Searching for a Capacity Building Model in Social Work Education in China

Abstract

This paper contains our reflections about our experiences in employing a capacity building model for training social workers to conduct community development work in rural China. Unlike the conventional approach to social work practicum, our approach advocates an educational practice of capacity building; not only for local people and learners, but for educators as well. It stresses that the educator should assume a non‐expert role in relating to his/her students so that the students will do the same with local people. We challenge the concept of the social work educator as an expert because it gives a teacher the power and authority to dominate students, which disempowers students during the learning process. In the same vein, we challenge the desire of social work students to become experts in rural development, which in turn disempowers local people from taking charge of the future direction of their lives in rural China. The capacity building approach subscribes to a critical pedagogy that calls for a re‐invention of self by challenging tradition and culture, and by developing academic knowledge, the habit of inquiry and critical curiosity about society, power, inequality, and social change.

Keywords:

• Capacity Building
• Critical Pedagogy
• Participatory Action Research
• Oral History
• Rural Social Work

Notes

For insights on developmental social work education and training in Africa, see Mupedziswa (2001, pp. 285–300).

In the field of social work, scholars often use the popular term ‘capacity building’ without giving a clear explanation of what they understand the concept to mean.

In order to protect the local community, I have used fictitious names for the village, township, and county.

All MA social work (China) students belong to the teaching staff of social work departments in different universities and colleges in China. Some hold senior positions such as professor or head of department.

For a discussion of the PRA method, see Campbell (2001).

The local people speak the Zhuang dialect. Only a few of the young villagers or educated adults can speak official Chinese—Mandarin. Therefore, it was difficult for the students to communicate directly with the local villagers. On the one hand, it was the students' handicap; but on the other hand, it became their advantage because they had to humble themselves and work closely with those educated villagers, who often became our translators.

The emphasis on personal experience notwithstanding, we are acutely aware that personal experience is not separate from space and time. In view of this, personal story is not entirely personal, for there exist times that are to be shared by all, times that overlap or do not overlap with those of others, and shared histories. It is indeed possible that personal stories also reflect things that are taking place in the age that the individuals find themselves in. Through their stories, we are able to make sense of the intersecting relationships. That is to say, of how larger events in history have affected the course of their lives, of how individuals have responded to historical changes, and of how they themselves behaved to change the course of history. This perspective is currently challenging traditional developmental studies, which treats developing societies and the local masses as passive, incapable and helpless victims.

Of course, the method of conducting oral history, as we chose it, had its own limitations. For instance, it failed to provide a conclusion that could be said to be comprehensive and representative of the entire community. However, this is irrelevant to us, for deriving a general conclusion from the fieldtrip was never part of our objective.

In the United Kingdom, some social workers actually arrange for young people to visit elderly people in the community as part of their oral history research. In talking to them, the young people realize that, for all their currently aged looks, the elderly people were, in fact, once as young as they are, leading colorful lives rich in experience. They therefore begin to respect the elderly (see Thompson, 1988). We have made similar findings while conducting oral history in our area of concern.