Emerging Social Work Field Education Trends in China

Transfer Is Not Enough: A Case Study From a Western-Style MSW Program in Beijing

“…Conflict between organizational development and personal development is mainly due to the excessive dependency of social work organizations on government. The overall perception of the primary function of social work agencies is running successful community projects, which guarantees their financial stability through services purchased by government partnerships (Cai et al, 2018). The shortage of qualified professional social workers in China has led to a high expectation from field agencies for MSW interns, and this high expectation makes agencies focus on project outcomes rather than supporting interns to meet the university's field practicum goals (Cai et al, 2018).…”

“…The first 33 Master of Social Work (MSW) programs in China officially started in 2010, and by 2014, there were 108 colleges and universities providing MSW degree education (Cai, Bo, & Hsiao, 2018;Liu, 2017). Led by the ethos of "bring-to-use" and "education first" (Law & Gu, 2008), social work education in China has widely adopted Western social work knowledge, in terms of models, theories, approaches, skills, and so on, in its curriculum design and field education.…”

‘I Respect You but I Am Not Willing to Be You’: Critical Reflections of Western Teaching of Social Work to Students in China—What Can be Learned Both Ways?

“…As you said, Zhang et al (2019) discuss the importance of developing professional social work and competency-based practice using educational tools such as collaborative, experiential and problem-based learning and critical reflective practice. Developing competency-based field education is another way to highlight the complexities of social work practice and may also help organizations, clients and the general public to see some of the differences between volunteering and professional social work (Cai et al 2018). Linking resources is an important part of social work but remember all the different fields of practice that a social worker may work in, such as working with family violence, child protection, homelessness, disability and mental health, to name a few.…”

“…I think this is a big issue at this point in history in many countries. It is a long-term aim to change the understanding of what social work in China is (Cai et al 2018;Jiang et al 2019;Zhang et al 2019). As I mentioned in an earlier email, I have ethical questions about my role in teaching an emerging profession in a culture different to my own and try to imagine what social work will look like in China in the future.…”

“…I think we need to understand more about the challenges of being a social worker in China at this time and what makes social work a profession. As we've talked about, there is currently a lot of discussion about social work competencies, the challenges of developing tertiary education and supervisory practices, as well as adapting an originally colonial profession to your country (Cai et al 2018;Mo et al 2019;Morley et al 2017;Wei and Tsui 2018;Zhang et al 2019). Social work students in Australia do want to become social workers on graduation.…”