Setting and crossing boundaries: professionalization of social work and social work professionalism

Grey documentation is not a notable source of knowledge within the social work profession. The dominant perspective in social work is the positivist-empirical approach which emphasizes the scientific paradigm. The role that grey documentation can play as a knowledge base is presented. Five areas were identified where grey documentation can contribute to the social work knowl edge base. Three organizational frameworks which are conducive to the production of grey documentation in the social work profession are described. The problem of dissemination of knowledge based on grey documentation in the social work profession is raised.

This research project aimed to find ways to increase the capacity of social workers to improve environmental wellbeing by examining hybrid organisations. It is important that social workers act to increase environmental wellbeing because environmental systems are being placed under severe pressure from pollution, accelerated loss of biodiversity, soil loss and climate change (Dylan, 2012; Gray et al., 2017; IUCN, 2015; Steffen et al., 2015; Zapf, 2010). From perspectives that recognise the innate value of the natural world this damage is immoral but even from an anthropocentric perspective the damage to the environment is exacerbating environmental injustice and reducing the ability of humans to survive (Boetto, 2019; Jones, 2011; McKinnon & Bay, 2013). This research project used a multi-case study method framed through the ontological and epistemological lens of critical realism (Bergene, 2007; Bhaskar, 2016; Easton, 2010; O’Gorman & MacIntosh, 2015; Vincent & O'Mahoney, 2018). Based on the theory of social learning (Lysack, 2009; McLeod, 2013; Sundel & Sundel, 2005) it was expected that people would learn how to act in more environmentally beneficial ways through interaction with other people. Initially the theory of social learning did appear as the mechanism to cause change, however as more detailed analysis was undertaken, it was found that social learning was not the only mechanism. The term hybrid organisation has no strict definition and is applied broadly (Barraket et al., 2010; Raynolds et al., 2014; Sabeti, 2011) but for the purposes of this project, hybrid organisations are defined as non-government organisations seeking to achieve environmental and social benefits rather than maximising financial profit. The three hybrid businesses examined for this project; Food Connect – linking urban consumers with local sustainable farmers, Substation 33 – recycling e-waste and Running Wild – assisting long term unemployed, were able to achieve both environmental and social benefits. The study was successful in identifying activities hybrid organisations undertake to improve the wellbeing of the environment and identifying how these activities improve environmental outcomes. Factors that supported environmental wellbeing assisted participants to act in environmentally beneficial ways and by involving people in environmentally beneficial activities participants demonstrated changes in their beliefs and practices. As well as these enabling factors, many barriers to participation in environmentally beneficial activities were also identified. The findings were then assessed from a social work perspective and possible applications for social work were identified. Social workers could seek to add the successful practices demonstrated by hybrid organisations to social work to increase the environmentally beneficial outcomes of social work practice. It also appears that the skills and knowledge of social workers could be helpful in overcoming barriers to increasing environmental wellbeing. The compatibility of the hybrid model with social work appears strong, as tasks considered important in defining social work were being undertaken in hybrid businesses. Being able to realise social benefits while achieving environmental benefits, strengthens the case for adding the environmentally beneficial activities to social work practice. In addition, people with training in the profession of social work could make a useful contribution to any organisation seeking to implement a hybrid business model.

This paper aims to establish strategies of coping with COVID-19 pandemic adopted by the clients of social assistance from the perspective of social workers. The qualitative research among Polish social workers and family assistants was conducted from September to November 2021. Based on 30 in-depth interviews with social work professionals, groups of social assistance clients’ behaviours were identified and classified into the theoretical models of reactions to social change by Merton and Giddens. The following types of behaviour have been selected and categorized into four groups of reactions when dealing with social workers in a pandemic situation: coolheaded calculation, defiance, confusion, and adaptation. At the same time, reactions to the situation of social change were categorized into one of the strategies of active or passive behaviour: innovation, contestation, retreat, and acceptance. In addition, we discussed the impact of clients’ coping strategies on social workers and established three attitudes of the surveyed social workers: adapting to the pandemic situation and customer behaviour, assuming the role of an emotional buffer and informant, and expecting support from superiors and coworkers. Knowing the behaviour of social assistance clients in a challenging situation makes it possible to adopt tailor-made measures.

