The Transferability of Western Social Work Education Across National and Cultural Boundaries: Fact or Fiction?

Abstract

The basic question is whether Western social work education should be transferred across national and cultural boundaries. The argument against such transfer has two major foundations: empirical and philosophical. The empirical argument holds that Western realities differ markedly from those in Third World countries, for example, and therefore Western social work knowledge and techniques are not applicable. The philosophical argument is based upon the assumptions of cultural relativism which maintains that each culture is a unique reality whose values are worthwhile in themselves. Therefore, the transfer of Western social work education and practice, by definition, is a form of imperialism, an unwarranted imposition upon Third World values. That Western knowledge and values may be faulty is true, but that is a case to be made and not merely assumed. Cultural relativism is critiqued as a significant ideological impediment to dealing with the complex, practical problems of transferability. The general applicability of Western social work education and values is reviewed and the critical problem identified as a failure to make such knowledge and practice country-specific.