Relevance of Direct Practice for Today's Social Work Educator

Abstract

At the turn of the century, teaching of social work took place in social welfare agencies on an apprenticeship basis. Spurred by the desire to move toward more profes sional standards from what was thought to be vocationalism with its production of nar row-gauged technicians, social work edu cation gradually became lodged in univer sity* or college-based schools. The autono mous school of social work controlled by a social agency gave way to schools with aca demic affiliations. By 1940, according to Kristenson's study,1 two-thirds of all social work education schools were so affiliated, and by 1965 the merger of professional social work education and academia was