Professional Development In Social Work Research Articles

Tracing the history of discourses on professionalism in the ‘sister professions’ of librarianship and social work in the United States

In Whole Person Librarianship: A Social Work Approach to Patron Services (2019), Zettervall and Nienow aptly refer to librarianship and social work as ‘sister professions’, highlighting their gendered histories and similar professional values. Both librarianship and social work emerged as service-oriented, female-dominated professions in the late nineteenth century. Questions about professional identity have concerned librarians and social workers since those early days, with scholars and practitioners in both fields examining markers of professionalism, such as training, associations, and values. This article compares the historical development of professional social work and librarianship by tracing the changing discourses on professionalism, attending to the role gendered language plays in debates about professional status. The analysis focuses on the works of early pioneers in American social work and librarianship and the public debates about professionalisation in the early 1900s to provide context for collaborations between librarians and social workers and look towards the future.

The Specifics of Home Practice of Social Work in the Works of Alice Masaryková and Helena Radlińska

Cross-border cooperation has been considered an essential element in the development of professional social work and its education since its beginnings in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many social work pioneers promoted the principles of peace, war relief, human rights and international cooperation in dealing with social problems. In Central Europe, there was on the one hand an acceptance of diversity and different national traditions, and on the other hand a series of integration activities aimed at developing transnational common standards. Since the beginning of the 20th century, Alice Masaryková from Czechoslovakia and Helena Radlińska from Poland had been central figures in the professionalization of social work and social pedagogy in Central Europe. While Alice based social work mainly on sociology, Helena based it on social pedagogy. The aim of this article is to identify and search for the specifics and diversity of historical development and subsequent international dissemination of ideas and practices of professional social work and social pedagogy through the figures of Alice Masaryková and Helena Radlińska.

Challenges and Solutions in the Development of Professional Social Work in Vietnam in International Integration: Vision and Orientation

The growth of professional social work in Vietnam took a major step forward in 2004, that social work was officially recognized as a profession in Vietnam when the Vietnam Prime Minister approved Decree 32 about Developing Social Work Profession in Vietnam, a national master blueprint to develop social work. This article gives an overview of current challenges and solutions that are being implemented to address the major issues that Vietnam is facing. Especially, the Vision and Orientation to development of Professional Social Work in Vietnam in international integration. Besides that also refers to aims at providing suggestions for maintaining the social work education in Vietnam with professional training direction

Looking Back, Thinking Forward: How a Television Series Facilitated the Development of the Social Work Profession in Hong Kong

Abstract The healthy development of the social work profession rests on the public’s understanding and trust. The media play a significant role in shaping the public image of social work. This article describes a focus group study that was designed to retrace the long-term impact of an iconic television series in 1976 on the public’s reception of the nascent profession of social work amongst a group of social work practitioners. Four focus groups were conducted with thirty practicing and retired social workers. The content of the focus group discussions was coded and analysed to generate three major themes: (i) the television series gave a real-world articulation of the work of social workers and catalysed the profession’s public receptivity; (ii) it inspired a call amongst conscientious young people to join the profession; and (iii) it contributed to the construction of social workers’ professional identity. The findings demonstrate the contribution of this television series, hence the role of media, to the early development of professional social work in Hong Kong.

Carmel Halton, Fred Powell and Margaret Scanlon, Continuing professional development in social work

Carmel Halton, Fred Powell and Margaret Scanlon, <i>Continuing professional development in social work</i>

Vision, Challenges and Solutions in the Development of Professional Social Work in Vietnam: Perceptions of Key Stakeholders

It was not until 2010 that social work was officially recognized as a profession in Vietnam when the government approved a national master blueprint to develop social work. This blueprint identified seven strategic objectives including: creating a foundational labor force, developing laws and policies, and raising awareness about social work. This exploratory study examines the degree to which key stakeholders in Vietnam have shared vision and perceptions about the challenges and solutions necessary to make this ambitious plan for Vietnamese social work succeed. An anonymous survey was conducted with 65 policy makers, educators, service providers, and practitioners. The survey revealed that key stakeholders in held a shared vision about Vietnamese social work, focusing on making it a genuine profession. They identified the top challenges for Vietnamese social work as lack of national policy and regulations, lack of public awareness about the profession, and lack of resources to develop high quality social work education. Key stakeholders considered social work to be an integral function of the government and, as such, depend upon the government to lay the foundation for, provide direction to, and make available the resources necessary for the profession to grow. In other words, there would not be a Vietnamese social work profession outside of and without the Vietnamese government, unlike how the social work profession has developed in many Western countries.

