Planning and social work: teaching pre-professional university students across colleges

ABSTRACT

Macro (community practice) social work and community planning practitioners do not have an extensive tradition – over time or space – of working together, despite overlapping professional goals and service populations. In an exploratory qualitative study using a convenience sample, we analyzed student responses to questions about the experience of interdisciplinary course activities to assess whether students in these two disciplines valued opportunities to collaborate with those from an unfamiliar and yet complementary profession. Content analysis suggested modest positive attitudes – and some differences, with planning students somewhat more positive about the interaction, and social work students less likely to see the planning profession as relevant to community practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Interdisciplinary education
• community and regional planning
• macro social work

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for funding and support from the Research Institute for Environment, Energy, and Economics at Appalachian State University. We received valuable assistance from graduate students N. Gastelle and L. Handwerger.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Research Institute for Environment, Energy, and Economics, Appalachian State University .