Professional Ideologies and Preferences in Social Work: A British Study in Global Perspective

This paper comes at a time when the social work profession inthe UK is redefining its professional ideology and working practicesin the face of key government initiatives for social work educationand the regulation of practice. It seeks to contextualize and,thereby, inform these deliberations by providing a cross-nationalperspective. Indeed, the search for international perspectivesthat might advise or validate national perspectives on socialwork has become increasingly important (Midgley, 2001). Thepaper uses data from a global study (Weiss et al., forthcoming)that identifies and compares the attitudes of graduating socialworkers at the point of qualification in ten countries representinga diverse range of social, economic and cultural contexts (n= 781). Through a comparison of commonalities and differencesof professional ideologies and practice preferences across samples,the paper distinguishes particular characteristics of the socialwork profession in the UK. Whilst a claim cannot be made tobe representative, the findings present a set of empiricallybased contentions that provide information about what socialworkers are being trained for and what they prefer to do. Findingsreveal a mix of psycho-social orientation, whereby a welfareagenda was preferred—one that co-existed with the espousalof elements of a statutory social work role in terms of ideology,level of practice, choice of technologies, age and populationgroupings and practice strategies. Whilst such a mix appearedcontradictory in conceptual terms, the students appeared toreconcile the dilemma through the espousal of a particular valueposition. A key finding for policy makers and educators, however,concerns the fact that while the UK students felt willing towork through social problems in individual situations, theywere unhappy about the extent to which they were able to utilizetheir therapeutic skills in statutory social work settings.Their preference would be to work in the independent sector.     

Social Work Research and Its Relevance to Practice: “The Gap Between Research and Practice Continues to be Wide”

The social work profession requires a body of scientific evidence supporting the effectiveness of interventions; yet, the social work scientific community could benefit from strengthening its contribution to the profession's body of evidence. Through twenty qualitative interviews with social work professors who are employed at four-year academic institutions (referred to as “social work academics”), this study explored how academics define social work research and how they perceive research to inform practice. The data were analyzed along the six steps of thematic analysis, resulting in 13 themes and six sub-themes in relation to the definition of research activity and social work research, the extent to which research informs practice, and the barriers and facilitators to research informing practice. The findings revealed that social work continues to lack a clear definition of research and produces research that only minimally influences practice, often due to the pressure for social work academics to research and publish in support of their career trajectory within academia versus writing for practitioners. The social work profession should take action to address and further research the research-practice disconnect by establishing a clear definition and aims of social work research, and training academics in effective research-to-practice translational methods.     

The Moral Arc as a Pretzel: Social Justice in the Trenches

This article explores how social justice has been defined in social work practice and contests the claim of some in our profession that direct practice and social welfare programs are incompatible with social justice, drawing on Foucault’s work on the inextricable link between power and knowledge. This article proposes that social justice “in the trenches” needs further theorizing. Literature supporting a view that direct practice is congruent with a social justice perspective is reviewed. Theory of recognition is introduced as a possible overarching theory to ground direct practice within a social justice framework.     

社会工作伦理困境及其解决方式

社会工作专业的本质是一种道德实践,其对意识形态的介入及专业实践中所涉的道德价值判断和伦理抉择使之不同于一般的专业。社会工作在专业化的进程中包涵着诸多的伦理议题,概括之为：社会工作的道德特质、伦理困境、伦理抉择等。这些构成了社会工作复杂的价值与伦理议胚中的核心议题。对这些问题的探讨有助于进一步澄清社会工作的专业本质,并提升社会工作的专业化水平。     

Teacher,Researcher and … Policy Actor? Social Work Academics’ Involvement in Social Policy

This cross‐sectional quantitative study expands the knowledge on the level of involvement of social work academics (SWAs) in social policy formulation processes, and the factors associated with this. SWAs are an interesting case for exploring the academia–policy nexus because they are affiliated with a profession in which the discourse regards social policy as a target of intervention. The study took place in Israel, where social work is strongly embedded in academia and enjoys relatively high professional status. The study drew upon a sample, which consisted of 57 per cent of all SWAs in Israel, and employed questionnaires developed specifically for the study. The findings show that the highest levels of involvement were in activities characterized by more active, public sphere routes of influence within the policy arena that were undertaken in conjunction with traditional social work partners. Social work scholars engaged in these activities more during the initial stages of the policy process. These forms of policy involvement reflect the dual impact of academia and the social work profession upon SWAs. Associated with level of involvement were individual factors, which included academic rank, perception of the social role of academia, perceived individual policy role, and perceived policy competencies. By contrast, factors linked to institutional support for policy engagement were not found to be associated with policy involvement.     