In contemporary Ghana, the traditional system and professional social work operate as two parallel systems within the field of social work. The aim of this study was to investigate if and how the teaching of contemporary professional social work in Ghana takes into account traditional actors and practices. The traditional system includes extended family members and traditional authorities such as chiefs or family heads. It formed the social institution that protected and cared for the vulnerable before (Western) social work was introduced as a formal profession in Ghana. A 10-week ethnographic field study was conducted at the Department of Social Work at the University of Ghana. The study employed a qualitative, social constructionist approach, interpreting the results within a theoretical framework of social world theory. The empirical material consisted of interviews with students and teachers, participant observation at lectures, and various documents. The main findings of the study were that professional social workers and traditional actors can be seen as members of two subworlds – the subworld of professional social workers and the subworld of traditional actors. Students and teachers discuss interventions from the perspective of social workers and traditional actors. Their ability to take different perspectives seems to be crucial for localisation – the process by which social work is made relevant to local culture and traditions. The interviewees’ accounts reveal how localisation is not only about culture, but also about social structures and practical considerations. The poor state of the social work profession in Ghana affects interventions in a profound way.

The human rights perspective is emphasized through the social work code of ethics and practice principles. However, the efforts to improve the human rights perspective of social workers were insufficient in gerontological social work education in South Korea. Thus, the study aimed to prove the effects of a human rights-based approach intervention for gerontological social workers, which consisted of nine online sessions using Zoom. PI developed the program based on McPherson’s integrated framework for Human Rights Practice in Social Work. A quasi-experimental design was used. The experimental group consisted of 36 social workers, and the control group was 31 social workers at senior centers. The pre-post tests for the experimental group and posttest for the control group were conducted. The socio-demographic characteristics of the two groups were equivalent. The key measure was the Human Rights Lens in Social Work (HRLSW) scale consisting of two sub-dimensions: social problems as rights violations and clients as experiencing rights violations.The effect sizes of the online program’s effects on the social worker’s rights-based perspective were large over .90. In addition, the degrees two dimensions of the HRLSW at the posttest were significantly higher than those of the control group (social problems as rights violations: d = 1.04, p < .001; clients as experiencing rights violations: d=0.98, p<.001). Based on the findings of this study, the implications of human rights education and training were discussed to improve the human rights-based perspective of gerontological social workers.

