Abstract
This article explores the attitudes of Japanese and Lithuanian social work program teachers towards the challenges posed by modern technologies that may transform social work profession and studies. Study data revealed that scientists from both countries admit that “taming” technologies and optimally “cooperating” with them is the main challenge of social work practice and studies. On the one hand, belief that technological development will provide more opportunities to fulfil the mission of social work was prevalent among the study participants, on the other hand, they had expressed concern that eventually the use of technology will change the essence of social work as a profession of human relations or will create modified forms of social exclusion. Additionally, a niche for the new role of the social worker was identified: to help the world “occupied” by technology remain “social”. Attitudes of research participants from both Lithuania and Japan can be linked to traditional concept of sociality and vision of social work as profession that belongs exclusively to area of human relations. B. Latour’s asocial sociality concept can be applied for broader look into this situation. This concept states that efforts to trace the contribution of actors of an inhuman nature to what belongs in the human world may be more successful when one ceases to view the world exclusively through human eyes and tries to reveal the inner perspectives of phenomena of a mixed nature.
Highlights
This article explores the attitudes of Japanese and Lithuanian social work program teachers towards the challenges posed by modern technologies that may transform social work profession and studies
Study data revealed that scientists from both countries admit that “taming” technologies and optimally “cooperating” with them is the main challenge of social work practice and studies
Belief that technological development will provide more opportunities to fulfil the mission of social work was prevalent among the study participants, on the other hand, they had expressed concern that eventually the use of technology will change the essence of social work as a profession of human relations or will create modified forms of social exclusion
Summary
Toks diskursas apie technologijų integraciją į socialinio darbo studijų programas yra neišvengiamas dėl šiuolaikiniame pasaulyje vykstančios ypač sparčios technologijų pažangos, nors mokslininkai pažymi, kad neretai profesinio rengimo programos ir pedagogika kol kas yra nepakankamai įsitraukusi ar ignoruoja šias transformacijas (Buckingham Shum, 2015). Pavyzdžiui, Huang & Sharif (2017), kurie labai kritiški socialinio darbo studijų programų dėstytojų atžvilgiu, teigia, kad jie gali pasižymėti tam tikru „technologiniu aklumu“, keisdami savo požiūrį į technologijas dėl pirmiau aptartų tradicinių socialinio darbo profesijos ypatumų. Kaip šiuolaikinės technologijos keičia socialinio darbo profesiją ir kokius reikalavimus kelia šios srities dėstytojų kompetencijoms, yra labai aktualūs ir laiku. Straipsnyje keliama problema, kad pastaraisiais dešimtmečiais itin sparčiai socialinio darbo lauke vykstanti technologijų plėtra keičia šios profesinės veiklos sampratą, kai į darbuotojo ir kliento santykius įsiterpia naujas veikėjas – ne žmogus, iš esmės modifikuodamas šią sąveiką ir keldamas daug neatsakytų klausimų
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