Social Work in Higher Education

Demise or Development?

Karen Lyons

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9780429795220
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Higher Education
• Index: Social Sciences

First published in 1999, in the light of recent moves towards deprofessionalisation and instrumentalism, Karen Lyons has conducted extensive research into the challenges facing social work training as a higher education discipline. Here, these challenges are located in a discussion of wider changes in both higher education and the personal social services, and are also linked to debates about professional education and the nature of knowledge. The analysis is based on original data and includes reference to pedagogical and cultural factors, and to internal and external policies which might make social work viable or vulnerable in the higher education context. This multi-disciplinary perspective reflects a characteristic of social work study itself - a quality which might be seen as either problematic or as a strength. The book concludes that, while the future scale and form of the social work subject area lie partly outside the control of social work educators, they have a key role to play in the development of the discipline. This includes the promotion of research, which should underpin the creation of knowledge and inform professional practice in the changing field of personal social services.

PART 1

BRITISH SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION IN CONTEXT: POLICY CHANGE AND PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION

1 British Social Work Education

Introduction

Radical policy change has affected expectations of higher education, the personal social services and the professions. These changes date mainly from the accession to power of a Conservative government in 1979, marking a sea change in ideology and policy paradigms, not least those affecting the welfare sector. The changes gathered force and momentum with ensuing electoral victories, until 1997, when ‘New’ Labour came to power in an indelibly altered environment.

The pace of change has been at least as significant as its direction, in its impact on the users and providers of a range of services. Established assumptions about the nature of the welfare state, the remit of higher education and the power of professionals have all been challenged: organisation and practice in both social work and higher education have been changed by political, legislative and fiscal means, within a broader reshaping of the economic and social structure of the country (Pollitt, 1990; Burrage and Torstendahl, 1990; Becher and Kogan, 1992; Clarke et al, 1994; Barnett, 1994).

In the area of education for social work, a sense of strain, and even a questioning of the viability of the subject, became evident in the early 1990s (Cooper, 1992; Pinker, 1993). Concerns about the survival of social work in higher education prompted a series of research questions:- ‘why is social work education so vulnerable?’; ‘is social work different from other forms of professional education and, if so, how?’; ‘how far is the sense of crisis shaped by external forces or by innate internal characteristics?’; ‘what role do social work educators play in defining or developing or even in problematising the subject?’; ‘how have recent changes been experienced by social work educators and how do they view the subject and its future?’

These questions reflected wider and long-standing debates about the nature and status of professional subjects in higher education. In the USA, Schon (1983) had written about the crisis in professional education, and in the British context, Becher (1989) had suggested a lack of research into the nature of professional subjects as opposed to academic disciplines. Becher’s focus on the epistemology and culture of disciplines provided a useful starting point for the research detailed in this book, and the study has been paralleled by a growing body of literature about professional education in Britain (Bines and Watson, 1992; Yelloley and Henkel, 1995; Eraut, 1994).

The research took place also in a broader climate of perceived threat to higher education values, methods and assumptions about purpose and autonomy and in the context of ongoing dispute and uncertainty about the role of social work in society. These factors informed the research design as an exploratory case study, using an inductive and interpretive approach to draw out the characteristics of social work as a discipline, relative to its location in higher education, its professional field and professional education as a generic concept. These three aspects of the framework are discussed in Part 1 of this book after an analysis of the origins and recent development of social work education.

The substantial middle part of this book is based on data from questionnaires, interviews and secondary sources relating to social work as a subject area in England and Wales in the 1990s (see Appendix 1: Research Methodology). The discipline is not regarded as synonymous with the qualifying training course (the Diploma in Social Work), though in some institutions this would be the main focus of work. The data primarily reflect the perspectives of social work educators themselves. The main characteristics of the subject and the factors which contribute to the particular culture of social work as a discipline are identified, and the findings identify strengths and weaknesses of social work education, particularly in the context of changed environments.