From housing campaign to multicultural understanding: The development of professional social work in Sámi areas in Norway

This article focuses on the development of professional social work in Sámi areas in Norway after World War II, which coincides with the development of the welfare state. Labour immigration in the 1970s made Norway visible as a multicultural society and welfare professions adopted culturally sensitive methodology, which was also reflected in Sámi social work. Today’s criticism of multiculturalism requires new answers. The integration of the Sámi into the welfare system is an argument for why a decolonizing Sámi approach should build on the aim of post-colonialism in recognizing historical injustice and the emphasis in critical indigenous philosophy on dialogue.

Continuing Professional Development in Social Work, Carmel Halton, Fred Powell and Margaret Scanlon

Continuing Professional Development in Social Work, Carmel Halton, Fred Powell and Margaret Scanlon

Professional development in social work: elderly care in Sweden and Denmark

The purpose of this article is to highlight and give reflections on elderly care in two welfare states, Sweden and Denmark, on the basis of the question: how can the elderly care profession be understood from a transnational perspective? The empirical data consists of a project, and the analysis is based on an ecological model. The main conclusion is that by focusing on societal and professional knowledge sharing from a regional perspective, we can develop our understanding of the driving forces behind access to knowledge, professional identity maintenance and the professional position of the elderly individual.

Laypersons or professionals? Ambivalence about voluntary contact persons in social services in Sweden

Sweden has a long tradition of using ordinary people, often named laypersons, as supportive persons within the area of social services. One of the most popular interventions is to support children and teenagers by using a volunteer contact family (CF) or contact person (CP). The intervention was introduced in the Social Services Act, implemented in 1982, and at present about 19,000 young persons in Sweden have this intervention. In practice, it is regarded as two interventions, CF and CP. The article will only deal with CPs for teenagers. Despite this is a very popular intervention, there is a lack of knowledge about how it works and has developed during these three decades. Research dealing with the CP intervention takes partly contradictory views. Qualitative studies often stress positive experiences of all categories involved, while a comprehensive quantitative study recently presented results, indicating that the intervention seemed to increase the risk of being placed in out-of-home care in the future. The aim of the article is to explore and illustrate how the CP intervention works today in relation to the original intensions in law and which types of persons that are appointed for the CP assignments. The impact of the professional development in social work will be discussed in the analysis. The results will tell us something about the progress and development of the intervention but also the organisational context in which social services exist in Sweden today.

Professional Social Work Education in Mongolia: Achievements, Lessons Learned and Future Directions

This article describes the development of professional social work and its education system in Mongolia since the country's transition to a democratic, free-market society after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990. The authors begin within an overview of the social and economic exigencies brought on by this historical transition in order to provide a context for understanding both universal rationales for introducing social work in a society and the distinctive character of the profession in Mongolia. They then discuss the developmental trajectory of the profession in four phases: pre-professional (before 1996); launching and early professional (1996–2000); capacity building (2001–2006); and institutionalization (2007–present). Each phase has its own actors, issues, priorities, and outcomes, but all aim toward the commitment to relieve suffering and promote well-being among individuals, families and communities in Mongolia. In addition to highlighting key achievements, the authors conclude with some of the main structural, systemic, and professional challenges that remain and a call to action during the next phase of development.

Social work in Hong Kong: from professionalization to ‘re-professionalization’

The development of professional social work in Hong Kong can be traced back to the 1960s. Similar to development of the profession in other countries, it began with social work education, and then later grew in response to the ever-changing environment. This paper will first highlight the history of the social work profession, and then outline the present situation of social work in Hong Kong. Following the introduction of managerial reform, social workers have encountered many changes. Although the image of social workers is positive in general and service quality is being monitored, morale is negatively affected. The paper addresses the major challenges that social work in Hong Kong is currently facing: implementation of the Lump Sum Grant system and capacity building through continuing professional development. Research shows that social workers are dissatisfied with the Lump Sum Grant system, and that this system demoralizes social workers. The paper also argues that compulsory continuing professional development is needed for capacity building and to promote resilience among social workers, in order both to strengthen the profession and to safeguard the interests of service recipients.

Some indications for professional development in social work: a study of theoretical interest and attitudes towards research among Icelandic social workers

This study among Icelandic social workers generally showed positive attitudes towards research activity in the field. Most respondents, whereof half were practice teachers, saw the practicum as an important tool for the integration of theoretical application and research activity to practice. Almost all saw research activity as a feasible way to empower social work as a profession. Simultaneously, a relatively small percentage report their own research activity. Besides this discrepancy some interesting differences were found according to number of years after graduation, field employment and experience as practice teachers. It is argued that the theme in focus is a critical indication of professional development and highly relevant for the educational discourse as for future professional development.

