Research Curricula and Accreditation: The Challenge for Leadership

Abstract

Faculty and administrators in social work programs have greeted recently disseminated accreditation requirements by CSWE with varying mixtures of enthusiasm and concern. Of all curricular areas, research seems subject to the most extensive revisions of purpose, curricular structure, etc. Both accreditation demands and programmatic responses should be viewed against a backdrop of continuing disagreement within faculty ranks about the place of research in the professional curriculum. How newly promulgated accreditation policy and procedures affect this dissension and the adequacy of the conceptualizations and program structures that result will determine the usefulness of research content in future curricula.