Pedagogy of international social work: a comparative study in the USA, UK, and Georgia

Abstract

The social work profession worldwide has been increasingly influenced by globalization and its effects on social issues that require social workers to be responsive and knowledgeable in addressing them. In recent years there has been an increased emphasis on the internationalization of the social work profession and education. With limited examples of international social-work-teaching methods discussed in the literature, there is also a lack of information obtained directly from students on methods of instruction that they most prefer and find beneficial. This collaborative, comparative project examined students' perceptions of methods that make teaching international social work successful at three universities in the United States, United Kingdom, and Georgia. While there were different preferences for content- and process-driven approaches in teaching, students' common interest was in gaining practice examples and exposure to real-life practice of international social work in their own and other countries. The findings suggest that international social work education needs to be more experiential and practice-based.

Keywords:

• comparative approaches
• international social work
• social work education

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the support of Gabrielle deFiebre, a graduate student at the City University of New York, who assisted in the collection and synthesis of the literature sources. The authors would also like to recognize the contribution of Janet Williams, Principal Lecturer at SHU and Representative on Board of International Association of Schools Social Work, in completing the table information as the leader of the ISW module at SHU and Nino Shatberashvili, Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology and Social Work at TSU, who is leading ISW module at TSU. This project was supported by the International Association of Schools of Social Work Grants for Projects in Social Work Education.

Notes

1. Percentages refer to the percentage of completed responses that fell into this category. As with some of the other questions, some students' responses covered more than one coded category, so figures do not add up to 100%.