Professional identity of social work students in Mainland China: social work educator accounts

ABSTRACT

Currently, a systematic empirical study on the efforts of social work education in promoting the development of the professional identity of Mainland China graduates is lacking. This study explores the current state and the development of the professional identity of social work students. Twenty-three social work educators from 11 provinces, two municipalities and two autonomous regions were interviewed. The findings revealed the perception of educators on the current state of development of professional identity among students, the efforts in developing students as future professionals and the ways of partnership with social work organisations. Overall, the study led to an increased understanding of the collaboration between educators and frontline social workers, synergy effects between social work education and service sector, future development of social work practice research and ways of developing professional identity among social work students. Implications are addressed, including collaboration with regional social work organisations and international university networks.

已有文献还缺乏有关社会工作教育在促进中国内地社会工作毕业生专业认同感方面的系统实证研究, 由此,本研究试图探讨社会工作学生的专业身份现状及其发展。研究访谈了来自11个省, 两个直辖市和两个自治区, 共23名社会工作教育者。调查结果揭示了教育者对学生专业身份发展现状、 培养学生未来职业方面努力以及与社会工作机构建立伙伴关系方式的看法。总体而言, 本研究可促进更好地理解教育工作者与前线社工之间的协作、 社会工作教育与服务机构之间的协同效应、 社会工作实践研究的未来发展以及社会工作学生中发展职业认同的方式。论文也讨论了本研究对社会工作教育的启示, 包括与区域社会工作组织和国际大学网络的合作等。

KEYWORDS:

• Professional identity
• social work education
• practice-based curriculum
• fieldwork placement
• Mainland China

Disclosure statement

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