Teaching Social Work Values within their Historical Context

Abstract

Social work values have long been recognized as central to the practice of the profession, and their transmission to succeeding generations of practitioners is a standing task of social work education. Yet, in spite of their being included along with ethics as one content area in the current Council on Social Work Education Curriculum Policy Statement, social work values often receive only passing treatment in social work texts, and instructors may fail to adequately flesh them out for students. This article proposes that social work values be presented in their historical context, giving students examples from the writings of the profession's pioneers. It then provides the reader a number of historical exemplars for some of the more commonly espoused social work values, and shows how a constellation of professional values began to emerge about the mid-point of the 20th century.