This special issue in the Journal of Social Work Education is a forum for professional and scholarly discourse on military social work education initiatives developed to educate and train social work professionals and students for practice with military personnel, veterans, and their families across the micro–macro continuum. Special emphasis was given to educational and technological trends, innovations, and challenges related to educating the next generation of social workers to provide evidence-based services to a new generation of veterans that incorporate the CSWE’s (2010) advanced knowledge and practice behaviors in military social work and NASW’s (2012) practice standards. Additional focus was given to university–community and university–military partnerships, collaborations, and initiatives that involve community and military stakeholders. Quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods, and conceptual manuscripts from researchers, educators, and practitioners on military social work education and practice were solicited from the professional social work community. In this special issue we highlight select exemplars of the social work profession’s unique contributions to military social work education. The issue is divided into two sections: (1) discourse on the integration of military social work into professional social work education and (2) innovative military social work education and training programs for doctoral and master’s students, student veterans, and licensed social work professionals—many including program evaluation and other research components. Each section is described in following paragraphs, including a brief overview of representative manuscripts. Integration of Military Social Work Into Professional Social Work Education Four manuscripts highlight military social work as a field of practice requiring specialized knowledge and skills, teaching strategies based on the CSWE competencies and advanced practice behaviors in military social work, the inclusion of military and veteran culture in social work education curricula, and adapting social work field placements for training in military social work practice. Wooten presents a rationale for military social work as a specialized field of practice, the need for military social work education, and opportunities and challenges for professional social work education. She delineates foundation and advanced knowledge in military social work and concludes by proposing an integrated model of intellectual capital to guide strategic planning for professional military social work education in addition to professional infrastructure needed to develop intellectual capital in military social work. For social work educators unfamiliar with military and veteran culture, Daley provides examples of teaching strategies based on CSWE’s advanced practice behaviors in military social work for integration into social work courses, specifically focusing on their application to CSWE’s Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS; CSWE, 2008). He identifies foundation and advanced year military social work educational goals based on EPAS 2.1.1 to 2.1.10 and suggests that the infusion of military social work across the social work curriculum will assist students and faculty in becoming more sensitive to the issues faced by military service members, veterans, and their families. Continuing the application of CSWE’s EPAS to military social work education, Canfield and Weiss proposes the inclusion of military-related material into the foundation courses of undergraduate and graduate social work education because social workers providing services in civilian settings not focused on military-related difficulties may encounter military personnel, veterans, and families who seek services outside of the DoD and VA. Key issues, military examples, and resources are recommended for the integration of military culture into human behavior in the social environment, generalist practice, research methods, and social policy core curricula. With a focus on field education as the signature pedagogy of social work education, Selber, Chavkin, and Biggs advance a promising field instruction model in military social work with the growing student veteran population on American campuses. This innovative approach to field education expands placement opportunities beyond the VA for professional training in service delivery to current and past military cohorts.

”Make room!” Concerning ableism, paternalism and the construction of dis/ability Within the social work profession, social vulnerability and social justice are central concerns. However, professional emphasis is on economic and social conditions and less on dis/ability, despite the fact that dis/ability is important, not only for services aimed specifically at people with dis/abilities, but the entire profession of social work is linked to dis/ability in various ways. The purpose of the article is to contribute to a deepened understanding of vulnerability in general and, in particular, the vulnerability of people with dis/abilities. An advertisement from the Swedish Public Employment Service’s campaign “Make room!” forms a point of departure for a theoretical discussion of how dis/ability is constructed. The article demonstrates how the advertisement is based on paternalistic and ableistic ways of thinking that connect dis/ability, gender, and race/ethnicity. Able-bodied perfection is regarded as desirable, while the deviant body is linked to deficiency and suffering. The article also deals with the critical discussion that followed the advertisement, which eventually led to the Swedish Public Employment Service withdrawing it. Finally, we argue in favour of a cripistemological perspective in social work. This means taking previously marginalized knowledge as a starting point and reformulate traditional perspectives. It also means seeking cross-border cooperation between social work and the disability rights movement as well as other social movements. Thus, the lived experience of vulnerability that can result from impairment and its effects, as well as the political vulnerability that arises due to lack of resources, are made visible, without vulnerability being interpreted from paternalistic and ableistic perspectives. Moreover, ideas of the normal body and the normal way of thinking and feeling can be

In the context of social work, the importance of social interaction and the client-employee relationship in helping the client and supporting their desistance from crime are highlighted issues. Disengagement from crime requires self-motivation, as well as social support provided by social work professionals, NGOs and peers. This article asks what meanings people with a history of crime give to social interaction and the client-employee relationship from the perspective of desistance in different social work settings. The analytical starting point of the study is based on moderate social constructionism and Billig’s rhetorical analysis. The research data was collected by interviewing 26 people with a history of crime. The results showed that social work was seen differently in various social work settings. Social interaction was talked about from the perspectives of municipal social work and multiagency support, as well as a personal encounter that crosses the conventional practices of social work. An employees’ respectful and determined interaction, and the holistic support of NGOs as a community and peers was seen as significant in supporting desistance from crime. On the other hand, distant and formal encounters appeared to be challenging in the data. As a conclusion, desisting from crime is seen as a long-term and challenging process for the client, and thus, the aspects of continuity and genuine encountering in the client-employee relationship play a key role.

