US Social Work Research Articles

Social Work Education's Role in Addressing People and a Planet at Risk

As the nature of the earth's ecological crisis becomes increasingly dire and impossible to ignore and as global concern continues to increase, social work, with its investment in issues of justice and its commitment to a person-in-environment perspective, needs to more aggressively evaluate its place in this crisis. This paper presents a study designed to explore US social work students' attitudes, interests in, and practices related to the environment, as well as their perceptions of the place for environmental issues in the social work curriculum. This study's findings suggest that social work students' attitudes toward the environment are generally consonant with those of the US population, and that there is strong interest in enhancing the amount and scope of exposure to environmental issues in the social work curriculum. A sizable majority of all social work students surveyed view environmental justice as an important aspect of social justice and a viable area of concern for social workers, and they expressed an interest in seeing more content on environmental justice in social work education. Suggestions for integrating this content into the curriculum via inter- and trans-disciplinary, and service-learning approaches are discussed.

Lessons from American Social Work Education: Caution Ahead

Similar trends are occurring in Australian and US social work education, as universities increasingly adopt a rigid market orientation to tertiary education. This marketisation shapes social work education in manifold ways, including the pressure to increase revenues (and effect greater efficiencies) by expanding the size of social work programs. The unregulated growth in social work programs leads to lowered admission standards, as programs are forced to compete for students. An oversupply of social workers will also drive salaries downwards as supply eclipses demand. These issues are examined in the context of a “big” versus a “small” (fewer but more highly trained social workers) model of social work. Emphasis is placed on the lessons that Australian social work educators can learn from the challenges facing US social work education.

Predicting India's Future: Does it Justify the Exportation of US Social Work Education?

Current social work education in India reflects globalization priorities and tendencies of neo-colonialism that emulate curriculum priorities and duplicate content developed in countries like the USA. Social work education as implemented by countries like the USA, has limited success in transnational training of social workers and their ability to address emerging social problems and deep rooted structural imbalances within non-USA social contexts. Yet, the concept of the world being an emerging global village is used to justify and reaffirm the colonial goals of universal education and pedagogies within social work and its application to starkly different contexts, such as India. This paper argues against the imperialist nature of social work education through examples from social work syllabi from Indian schools of social work. Secondly, this paper examines the role of academic collaborations and international organizations in addressing the challenges in curriculum development. Finally, through an example from a Curriculum Development Project undertaken in a sub-Saharan African country by one of the authors, the paper demonstrates ways of generating more local content for curricula that would create culturally sensitive social services.

International students’ views about transferability in social work education and practice

This qualitative study explored international students’ views of US social work education and Asian-Pacific indigenous practices. Some students recognized indigenous practices, strongly valued multiculturalism and regretted not having agency-specific knowledge and skills. While some social work knowledge and skills seemed to be universal, others were western-influenced.

Making Refugees: A Historical Discourse Analysis of the Construction of the 'Refugee' in US Social Work, 1900-1957

SummaryThis paper traces the discursive constructions through which refugees were produced as particular kinds of subjects in US social work discourse in the first half of the twentieth century. Prior to the onset of the Second World War, the refugee ideal was valorized in social work discourse to both exhort and contest immigration restrictions. In the war years, actual refugees became framed, instead, as the most troublesome immigrants. The many anti-restrictionists among social work's leaders persistently and prolifically opposed problematized constructions of refugees. But through its uncritical uses of the same unstable measures of fitness through which the problematized identities were constructed, the liberal, anti-restrictionist discourse of social work re-inscribed the discourses it sought to counter. As a study of the disciplinary construction of a particularly vulnerable identity, and a methodological exemplar for examining key constructs, this analysis has broad implication for study of the many categories of identity (e.g. child, client, etc.) upon which social work builds its practice models and explanatory theories.

From Melting Pot to Multiculturalism: The Impact of Racial and Ethnic Diversity on Social Work and Social Justice in the USA

SummarySince the turn of the twentieth century, the relationships among race, citizenship and culture have been central to debates about the goals of social policy and social work in the USA. To date, however, even the best histories of social work have focused primarily on the influence of mainstream (i.e. white) organizations and their leaders, ignoring and often objectifying the contributions of minorities. Based on extensive primary source materials, this essay—part of a larger scholarly project—analyses the differential responses of US social work to demographic and cultural changes during the past century. The findings illuminate discussions not only of social work's past, but how the profession could address such contemporary issues as the compatibility between multiculturalism and other social justice-related goals; the congruence between social equality and professional identity; and the means by which social work practice and ethics can adapt successfully to demographic and cultural transformation.

