International collaboration for mutual benefit: a Southwest China and Southeast United States partnership

ABSTRACT

China’s return to social work education, after a nearly 35-year absence, opened the door for partnerships like the 2012 China Collaborative partnership between the Council on Social Work Education’s (CSWE) Katherine A. Kendall Institute, the China Association of Social Work Education (CASWE) and the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW). The University of Alabama School of Social Work (UA SSW) was selected to participate in the collaborative and was connected to the Southwest China Region, specifically partnered with Yunnan University. This manuscript will share the strategies used to engage faculty and students from each partnering institution. Data collected by UA SSW over the five-year partnership will be utilised to contribute to the discussion of the extent to which Western knowledge and theory about social work education might usefully be applied to the Chinese context.

在近35年的缺席后, 中国恢复重建社会工作专业教育, 并为国际合作敞开大门, 其中包括了2012年中国社会工作教育协会 (CASWE)与美国社会工作教育理事会 (CSWE) Katherine A.Kendall研究所及国际社会工作教育联盟 (IASSW) 之间的合作。美国阿拉巴马大学社会工作学院通过参与该项目与中国西南地区及云南大学匹配对接。本研究分享用于吸引来自合作机构教师和学生深度参与的策略。同时, 基于阿拉巴马大学在五年合作伙伴关系发展中的相关数据, 本研究讨论了西方社会工作教育知识和理论在多大程度上可以应用于中国背景中。

KEYWORDS:

• International social work
• China collaborative
• social work education
• Yunnan University
• University of Alabama

Disclosure statement

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