The overall aim of this project was to gain extended insights into social workers’ perspectives of children in child protection work in Chile and Norway. Q methodology was applied to meet this aim, as it is suitable for exploring and comparing subjective perspectives. The findings are based on the perspectives of 38 social workers (21 in Chile and 17 in Norway). This project adopts an exploratory design, and during the research process, I discovered that a review of previous research on social workers’ perspectives of children in child protection work was lacking from the literature. Hence, the second aim of this project was to fill a research gap in the literature by providing a comprehensive portrayal of child protection social workers’ constructions of children through an integrative review. The body of this dissertation contains three research papers. Paper 1 explores child protection social workers’ practices and ideas about children and childhood in existing research. Findings are based on an analysis and synthesis of 35 empirical articles. Papers 2 and 3 present findings from the Q methodological study. While Paper 2 focuses on the perspectives of children among social workers in Chile (n=21), Paper 3 has a comparative approach to study the perspectives of children among social workers in Norway and Chile (n=38). The findings show that social workers in Norway are inclined to see children’s independence, while social workers in Chile tend to see children as relationally and structurally conditioned. Conducting an analysis and synthesis of previous research enabled a juxtaposition of findings from Chile and Norway against what was found in the integrative review. A key finding of the review is that children generally were understood in light of psychological knowledge such as developmental psychology, attachment theories and individualistic psychology. Less focus was directed towards contextual knowledge of children such as children’s neighbourhoods, friends and teachers and variation among children. A predominance of studies in the review were from U.K. or other Northern European countries. Hence, a key question that transpired from looking at findings across the three papers is whether the independent child is a predominant understanding of children among child protection workers in Northern European countries. There is still a lack of research, particularly in English, on social worker perspectives in Latin America. An important focus for future research should be to explore whether the perspective emphasising the relational and structural child that was reflected among the social workers in Chile transcends to a more general level among social workers in Chile and possibly to other Latin American countries. If these findings are identified in more large-scale studies, they may contribute to the building blocks of empirical and theoretical understandings, for example, regarding current knowledge on child protection systems. Moreover, such findings may extend the knowledge of how children’s rights are balanced among social workers internationally. This project contributes to extending previous knowledge by illuminating perspectives of children in child protection work among social workers in different welfare contexts. The perspectives identified in this study indicate different ways of seeing children which may orient social workers’ attention towards some aspects and away from others, particularly regarding the independent versus relational child. These orientations may have significant implications for interpretations and decisions made in child protection work.

This article presents three critical analyses of social work practice as depicted in Ken Loach's 1994 film Ladybird, Ladybird. The analyses are intended to serve as a teaching tool in a course on critical perspectives in social work. The tool applies the radical, feminist and postmodern critiques of social work practice to the depiction of the practice in the film. It seeks to contribute to a better understanding of those critical approaches that have developed within the social work profession and, in particular, to emphasize the relevance of these approaches to actual practice. The article explicitly endeavors to arouse debate and reflection on practice among social worker students and to encourage self‐criticism in order to further the development of anti‐oppressive social work practice.

Child labor is still a persistent problem in the world today, including Vietnam. The percentage of children in early labor according to statistics tends to increase after the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic worldwide. This situation causes many serious consequences for the children themselves, their families, and the social community. Faced with that situation, it is necessary to further improve the prevention and reduction of child labor. The social work profession has affirmed its advantages and effectiveness in preventing, supporting and intervening in difficult problems in schools. Social work activities in the prevention of child labor at schools will help retain students to stay in school and minimize the consequences of child labor, especially those related to the children themselves. Although this is a new approach, it will confirm certain effectiveness in the prevent ion and reduction of child labor from the perspective of social work. That is also the main issue discussed in the content of this article. The article is the result of collecting, analyzing, synthesizing and systematizing 26 prestigious and reliable documents, including reports on child labor in the world and in Vietnam, textbooks, published articles in international journals and conferences with peer review, publication, dissertations and dissertations related to the issue of social work in the prevention of child labor in Vietnam. Therefore, the overview of theoretical studies will help visualize the general picture of the approach, content and implementation of social work activities in the prevention of child labor, thereby creating an important premise for the implementation and evaluation of the effectiveness of these activities in practice.

