreneurship Project

The destabilization of the current economy has sparked increased interest in entrepreneurship, especially for underrepresented minority social work students. The entrepreneurial thinking of these social work students entering social work programs at historically Black colleges and universities needs to be fostered in a learning environment. This article describes a historically Black university’s creative social entrepreneurship venture in response to the Social Work Congress’s 2010 imperative “Business of Social Work—Infuse models of sustainable business and management practice in social work education and practice.” The social entrepreneurship project uses the interprofessional collaborative educational model and attempts to provide meaningful and relevant education to social work students interested in social entrepreneurship through the collaborative efforts of the university’s School of Social Work and the School of Business and Management.     

Is Social Work Really Being Recognized? Problems with Social Work Employment Opportunities in Mainland China

Since social work education was reintroduced in Chinese universities in the 1980s, there are 303 bachelor of social work programs and 62 master of social work programs. Yet, the development of social work positions has lagged behind. This study aimed to study the current development of social work employment opportunities in Mainland China through an empirical lens. Data on social work positions were collected from three employment websites over a 30-day period. Data on 248 social work job postings were analyzed using content analysis and ArcGIS spatial distribution analysis. We identified three problems in the current development of social work profession in China: inconsistency between government policy, social work education, and available jobs; geographic disparities of the distribution of social work jobs; and mismatch between social work education and social work employment opportunities. We provided implications to address each problem.