Social Work: Seeking Relevancy in the Twenty-First Century

Description

Discover why social work must be restructured if it is to remain viable! Social Work: Seeking Relevancy in the Twenty-First Century provides you with a critical examination of the major issues that social work education and practice must confront if social work is to remain as a mainline profession. The book explores issues that are not normally covered in social work literature, such as the... Read more

Discover why social work must be restructured if it is to remain viable!

Social Work: Seeking Relevancy in the Twenty-First Century provides you with a critical examination of the major issues that social work education and practice must confront if social work is to remain as a mainline profession. The book explores issues that are not normally covered in social work literature, such as the challenge of reconstructing the social work profession, the use of technology in social work, and the tension surrounding various social work education curriculums. You will benefit from this thorough discussion of the many problems that the social work profession is facing: a lack of scholarly research, inadequate educational programs, and the use of hypertechnology to educate social work students.

Social Work: Seeking Relevancy in the Twenty-First Century examines the epistemological, theoretical, socio/technical, and practice directions that social work has branched into. You'll discover that today's central direction for social work is generated from liberal, postmodern, and increasingly feminist ideological perspectives. In a field where conceptual and theoretical input rarely allow for intellectual diversity, this volume demonstrates that several views are best for inquiry and exploration in social work.

Issues discussed include:

examining real or unreal social work values by separating them from beliefs, preferences, norms, attitudes, and opinions
creating social work course outlines that incorporate practices developed around the globe, allowing for more conceptual and theoretical growth within the field
realizing the tremendous difference between communication in the instrumental sense via technology, and in the affective, soul-oriented sense via personal interaction
investigating the negative effects of communicating with hypertechnology (modems, e-mail) in the social work profession
realizing the need for a greater quantity and quality of social work research to progress further in the field

Social Work: Seeking Relevancy in the Twenty-First Century invites you to reinvent social work for today's post-industrial and post-modern era. You will discover a series of challenges that social work must meet and overcome if it is to move into the new century as a relevant and viable profession. You will explore solutions such as increasing scholarship and research among social workers, and decreasing the use of technology (for example, classes held via the Internet) in social work education programs in order to increase the quality of the social work profession. Read less

Chapter 1. Beyond Postmodernism: The Challenge of Reconstructing the Social Work Profession
Flexner Revisited
The Status of Knowledge
Ideological Captivity
The Myth of Values
Professional Ethnocentricity
Postmodernism and other “isms”
Social Work and Social Policy
Status of Social Work Education
Summing Up the Challenges
Chapter 2. Crisis in Social Work Theory: Can a New Spirit for Social Work Be Constructed out of the Shattered Grand Narratives of the Past?
Decline of Grand Narratives
Understanding Grand Narratives in Social Work
Prolegomena for a New Spirit for Social Work
Summary
Chapter 3. The Disjuncture of Science and Social Work
Uneasy Relationships Between Social Work and Science
The Ecological Worldview
Objectivism Versus Constructivism: Social Work's Uneasy Relationships
Research Training and Education
The Social Work Literature
Science-Driven Practice
Summary and Conclusion
Chapter 4. Hypertechnology in Social Work
Why Do We Have Hypermodern Technology in Social Work?
Offices Without Walls and Distance-Spanning Innovations
Computers, the Internet, and Related Hypertechnology
What Is Wrong with Hypertechnology in Social Work?
What Should We Do As Educators/Practitioners?
Is Community Possible?
Chapter 5. Social Work Education: From Metanarrative to Curricular Variety
Historical Background
A Success Story
BSW and MSW Curricular Tension
The BSW Curricular Conundrum
Concentrations Without Boundaries
Contextual Issues
Program Selectivity
Student Preference
Faculty Resource Disparity
Gender and Diversity Issues
Challenges and Opportunities
Chapter 6. Tough Medicine: What Needs To Be Done
Toward a Scientific Social Work
Scientific Practice
Axioms of Scientific Practice
A Scientifically Based Theory of Social Work Practice
Behaving Like Other Academics
Improving Social Work Editorial Boards
Summary and Conclusion
Chapter 7. Critical Issues for the Twenty-First Century
References
Index

Author(s)

Biography

Jean A Pardeck, Roland Meinert and Larry W Kreuger

Social Work Seeking Relevancy in the Twenty-First Century

Description

Table of Contents

Author(s)

Biography

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