The implications of the findings for current and future prospects of the subject are discussed in Part 3. The study is broadly informed by a social policy orientation, but interdisciplinary perspectives are also drawn on.

Setting the Scene

This first chapter gives an overview of policy developments and change in British social work education, providing the background to the research and a theoretical basis for its focus. Origins as a subject area in higher education are dealt with only briefly, but early and periodic concern about the nature and status of the subject area and its place in the academy was apparent. The chapter then looks at events and debates in the 1970s and 1980s which formed a more immediate background to developments in the 1990s. These are discussed in some detail since they informed the research question and have an immediate bearing on the prospects for social work in higher education beyond the millennium. The chapter concludes with a summary of some of the main issues identified.

There was a relative lack of material about British social work education (as opposed to texts about the nature or aspects of the wider field of social work) when this research commenced. Notable exceptions (Jones, 1978; Harris et al. 1985) were augmented by a relative flood of edited collections during the mid-1990s (Yelloly and Henkel, 1995; Doel and Shardlow, 1996; Ford and Hayes, 1996; Gould and Taylor, 1996; Jackson and Preston-Shoot, 1996; Vass, 1996). The appearance of these texts might suggest a growing concern about, or interests in, the discipline.

Less detailed discussions of British social work education can also be found in books about comparative social work (Jones, 1992; Lorenz, 1994), in edited texts about the state of (British) social work (Parsloe, 1990; Timms, 1991; Jones, 1996a; Webb, 1996), in texts about other or wider subjects (Clark, 1991; Henkel, 1994), and occasionally in journal articles in related fields (Cannan, 1995). An analysis of the two British journals ostensibly concerned with social work education (Issues in Social Work Education, Social Work Education) revealed relatively few articles dealing holistically with the nature of social work as a discipline, with some notable exceptions (Brewster, 1992; Cooper, 1992; Clark, 1996; Sheppard, 1997). However, this exercise gave useful insights into the importance attached by educators themselves to particular aspects of the social work education process.

Finally, the leading journal in the professional field, British Journal of Social Work, has a much wider focus and has therefore carried very few articles in the 1990s about social work education specifically, with occasional important exceptions (Clark, 1995; Sheppard, 1998) and an annual presentation of (three or four) abstracts relating to the subject. In the wider field, recent editions of Research in Higher Education Abstracts reveal virtually no references to social work education except Henkel’s contribution (1994) to a text about professional education, and occasional case studies, for example, on teaching about gender in the subject (Reynolds, 1994). The implication - that there is either very little research being undertaken about social work education, and that publication of material relating to the subject area is largely confined to social work journals (not covered by the abstracting service) is one of the issues explored further.

Origins of Social Work Education

The identification of a variety of social problems in 19th century Britain led to a range of policy measures and practical responses incorporated into organisational frameworks (Walton, 1975; Parry and Parry, 1979; Jones, 1983). The establishment of social work education in the early 20th century can be seen as evidence of a growing sense of vocational identity among philanthropists and social reformers and a concern to provide ‘professional’ standards of intervention - the initiation of the ‘professional project’ (Macdonald, 1995).

As early as 1896, a scheme of lectures on social work had been established for its volunteers by the Charity Organisation Society (COS). This organisation participated in the foundation of a School of Sociology and Social Economics in London (1903) and a School of Social Science at Liverpool University, both offering opportunities for practical work as well as courses. Smith (1965, p.54) describes how these schools provided a general training for social workers, ‘not to be confused with special vocational training for a particular job’ (Smith, 1965, p.54). Despite satisfactory operation over a ten year period, the School of Sociology experienced financial problems. It was taken over in 1912 by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and became part of a new Department of Social Science and Administration. Other courses were also established at around this time, for example, at Barnett House, Oxford, and Bedford College, London, the latter continuing a more sociological tradition than the LSE course (an interdisciplinary rivalry which has continued throughout this century).