Mental health practice in primary care: Some perspectives concerning the future of social work in organized delivery systems

Abstract

The rise of managed care as the dominant form of healthcare delivery in the U.S. clearly has dramatic implications for the profession of social work. Thus far and for good reasons, the professional dialog about managed care has largely focused on . the threats posed to the professional agenda of social work by managed care in its various forms. This article considers some of the more positive aspects of the transformation from fee‐based to population‐based healthcare systems, in particular the vigorous trend toward multidisciplinary primary care and collaborative mental health practice in primary care settings. It is argued that the market forces behind this trend also promote the emergence of models of social work practice that better integrate historically dichotomized aspects of health and mental health practice. Also considered are implications for social work education and the division of labor among the healthcare professions.     

Social Work and the Medical Profession--Arguments Against Unconditional Collaboration

Summary The history and major texts of medical social work emphasizethe need for collaboration with the medical profession. Howeverthere is a less visible history of conflict between medicineand social work. It is proposed that a critique of medicine’scontribution to health provides the foundation for a statementof principles for a social model of health for social work practice.Collaboration with medicine should be negotiated on the basisof such principles, rather than unconditional.     

Domestic violence and child abuse: developing social work practice

This paper takes as its starting point the report produced by the Social Services Inspectorate (1995), entitled Domestic Violence and Social Care , which seeks to alert social workers to the links between domestic violence and child abuse and urges the profession to respond more effectively to these two interconnected forms of violence. Having examined the research findings which provide evidence for these links, the theoretical and service delivery contexts in which these two forms of violence have been studied and conceptualized by the social work profession, both in the United Kingdom and in the United States, are identified. Studies of the social work response to domestic violence are discussed and some of the difficulties experienced by social workers in responding effectively to the needs of families where both forms of violence are experienced are considered. In particular, the issues of 'invisible' men and 'trapped' women and children are explored. It is argued that effective social work intervention which challenges these stereotypes will require additional resources and the article concludes with a consideration of whether the Messages from Research report might herald a shift in the approach to child protection that would promote the allocation of resources to this area of work.     

Nondeliberative Forms of Practice in Social Work: Artful,Actional, Analogic

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to explicate the features of a model of practice (and its theoretical supports) that characteristically employs processes other than those that are deliberatively thought out and processed verbally. The model, identified as a nondeliberative form of practice, has the capability of extending significantly the range of social work practice options. This article articulates the central features of nondeliberative forms of practice and provides a conceptual way of thinking about this modality for use throughout the profession, and in particular in social work with groups.     

An Ethical Dilemma in Elder Abuse

Abstract

While most elder abuse is perpetrated by family members, some may be performed by strangers. When the elderly victim reaches out to the social agency but then refuses services, an ethical dilemma is created for the social worker. Conflicts arise among social work values and the ethical principles of autonomy and paternalism, beneficence, and nonmaleficence. A model of ethical justification is applied that explains the possible decisions in this case. The actual resolution of the dilemma is accomplished through a social work practice principle.     

Social work education: state of the art

In assessing the appropriateness of contemporary social work education to its context, the article assumes that social work practice and education must relate to its social reality. The article argues that, since the 1970s, that reality has changed in relation to the role of the welfare state, perceptions of economic growth and the independence of the state. As a result, the roles of civil society, the community and welfare personnel have changed, with implications for social work. At the same time, the earlier tendency of social work to avoid the major social issues of the day is no longer appropriate, and the article outlines five major issues needing to be addressed by social work. In conclusion, the article presents four options that social work education should, as a total profession, address, if the profession is to play the roles demanded of it by its contemporary social reality.     

Re‐conceptualising the link between research and practice in social work: A literature review on knowledge utilisation

Despite the recent movement towards greater research use in many areas of social work, criticisms persist that decision making in practice is seldom informed by sound research evidence. Discourse about the research‐to‐practice gap in social work has tended to focus on the feasibility of evidence‐based practice for the profession, but has rarely drawn from the broader knowledge utilisation literature. There are important understandings to be gained from the knowledge utilisation field, which spans more than six decades of interdisciplinary research.This article introduces the wider knowledge utilisation literature to a social work audience. It considers the potential of this body of literature to facilitate research use in social work, as well as conceptual issues that may be hindering it from informing improvements to research utilisation in practice.     

Embedding Social Justice within Micro Social Work Curricula

Social work struggles with the dichotomy between social and economic justice and micro practice. A large percentage of United States social workers (65%) practice in micro practice settings, yet the profession is challenged to commit to its social justice roots. This article reviews the history of social and economic justice within the social work profession, examines the role of distributive justice, and outlines strategies to integrate social and economic justice into micro social work courses. The article details implications for strengthening a social and economic justice perspective in micro curricula.     

