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Abstract
This article discusses how international social work may be taught in the globalising Asian context. Towards this end, it analyses the meaning of international social work, presents a broad curriculum framework and a general guideline for curricula, and critically discusses some opportunities and challenges for teaching and practising international social work in the region. Drawing on this analysis the article argues that the region offers a fertile ground for practising international social work, but such practice needs to be squarely focused on least developed countries and least developed pockets within the relatively developing/developed countries in the region.
Notes
[1] Local level social development: the word ‘local’ in local level social development does not carry any one specific connotation. Uphoff (Citation1986, p. 11) saw it as signifying any or all of the following: locality (a set of interrelated communities); community (a relatively self-contained socioeconomic-residential unit); or group (a self-identified set of persons with a common interest). In general terms, local level social development is development that takes place at the local level and is ideally initiated by the local level. It is not essentially or ideally action that occurs at the local level as a result or flow on of central level planning and decision making (UN Centre for Regional Development, Citation1988, p. 14). As Midgley (Citation1992a) puts it, in what he refers to as the populist understanding of social development, ‘[Local level] social development is said to occur when local people collaborate to strengthen community bonds and take concerted action to improve their social and economic conditions’ (p. 4). We would argue that the philosophical base of local level social development is that local people, through their community structures, are enabled to assume responsibility for their own development (cited from Pawar and Cox, Citation2010c, pp. 41–43).
[2] A Korean social work educator and dean of the school consulted with the author about their plans to initiate community development projects in developing countries.
[3] Annual reports by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences include a list of graduates including those who are from overseas.