This book is full of ideas about how social work education can confront the individualising and often blaming form of social work that neoliberalism ushered in four decades ago. Radical social work is an approach to social work that has, at its heart, the departure from solely behavioural, moral or psychological understanding of service users’ problems. Social work had originally been concerned with the moral character of people in trouble (usually poor people), making a clear division between those who were ‘deserving’ of help and those who were ‘undeserving’. The rise of science and the ‘psy’ disciplines then led to psychological explanations for the difficulties people found themselves in. Both explanations for social problems – moral and psychological – with their narrow focus on the individual have been enjoying a renaissance in recent times with the neoliberal self-sufficiency narrative (moral) and the more recent focus on trauma (psychological). Radical social work challenges those explanations, concerned as it is with the circumstances a person might find themselves in – poverty, poor housing, poor education, high crime rates, and lack of opportunities of all kinds. This book is a step towards resurrecting radical social work principles, and it urges us to think about how social work education can be reshaped to that end. Radical Challenges for Social Work Education is a significant new contribution to social work practice and theory, and will be a great resource for academics, researchers, and advanced students of Politics, Education, Social Work, Sociology, Public Policy, Development Studies, Anthropology, and Human Geography. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Social Work Education.

This volume offers an examination of the history of racism and White supremacy in the profession of social work, current efforts to address and repair the harms caused by racism and White supremacy within the profession, and forward-thinking strategies for social work to be part of a broader societal movement to achieve an anti-racist future.

Created to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Bailey and Brake's seminal text Radical Social Work (1975), this volume seeks to explore the radical tradition within social work and assess its legacy, relevance and prospects. With a foreword by Roy Bailey, the book brings together leading academics within social work in Britain to reflect on the legacy of Radical Social Work (both the original text and the wider social movement) within social work education, theory and practice. With the current issues facing social work in Britain, this book examines the radical tradition to assert that 'another social work is possible'.

With cross-cultural perspectives from eight European countries, this book provides much-needed research on migration and social work. Focusing on the experiences and integration of refugees and asylum seekers, the text considers the impact of EU policies on borders and integration, and the rise of racism across European societies.

The Routledge International Handbook of Social Work Education provides an authoritative overview of current understanding through coverage of key debates, exploring the state of play in particular social work education fields and reflecting on where the future might be taking us. The overall aim of the Handbook is to further develop pedagogic research and scholarship for social work education. Drawing on medical education as an exemplar, the contributions view social work education as a specialism and a field of expertise that counts in the same way as research programmes in more traditional areas of social work practice. The chapters are concerned with the theory and practice of social work education at all levels; they are accessible, conceptually clear, research based where appropriate, critically reflective and ethically underpinned. The Handbook is organised into seven sections that reflect the proposed themes and sub-themes covering: Social work education in context: the western drivers Emerging and re-emerging social work education The scholarship of learning and teaching New insights into field education New directions in learning and teaching Future challenges in social work education This handbook presents a contribution to the process of exchange and dialogue which is essential to global social work education. It brings together professional knowledge and lived experience, both universal and local, and will be an essential reference for social work educators, researchers, students and professionals.

This book collates and analyses the current research, debates, opportunities and practices in social work field education into one volume and contextualises this material within the broader context of social work. Current concerns about risk and uncertainty in field education are explored from multiple stakeholder perspectives. Social work field education is an integral component of social work education, yet its sustainability is increasingly challenged. Issue such as finding enough quality placements with accredited social workers, curriculum development, student diversity, and placement assessment of learning are being examined by researchers and practitioners alike. This represents a challenge for the social work profession generally. By drawing on traditional and alternative pedagogical perspectives on field education and constructions of risk and uncertainty evident in current discourse, the book presents innovative responses to existing challenges. Providing a reference point for future knowledge building in sustainable field education pedagogy and practice, this book will interest university field education programs and industry field educators internationally.

This much-needed textbook provides a fresh understanding of the radical tradition and shows how it can be developed in contemporary social work.

This book explores concrete examples of different strategies and activities aimed at creating and embedding critically reflective learning and working environments within organisations whose prime function is social care. Critical reflection has long been recommended as a general professional skill and is a core component of the practice capabilities in social work in countries across the Western world. However, despite unequivocal support for it in social work education, sustaining critical reflection within organisations as both an individual and collective practices, supported by organisational cultures, is problematic. With contributions from social work practitioners and educators who have sought to embed critical reflection into broader activities and cultures within their organizations, the book addresses common features of critical reflection, and challenges and benefits in specific case studies. This book will inspire and develop new thinking and vision about being critically reflective in organisations, and facilitate efforts to improve the learning and working experience in addition to that of service quality and delivery. It will be required reading for all undergraduate and postgraduate social work modules focusing on management, leadership organizational change, and professional education.

How do sociologists explain the role and function of social work in society? How has sociological knowledge been used, adapted and misused by social workers? Originally published in 1991, The Sociology of Social Work includes chapters on sociological theory and social work, child protection, community care, probation interviews, family therapy, residential care, race, and knowledge and power.

Karen Healy profoundly challenges, in the context of the postmodernity of late capitalism, many of the assumptions upon which the critical tradition in social work has been founded. This is a book which interrogates not only the emancipatory metanarratives of left perspectives from her position within the left, but also questions many of the received ideas about her professional power and identity, and about the kinds of social work practices necessary in order to continue to pursue welfare as an emancipatory project under transformed ideological and material circumstances. This is a most significant contribution to the debates which confront social work, worldwide, at the present time.' - Peter Leonard, McGill University, Canada