少数民族的价值观和风俗习惯在民族社会工作中的地位

民族社会工作是社会工作在中国实施中的一个重要领域,基于社会工作是一个以价值为本的专业,价值体系的构建对民族社会工作尤其具有重要意义。民族社会工作的价值体系包括社会工作的价值体系、少数民族的价值观、社会工作者个人的素质三方面的内容,其中,社会工作的价值体系是基础,少数民族的价值观和社会工作者个人的素质则是民族社会工作在实务中的具体考虑。     

社会工作课程理论教学与实践教学的整合优化研究

21世纪我国社会工作教育已经进入新的发展时期。社会工作教育的发展,说明它在协调社会关系、防止社会冲突、解决社会问题方面显示出重要作用。但是,通过对社会工作专业学生、教师以及机构社工进行调查,本文认为,在社会工作教育发展中存在两大主要问题:教学中的"重实践、轻理论"和实践中的"重书本、轻操作",针对此情况,进一步提出从加强社会工作专业的理论意识和建立社会工作专业实践教学的操作平台两方面着手解决,为后社会工作专业的教育教学提供较为客观和现实的指导和建议。     

Revisiting Eight Decades of Social Work Education in India

Social work education commenced in India in 1936 with the establishment of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. This paper examines the historical evolution of professional social work education in India. It also critically examines the growth of social work education, fieldwork practice, and social work as a profession in India to discern its limitations. Various alarming situations have hampered the growth of social work in India and as such the profession suffers a credibility problem. We offer recommendations for the growth and success of social work education in India.     

Ethics in program evaluation

As is the general practice, the evaluation of social work is fitted with ethical structures, some of them encoded, most of them implicit in the activities, rationales, and compassions of the profession. It is useful to have multiple codes, expressing ethical concern from different perspectives, for each reaches into different shadows. Ethical behavior is not so much a matter of following principles as of balancing competing principles. Realization and resolution of ethical conflict come largely from within the individual social worker and evaluator. We describe three program evaluation situations to illustrate these points.     

The post-1994 transformation of social work in South Africa

This article examines the transformation of social work in South Africa in response to the transition to a developmental welfare approach. Always moulding and shaping itself in response to its social context, social work in South Africa, as elsewhere, is a reflection of the broader political landscape. In South Africa the social work profession has struggled to assert its independence and become self-regulating. It is unique in the Western world in that since 1978 it has been regulated by a legislatively constituted statutory council. While the profession has tried to transform itself in the new democracy, outside pressures have found it wanting and deeply divided. Thus, despite progress in other areas social workers have not yet been successful in forming a strong, united professional association and this severely limits its ability to lobby politicians and advocate on behalf of clients. It seems, however, that the tide is turning and social workers are gaining recognition but, once again, the challenge remains deciding on the extent to which the profession cooperates with the government's agenda for change. Social work educators took the lead in setting education standards in response to higher education policy and are also playing a part in devising practice standards through their involvement in the social work board which falls under the umbrella of the Council for Social Service Professions. However, education and practice are somewhat out of step and professional unity remains a pressing issue on social work's transformation agenda.     

The story of the PPO queen: the development and acceptance of a spoiled identity in child protection social work

The efficacy of child protection social work is regularly being questioned in the media as vociferous critics deride the profession for the apparent failings of its practitioners. This paper aims to examine the impact this hostility can have on practice and the relationship practitioners develop with their organization and subsequently the families they work with. By using autoethnography, a personal experience I encountered whilst working as a statutory social worker for an Emergency Duty Team will be explored in detail in order to analyse how discursive regimes can endorse and encourage particular ways of thinking and doing for social workers. I also intend to demonstrate that when workers operate in a risk averse environment, oppressive practices can develop subconsciously. These not only affect professionals’ values and assumptions but also fortify distance between the social worker and the client. If social work is to facilitate positive change in the current climate of uncertainty, then it is hoped that this story may enable both practitioners, and their critics, to recognize that being open to different forms of knowledge could lead to better outcomes for all involved.     

过渡治理情境下的中国社会服务困境:基于Z市社会工作服务的研究

社会工作近十年来在创新社会治理的推动下发展迅速。本文将重点关注于社会服务组织的服务供给过程及其导致的社会服务困境。通过对治理情境的拓展分析,引入过渡治理情境概念,分析我国社会服务供给。在此情境下,本文以Z市家庭综合服务中心为例,围绕自由裁量权这一概念讨论社会服务组织的服务供给策略及其所导致的服务困境。在过渡治理情境中,消极的自由裁量权与社会工作的半专业化发展结合在一起,社会服务组织选择了“活动化”和“指标化”的服务供给,令社会服务处于创新和碎片化之间,而导致社会服务陷入困境。社会服务困境根源的解决在于建立合作的治理情境、强化本土化社工专业力量以及充分发挥第三方的社会服务供给效力。