Aims

Social work and social work education are partly created by general historical changes and movements. Ideas and values also change. Some of the movements leading to change have been international, with influence exerted across national borders. The way in which international social work and its education have crossed borders to achieve influence and development is complex and controversial, because ‘travelling knowledge’ (Harris, Borodkina, Brodtkorb, Evans, Kessl et al, 2015: p 481) changes the context for the indigenous knowledge that forms local practice and how local social workers are educated to do their jobs. In the concluding section of this chapter, we look at this issue, drawing upon some of the contextual historical information reviewed here to examine debates about the nature of international social work and its education.

To make a critical evaluation of the contribution made to international social work education by the awardees, we need to understand the links and relationships that they worked within and what the circumstances of history faced them with, so that we can begin to understand how their ideas and efforts interacted with their historical, political and social context. The aim of this chapter is not to provide a complete and complex history of the social professions, but to help readers understand the currents and trends in social work and the social issues that it faced during the period in which the awardees were working. The focus of this book on international social work and its education requires looking at broad international trends, not local or national changes that may be more familiar to many readers.

The changing nature of international social work and its education

In this section, we identify three broad historical phases into which these developments may be divided.

Early pioneers in the first decades of the twentieth century were mainly concerned to develop international support for social work and its education. They therefore founded structures for exchange and development by building international organizations, including IASSW, for cooperation and influence.

This foundation phase was followed by the period covered by this book, in which the main concern was to establish and secure social work as a widespread, even universal, profession.