Education or Formation: Parallels Between Seminary and Social Work Graduate Programs

Abstract

This article examines how social work and ministry graduate education share common sociological characteristics that increasingly emphasize a sense of inner formation as well as traditional education. Both social work and ministry have increasingly emphasized a sense of call or vocation, field work and internships, and specific credentials for practice. Sociologically, both social work and ministry can be framed as socialization into the helping professions, into the midlevel professions, and into the bureaucratic professions, with maintenance of socialization taking place through similar professional associations and continuing education. Implications for social work education and educational policy are discussed.

Keywords:

• formation
• graduate education
• professionalization
• seminary
• social work education
• sociology of professions

Acknowledgments

Portions of this article were presented on October 30, 2010 at the 2010 Society for the Scientific Study of Religion/Religious Research Association Annual Meeting in Baltimore, MD.