Social Work: A Profession in Search of Its Identity

Abstract

Micro social work practice can be understood in the context of its historical professional traditions and dialectics as well as the environmental pressures and demands placed on the profession. In becoming a profession, social work relied heavily on principles drawn from medicine and science. Although these bodies of knowledge provided the profession certain credibility, their application may have clouded social work’s distinctive social purpose and professional identity. In its search for a distinctive function and identity, the profession of social work has struggled with numerous dialectics, as discussed in this article. These help us to better understand the profession’s search for its distinctive identity and status and the importance of including this content in social work education.

Notes

¹ This observation is particularly ironic in the light of the increasing importance attached to social work’s mediating function in the dehumanized and depersonalized organizational world of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alex Gitterman

Alex Gitterman is Zachs Professor and director of the doctoral program at the University of Connecticut.