Social Work Education in Latin America and the United States: A Look to the Future

Abstract

This paper analyzes the historical relationship between social work education in Latin America and the United States. It also explores the relevance of these experiences to American social work education. The United States' original contribution to Latin American social work education is being replaced by innovative methodologies more responsive to each country's problems and needs. New social work strategies have produced innovative approaches to curriculum development and content, interdisciplinary collaboration, and the social worker's role. Translating these approaches to the American situation will help identify the multinational variables in social work education, and provide an international perspective for the profession's theory and practice base.