Professional Ideology, Middle Range Theories and Knowledge Building for Social Work Practice

Please address requests for reprints to Professor F. M. Loewenberg, School of Social Work, Bar-Ilan University, 52100 Ramat Gan, Israel. Summary More effective social work practice will require increased effortstoward knowledge building and theory development. Until a unifiedsocial work theory is available social workers will choose eclecticallyrelevant theoretical formulations from the large number of middlerange theories available to them from other professional disciplines.New middle range theories and innovative theoretical formulationsappear continually, resulting in a smorgasbord of theories,from which social work practitioners can choose. This articleexamines the effectiveness of an aclectic theory base for apractice profession. In the discussion of the findings noteis taken of the need for explicating social work's professionalideology as a next step in knowledge building.