Social Work in the US: Sociohistorical Context and Contemporary Issues

Social work occurs in a context and, in part, reflects that context. In the present paper, we address the sociohistorical context of social work in the US and attempt to illustrate a correspondence between the current practices of social work and the context of its development. Of particular interest are the concepts of individualism and instrumental reason, and how they became intertwined with politics, social policy, and the practice of social work in the US. It is our contention that US social work is currently dominated by a focus on the individual and an instrumental perspective that places cost considerations above all others. This is manifest in a particularly narrow definition of evidence-based practice popular within the US.

Social Justice and Multiculturalism: Persistent Tensions in the History of US Social Welfare and Social Work

Social justice has been a central normative component of U.S. social welfare and social work for over a century, although the meaning and implications of the term have often been ambiguous. A major source of this ambiguity lies in the conflict between universalist views of social justice and those which focus on achieving justice for specific groups. This conflict has been masked by several long-standing assumptions about the relationship between social justice and multiculturalism – assumptions which have been challenged by recent developments. 
 The assumption that the pursuit of social justice requires the creation of a more egalitarian society has been challenged by the new political-economic realities of globalization. The assumption that the maintenance of individual rights complements the pursuit of social equality has been challenged by racially-based attacks on social welfare benefits and civil rights. Most significantly, the assumption that a socially just society is one in which different groups share a compatible vision of social justice has been challenged by the realities of multiculturalism. 
 This paper explores the evolution of four themes regarding the relationship between social justice and multiculturalism during the past century and discusses their implications for the contemporary demographic and cultural context of the U.S. These themes are: the relationship of cultural diversity to the nation’s values and goals; the contradiction between coerced cultural assimilation and coerced physical and social segregation; the relationship between individual and group identity and rights; and the linkage between “Americanization” and the equal application of justice.

Toward Rigor and Relevance in US Social Work Education

After reviewing the major changes taking place in American higher education, the present paper discusses a select number of challenges confronting US social work education. These challenges are broadly characterized as those of rigor and relevance. The paper presents the author's reflections on the best ways to meet these challenges and stresses the promotion of research and social innovations as important foci for social work education.

Constructing Immigrants

Summary: This study analyzes the representations of immigrants found in three US social work periodicals published between 1882 and 1952. Beginning from Foucault’s notion of the ‘history of the present’, an approach to history which examines the past in order to illuminate a present-day problematic, and using textual analysis techniques provided by Jacques Derrida, this work of historical discourse analysis traces the discursive constructions of identity through which immigrants were problematized as particular kinds of subjects in social work discourse. Findings: The immigrant objects of social work attention - subjects subjugated through the discourse of problematization - were discursive inventions. But the differential valuations which constructed individual immigrants or whole ‘races’ of immigrants as ‘desirable’ or ‘undesirable’ were consequential markers invoking vastly unequal material consequences for those so categorized. Social workers, as significant producers of discourses of immigrants, had and do have a much greater range of influence and responsibility than that with which we were and still are wont to credit ourselves. Application: In making visible the discursive practices of the past, this paper seeks to clarify the task of present-day social workers: to uncover the margins and the limits of the discourses that construct our troubled times.

Women in Social Work Education: Progress or Promise?

Abstract The literature on the status of female social work educators has addressed the problems these educators face in the areas of salaries, academic rank and tenure, publication rates, and level of decision making. Given this attention to the status of these educators, one might expect positive resolutions to these problems. This article, which is based on a review of both the current literature and statistics on US social work faculty, evaluates the status of women faculty in social work academia to determine if progress has been made. Findings reveal that female educators are seeing slow improvment in some areas; however, inequalities continue. The authors suggest strategies for supporting the development and retention of women faculty.

A Comparison: Dutch and American Expectations regarding Behavior of the Caseworker

The question is raised re the applicability of US social work concepts abroad. A study eliciting the American conception of the behavior of the counselor highly motivated to help was replicated in the Netherlands. The Dutch conception of such a person proved to be very similar to that of the US conception. It was noted that both groups studied were University students of Me background. Using the same instrument with a group of Dutch girls working in a clothing factory indicated that their expectations re counselor behavior were diff from those of the Dutch Me student and, consequently, diff from those of the US Me student. AA.