This paper is a collaborative effort of one social work professor and ten students from a master's level course concerning practice with individuals and couples in a Canadian university. The strengths perspective was used as the lens through which practice was viewed. The paper details the results of an assignment which asked the students to examine the arts in relation to the people that they work with. The students engaged with the process and learned about themselves and the strengths approach to practice. This assignment embodies the strengths perspective in social work. Such learning experiences are an integral part of social work education.

This paper aims to focus on the politics of exclusion by opening up a debate about black perspectives in social work and articulates a comparative assessment between the UK and USA which includes contributions from social and political theory, particularly the ‘politics of recognition’. The paper begins by mapping the territory denoted in the growth of ‘studies’ in sociology and academia. Following these discussions, I review criticisms and possibilities of anti‐racist social work and black perspectives to argue that in the British context, the dilution of anti‐racist social work into a discriminatory practice framework undermined the place of black perspectives in social work education. In the next section, a reframing of black perspectives is envisaged with implications for social work learning and practice. By attending to these issues, social work learning and practice can support a more inclusive approach to professional knowledge which recognizes changing patterns of social life, complexity and multiple perspectives.

This article aims to evaluate the practices of faith-based aid organizations operating in the Konya province of Turkey from a social work perspective. For this purpose, semi-structured interviews are conducted with 10 employees from faith-based aid organizations. As a result of the analysis, 4 main themes are identified: “Service delivery,” “staff characteristics,” “perspectives on the concept of social work,” “perspectives on the concept of poverty.” The research findings indicate that organizations see their mission as providing humanitarian aid without any discrimination, they often perceive poverty from a fatalistic perspective and share certain principles and practices that resemble those in professional social work.

The transnational perspective contributes to the development of theoretical and practical knowledge of social work as this is conditioned and framed in contemporary dynamics of globalization. Social work transnationalism, also referred to as transnational social work, is related to but typically has a more limited and focused purview than international social work. More than a particular field of practice, social work transnationalism is based in particular understandings of social problems and interventions. In migration studies, the transnational perspective has contributed to a reframing of international migration as multidirectional and continuing mobility dynamics in people’s everyday life and in societies. More broadly in the development of the social sciences, the transnational perspective constitutes a critique of naturalized assumptions of “sedentarism” and of societies as nation-states. In the social sciences, this kind of critique is often referred to as a critique of methodological nationalism. For social work, it means that implicit assumptions of social problems and social work as “naturally” framed by nation-states and the reach of nationally organized welfare programs are questioned. Instead, transnational approaches to social problems and social work regard these as they are shaped, experienced, and needed in globalized societies. While the development of the transnational perspective is diversified, its ontological standpoint makes it a particular perspective. This is also why it has a more limited and focused purview than international social work: international social work is not limited to a particular theoretical perspective. The aim of this article is to organize existing literature on social work from a transnational perspective under relevant themes. Below, Overview Works and Collected Volumes are first presented, followed by five themes, which are divided into subthemes. The first theme, Social Work Transnationalism, includes literature developing the transnational perspective in social work, discussions on transnational social work as a set of practices, and implications for social policy. The second theme, Social Work with Transnational Populations, includes literature on social problems and social work in relation to particular populations of migrants, such as children and elderly. The third theme, Migrant Transnationalism and Social Protection across Borders, is a growing field of literature that regards informal social protection systems, often led by migrants through transnational networks. Finally, the fourth and fifth themes are about implications of Social Work Transnationalism among Migrant Professionals and Social Work Transnationalism and Education.