Courses at this time offered teaching in college on a range of ‘academic’ and ‘professional’ subjects (origins of status differences between social science academics and social work educators) and students spent an equivalent length of time in practical work (Smith, 1965). Thus, issues concerned with funding; the relationships between college-based learning and practice; and academic as opposed to professional knowledge, were already on the agenda of social work education. More broadly, the subject area was already a site of conflict over the role of the state in welfare provision (under discussion by the Royal Commission on the Poor Law), with implications for the role of welfare professionals (Jones, 1979, p.77).

Jones contends that early social work development laid a basis for a form of social work concerned to ‘socialise its clients into appropriate social habits...[and to reach]...the common goal of maintaining and reproducing a reliable working class’ (Jones, 1979, p.75). It was also significantly based on the medical model, and notwithstanding the Settlement movement (Parry and Parry, 1979), social work education promoted a highly individualised form of social work which has persisted with only occasional challenges in the UK, and is widespread elsewhere (Suin de Boutemard, 1990).

Lorenz has identified the different ideological positions which informed the development of social work education in a number of European countries (Lorenz, 1994). Christian, philanthropic and feminist ideals all played a part in shaping the early course aims and content, though socialist influences were perhaps less in evidence, with the exception of the course established at Ruskin College, Oxford. However, socialist ideals have periodically motivated some social work educators and had particular relevance to a more recent stage of development, discussed later.

Three of the texts discussing historical beginnings (Smith, 1965; Jones, 1979; Lorenz, 1994) have illustrated the need for social work education to ‘grapple with the dialectic tension between, on the one hand, preparing (students) for very specific tasks and duties within given organisational parameters, and, on the other hand, relativising and questioning these organisational constraints from the transcending positions of ethics and fundamental views on the nature of society and human behaviour’ (Lorenz, 1994, p.40). The education/training dichotomy, which played an important part in the earliest stages of social work education, has continued to be a major concern to a range of interest groups and is central to the crisis concerning the future shape and location of social work education.

The inter-war years were noted by Jones (1979, p.72) as ‘a period of relative quiescence’ in social work education, notwithstanding the social changes and economic problems of the time. This raises the issue of relevance to the social concerns of the day. However, just as wider welfare policies were characterised by ‘administrative responses’, the organisation of social work continued through establishment of professional organisations. These approved a slowly growing number of training opportunities, that is, the professional project proceeded.

Social work education continued to be fragmented (reflecting organisational and professional divisions): the Institute of Almoners approved training for social work in hospitals, while the Home Office approved courses initially in the Probation and subsequently Child Care fields. From the outset, it was mainly women who took advantage of training opportunities and who predominated in the ‘care’ roles (in hospitals, schools and a few clinical settings), while significant numbers of (largely untrained) men worked in the ‘control’ areas (Probation, Mental Welfare, NSPCC), mirroring domestic roles and Victorian norms (Walton, 1975). The implications of gender are also further explored in this study.

The inter-war years saw the beginning of a form of social work research distinct from the important and well known social surveys which had informed earlier developments (Pinker, 1971). A ten-year study of social casework (1924-34) was summarised in an unpublished paper ‘Social Casework in Action’ by an LSE lecturer, Clement Brown (Walton, 1975). Its non-publication at the time raises questions about social work academics’ credibility and confidence - another area for exploration in this study.

The Late 1940s to 1969

Jones identified a period of ‘gradual but increasing ascendancy [in social work] in the post 1945 period’ (Jones, 1979, p.72), related to significant changes in philosophy and policy regarding state welfare provision (Glennerster, 1995), and reflected in social work education. In fact, Jones’ publication in 1979 marked the point at which this development could be said to have been reversed. The path of social work education, even in these expansionist days of welfare and professional enterprises, was not smooth. Jones mentions cryptically that during the 1950s ‘social work successfully fought to keep its courses in the university sector, despite the opposition from many social studies departments’ (Jones, 1979, p.78, author’s italics), presaging one aspect of the insecurity subsequently experienced.

