The book's aim

Our aim in this book is to document the history of an important period after World War II, in which international social work education become firmly established across the globe, building on its initial base mainly in Europe and the US. We look at this process through the eyes of distinguished social work educators, who have been selected because they received the Katherine Kendall Award from the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW). These people promoted social work education by developing programmes, offering consultation to local people or through exchanges with colleagues.

Social work is an international profession and there have always been international exchanges. In this book, we examine the awardees’ contributions and achievements in the social, historical and political context in which they did their work. This preface introduces the Kendall Award and how the book came about. We clarify the interview process and how we analyzed the material, then outline the book’s structure.

The award

The Katherine A. Kendall Distinguished Service Award, established in 1992, is the only international accolade for promoting social work education internationally. The announcement described it as follows:

The criteria established by the board in 1992 have not changed, and are as follows:

• • educational activities to promote equality and social justice in all societies;

• • research and production of professional literature of interest and value to social work educators everywhere;

• • curriculum development that advances social work education worldwide;

• • innovative educational approaches leading to improvement of the quality of social services and usable in different countries as models in teaching social work practice;

• • application for social work education, nationally and regionally, of successful practice strategies from the fields of social welfare and social development;

• • worldwide interpretation of professional education for social work as essential for preparation of well-qualified social work personnel.