The importance of the social work degree in working with families and children: implications for China's growing social work profession

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore how social work education for child welfare professionals in the United States can be used to inform the Chinese social work curriculum. The recent proliferation of social work education programs in China may be encouraging news to child welfare scholars, but the infrastructure needed to develop a professionalized child welfare work force in China remains lacking. In the United States, social work education for child welfare professionals is supported by Title IV-E funding, which is consistent with the prevailing philosophy that workers with social work education achieve better outcomes for maltreated children than do those without social work degrees. The authors of this article conducted a recent evaluation of public child welfare workers' performance in the state of Texas, which substantiates this belief. Results from this study are presented along with a discussion of how Chinese social work scholars might apply the conclusions to improve child welfare in China.

本文会探索如何利用培训美国儿童福利工作者的社会工作教育推动中国社会工作课程设计。对于儿童福利学者来说, 最近社会工作教育在中国得到蓬勃的发展是一个令人鼓舞的信息, 但是中国仍缺乏培育专业儿童福利工作者的配套结构。一直以来, 美国的社会保障法IV-E属下的基金资助儿童福利专业工作者接受社会工作教育, 而这是符合及响应主流理念:与没有社会工作学位的员工相比, 曾接受专业社会工作教育的工作者能为缺乏照顾的儿童争取更好的结果。作者最近曾评估德克萨斯州政府儿童福利工作者的表现, 得出相同的结果。除了发表该评估的成果外, 本文会一同探讨中国社会工作学者如何使用该评估的结论, 改善中国的儿童福利。

Keywords:

• social work education
• child welfare training
• China
• Title IV-E