Social work education at that time did have an influential advocate in Eileen Younghusband, who noted that ‘the removal of social work education from the university sector would lower the standards and status of courses’ (Younghusband, 1951, p. 172). She contributed significantly to the further development of social work education through a report, commonly named after her (1959). This laid the basis for a generic approach to training (pioneered at the LSE in 1954) and also to the growth of social work education, including at non-graduate level in the 1960s. This latter development coincided with the establishment of the polytechnic sector and a general expansion in higher education as well as growth in the personal social services. However, with hindsight, it can be seen as the precursor of a shift from post-graduate to non-graduate courses which subsequently became the norm. It also marked the first paradigm shift from specialisation to generalism, in education as well as practice, another issue of periodic concern to educators.

Notwithstanding the impact of developments in social sciences and the growth in academic social research in the 1950s and 1960s (Payne, 1991, p.3), there was academic disfavour towards social work education in the 1950s, arguably related to its general adoption of perspectives from psychiatry, psychology and psychoanalysis, in tune with the emphasis on family stability after the upheavals of war (Bowlby, 1951). This resulted in the prevalence of individual case studies as a means of analysing and communicating ideas about social work, and reflected a form of practice which ignored wider societal factors and strategies. This approach, continued into the 1960s, provided a relatively secure form of professionalism but countered the positivistic approach of social sciences and their own efforts to establish academic credibility.

During the 1960s the psychodynamic approach became ‘naturalised’ (Payne, 1991), and structural analysis and the teaching of theory or skills relevant to intervention in community development or at policy level received little attention. While the ‘rediscovery of poverty’ was spearheaded by social scientists in the mid-1960s (notably by Abel Smith and Townsend (1965) at the LSE), it was not until the 1970s that social work courses became more influenced by sociological and policy perspectives and began to develop radical critiques of social work. From 1970 to 1977, a collective produced 25 editions of the differently informed and ‘irreverent’ Case Con (Langan, 1993, p.59), which challenged the prevailing orthodoxy; and during this decade social work education became more heterogeneous.

This delayed response to changing circumstances contributes to a criticism made of social workers more recently - in a period of anxieties about child abuse - that they fail to use research findings and to adapt their organisation and practice. Thus, social work education has periodically demonstrated a lack of timely attention to wider research and analysis, and been criticised for failure to produce social workers equipped to deal with emerging problems. The belated adoption of ‘new’ knowledge and perspectives then puts the discipline out of step with the demands and opportunities of the field, public and government attitudes, and the possible contributions of related subjects. The dangers of an introverted and ‘precious’ approach to social work education or, conversely, of an over-confident assumption by the profession of the role of critics and conscience of society, are examined later.

The 1970s

1970-1971 marked an important point in the unification of British social work and an apparent strengthening of its role and identity. Along with the establishment of local authority Social Service Departments (SSDs) following the Seebohm Report (1968), the main professional associations (with the exception of the National Association of Probation Officers, NAPO), formed the British Association of Social Workers (BASW). Additionally, the government strengthened the regulation of social work education through the establishment of the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work (CCETSW). This body was a QUANGO charged with promoting the growth, rationalisation and standardisation of social work education. It replaced a smaller body, the Council for Training in Social Work established by legislation in 1962. The legislation was amended in 1971 to give the new council extended powers, and again in 1983 when the size of the council was significantly reduced and became less representative of the profession and more subject to government influence, a trend continued into the 1990s.

A new professional qualification, the Certificate of Qualification in Social Work (CQSW) was established replacing earlier awards and providing generic training, related to the changed external context of social work practice. SSDs had quickly become the major employers of social workers and had developed generic teams rather than perpetuating old divisions related to client groups. Social work education was unique in offering a professional qualifica...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Part 1 British Social Work Education In Context: Policy Change and Professional Education
• Part 2 Characteristics Of Contemporary Social Work Education
• Part 3 Back To The Wider Context: Issues and Prospects for Social Work Education
• Bibliography
• Appendices
• Index of Authors
• Index