The internationalization of social work. Emerging discourses from the Erasmus Mundus Advances program

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, an increased number of international social work (ISW) educational programs have been developed with the goal to equip practitioners to face the social problems in the new modern era. Within our globalized world, social work is in the quest for professionals with a global mind-set and nontraditional abilities and skills. This article presents the findings of an explorative research carried out during the ISW master program called Advances. The qualitative research aimed to explore the perceptions, believes and opinions of those students and alumni who have been enrolled in the Advances program who were subsequently asked to think critically and reflect about their international experience. The Advances program is a practical example that might be helpful to reflect on both how to develop a collaborative process between international social workers during the early years of education and how to build commonalities and fight for a common cause, improving the global/local social workers’ mind-set, sharing cross-national concerns more than look for an international ideological definition of what should be (International) Social Work.

KEYWORDS:

• Education
• International Social Work
• Erasmus program
• cross-cultural knowledge
• critical social work

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Four semesters, a summer school and many other professional experiences across Europe have culminated into a deep reflexivity that has birthed the formation of this thesis – research. I would like to thank my supervisor Claire Ganne (University of Paris Nanterre) and my second supervisor Michael Russell (Lincoln University) for the support, critiques and discussions that provided guidance during my research. Thanks to the Advances Consortium that chose me to be a part of the program, to the Erasmus Mundus Grants and to my peers and colleagues with whom I shared this amazing experience.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Erasmus Mundus Advances program.

Notes on contributors

Claudia Di Matteo

Claudia Di Matteo currently works at the Gerontological Research Department, INRCA Istituto Nazionale di Ricovero e Cura per Anziani. Claudia does research in Social Theory, Social Policy and Public Policy. Their current project is called National Strategy of Policies and Interventions on Active Ageing in Italy. In 2018, she graduated with an International Master Degree from the Erasmus Mundus Advances Programme (https://www.socialworkadvances.aau.dk/). She worked in Italy, Africa, and France in both fields the public social services and the international cooperation within NGOs.

Claire Ganne

Claire Ganne is a lecturer of the Department of Education at the University of Paris Nanterre. She has taught in different sectors of social work education. Her main research themes relate with Child Protection system. She is currently a board member of the Advances Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Programme.