Service learning as a social work pedagogy of China

Abstract

The powerful boost of the Chinese Communist Party and the central government in developing the social work policy initiatives has projected a radiant future for social work education and social work profession in the decades to come. This strong stimulus, however, further intensifies the predicament of social work education already shaped by professional colonization, nativistic reaction, commodification of higher education and political appropriation into a vicious spiral. This article argues that service learning can become an alternative in indigenizing social work pedagogy to the above-mentioned predicament, as well as a pedagogical strategy to cope with the postmodern uncertainties of social work education. With reference to the five years' experience of service learning in the Social Work Research Institute of Yunnan University, the authors illustrate the implications of service learning to the indigenizing pedagogy through four approaches: experiential learning, civic responsibility, political and anti-foundational perspectives, as alternatives to the predicament of social work education and the development of social work in China. Citing the impact of service learning on social work education, the authors advocate that service learning should be promoted not just as a social work pedagogy, but also as a community engagement movement, as well as an intellectual movement in China.

中国共产党和政府对社会工作的强力推动为中国的社会工作和社工教育投射出灿烂的发展前景，但同时也加剧了社工教育在专业殖民主义、文化守成的回应、高等教育产业化和政治占用等力量作用下的恶性循环处境。我们认为服务学习是摆脱上述社会工作教育困境，以及摆脱本质主义、全盘西化、或后现代社会工作本土化论争的社工批评教育方法。以云南大学社会工作研究所在过去五年服务学习的经验为例，本文通过四种服务学习视角：经验学习、公民责任、政治关系和基础知识批判，叙述服务学习对社会工作教育带来的作用，以及对中国社会工作发展的影响。通过引证服务学习在社会工作教育的作用，我们建议应大力推广服务学习作为社会工作教育学，以及作为社区参与运动和学术运动的重要价值。

Keywords:

• service learning
• social work education
• China

Notes

1. Xiang and Luk (2005) argued that the huge disparity between the enormous supply of social work trained graduates and the lack of social work positions, and the one between the disparate professional training and skills required for existing social work positions, make up the bubble growth of a social work education economy, which has reached the bursting point in the mid-2000s.