Strengths-Pathology Dissonance in the Social Work Curriculum

ABSTRACT

Contemporary social work practice, with its focus on empowerment and diversity, hassparked renewed interest in practice that moves away from a deficit or pathological approach to one that emphasizes strengths, resilience and resources. This paper explores die influence of strengths based practice models on social work education. It considers the potential dissonance in the MSW curriculum between strengths perspectives and practice theories influenced by notions of pathology and deficiency. Three aspects of dissonance are considered: historical roots; internal sources of dissonance and external influences on thecurriculum.