Education and training opportunities for local and indigenous social workers: case studies in disability-related fields from an international development perspective

ABSTRACT

Many ‘non-professional’ and ‘non-certified’ social workers seem to conduct indigenous social work practices in low- and middle-income countries in Asia. From the perspective of international developmental social work, this case study explores the education and training opportunities for local and indigenous social workers in disability related fields. The data was mainly obtained through field work and practice conducted by the author, whose positionality was considered an international social worker in Sri Lanka and Mongolia. The field data was supplemented by literature. The findings reveal that some local workers in government and non-government sectors, who might not have received professional social work education, engage in practices that can be considered a part of social work using their indigenous and local knowledge and skills. In some cases, these workers also use their knowledge of international concepts and frameworks. Additionally, this study presents some instances of knowledge exchange between domestic and international stakeholders through dialogue-based practices and training in the field. The findings suggest that international social workers are required to explore reflective practice and collaborative knowledge creation with domestic stakeholders, including indigenous social workers and disabled people, through dialogue in the field.

KEYWORDS:

• Capacity development
• co-production
• indigenous knowledge
• social development perspective
• reciprocal exchanges

Acknowledgments

I would like to start by expressing my gratitude to all the people who supported this study. I am very grateful to the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for supporting this research project. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the DPUB or JICA. This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP21K13477.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. In some contexts, the term ‘post-colonial social work’ has also recently been used to decolonise social work in the Global South (Noyoo & Kleibl, 2019).

2. According to an NISD report, the employment percentage of graduates who obtained a Bachelor of Social Work from the NISD in 2012/2016 was 74%. Whilst 22% had found employment in the government sector, 54% had obtained a job with an NGO (Higashida, 2018; National Institute of Social Development, NISD, 2017).

3. Besides, 29 field officers participated in a programme of diploma on social work, offered by the NISD, in 2017/2018 (Ministry of Social Empowerment, Welfare and Kandyan Heritage, 2017).

4. This paper does not describe educational situations related to psychiatric or psychosocial work in Sri Lanka (Galappatti, 2005).

5. It would be possible to discuss the policy and institutional change at the macro level. For instance, researchers could examine the relationship between domestic and international norms and their dynamics (Fadgen, 2019).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP21K13477.

Notes on contributors

Masateru Higashida

Masateru Higashida, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at the Aomori University of Health and Welfare, as well as a research fellow with the Asian Research Institute for International Social Work. He obtained a Master of Social Welfare from Osaka Prefecture University, Japan, in 2005, a Master of Public Health in International Development with Distinction from the University of Sheffield, UK, in 2016, and a Doctorate in Human Sciences from Osaka University in 2020. He has worked in the field of disability issues in Japan, Sri Lanka and Mongolia for more than 10 years in total.