History of the Development of Doctoral Education in the United Kingdom

Abstract This paper is describes how, until recently, doctorates in social wok have been invisible in the UK. In describing the causes of this invisibility the article explains the politics of social work education in the context of higher education in the UK. It ends optimistically with an acknowledgement that as a result of lobbying by social work academics doctoral education is becoming part of the continuum of professional development in social work

Chinese corpus, western application

Indigenization is a key issue in the development of professional social work in China. Chinese social work scholars have adopted the century-old conceptual formulation of ‘Chinese corpus, western application’ to balance the need for western knowledge and the need for intellectual autonomy. This article explores major current debates on ideology, teleology, epistemology and technology within the social work profession in the West and their implications for social work development in China.

The midwifery of power? Reflections on the development of professional social work in Western Australia

This paper explores the emergence of the social work profession in Western Australia from beginnings in the 1920s through to 1970 when the first local graduates gained employment. The authors illustrate how WA's history both connects with and diverges from patterns of the profession's development in more populous states, througt, the use of interviews conducted with pioneering social workers These oral histories illuminate how gender, class and other markings of privilege and power framed, and were framed by, the education, practice, sites of practice and career paths of social workers in the early years. Two interacting themes identified in this research were restricted employment possibilities for social workers in the State and a lack of locally available professional education until the mining boom of the sixties. The paper concludes by listing six lessons for current practitioners: the transcendent importance of reading contexts; identifying and developing relevant sites of practice; maintaining flexible boundaries of professional practice; being able to articulate a dynamic value base to drive practice; the importance of practitioners in shaping education, and continuing practitioner reflexivity.

Adult learning styles: Implications for practice teaching in social work

This paper focuses on the current aspiration to further the process of continuing professional development in social work. It contends that knowledge from the field of adult learning theory may be helpful in sign-posting some tangible ways forward here. The particular emphasis is on critically assessing the usefulness of identifying learning styles as indicators of preferred ways of learning. Knowledge of learning styles is explored as one way of promoting students' learning on practice placements. A small-scale qualitative research study with a group of practice teachers and their students is presented as a vehicle for exploring this new terrain in social work. The findings of this research build on key themes identified by the current literature in this area. The author's findings suggest that information about learning styles has direct practical application in the social work practice teaching arena. The data points to the potential value of using such information to guide students' learning on practice placements and has relevance to considerations of their continuing professional development. Suggestions are put forward to highlight how practice teaching and Diploma in Social Work programmes could facilitate this process. The paper stresses the over-riding need to view students as actors in a broader social context, however, and highlights how information regarding learning styles needs to be utilised in this context.

African Americans and Graduate Social Work Education

This article reports on a study of career influences for a sample of African-American and other black graduates of MSW programs. The study isolated significant relationships between enrollment influences and selected demographic and career-related variables. ”Very important“ influences were career advancement, acquisition of new skills, professional status and credibility, and understanding professionalism in social work. Desire for professional development in social work was the dominant influence. Findings suggest that recruitment of African-American/black graduate social work students should incorporate strategies that address issues of job satisfaction, and recognize career priorities and professional aspirations. Implications for graduate social work education are discussed.

Continuing professional development in social work: the Scottish context

In this article, the authors argue that the need for continuing professional development in social work has never been greater than at the present time. However, when they survey the state of social work in Scotland—highlighting financial crises, threats of redundancies, organisational upheaval and ever-increasing service demands—they recognise that this is a ‘harsh environment’ in which to promote continuing professional development. If the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work's framework is to have a fundamental impact on social work organisations, as it should do, then operational managers need to be convinced of its relevance to service delivery. One means of tackling the scepticism of managers is to make more explicit and strengthen the connection between the Post-Qualifying framework and the assessment of competence-in-practice. Other professional groups are struggling with similar issues and are seeking to develop innovative and cost-effective means of assessing competence-in-practice. Social work can learn from these initiatives as well as re-emphasising traditional strengths such as the ‘coaching’ model of supervision and the importance of the team in enabling and supporting professional development.

The contribution of observation training to professional development in social work

Abstract This paper first describes a range of uses of observational training and the learning to which it can give rise. It goes on to describe in detail a specific project that was undertaken by the authors with a selected group of social work trainers. The range of observations undertaken by the participants is described and their own comments provide first-hand evaluations of the experience. Observation is seen by the authors as one of the most important foundation skills in social work practice. They conclude by sketching out the possible place of such training in the social work career continuum in the UK.