Establishing a social work model for China’s rural vitalisation strategy

ABSTRACT

This article documents a social work education model from an emerging collaboration among scholars in China, Aotearoa New Zealand, and the United States to adapt Western and Indigenous Māori theories and practices to the Chinese context. To advance this model, we map our process by 1) outlining the challenges in China and comparing them to those in Aotearoa New Zealand and the United States; 2) summarising the social work history and culture in each country; 3) outlining universal elements and examples of social work practices; and 4) identifying ways in which these countries can innovate and collaborate to support the development of a new social work education model for China’s rural vitalisation strategy. This model adopts the Māori Whare Tapa Wha (English: “four cornerstones of health”) as a living expression of inter-ethnic health practice applied to social work practice in Aotearoa New Zealand.

本研究以中国、新西兰和美国社会工作学者的合作社会工作教育为基础, 在乡村振兴战略下探讨西方及新西兰毛利人本土社会工作理论与实践在中国情境下的运用。本文的主要内容包括:1) 介绍中国社会工作发展的挑战并将其与新西兰、美国的情形进行比较;2) 总结存在于每一个国家的社会工作历史与文化;3) 提炼社会工作实践中的普适性要素与例证;4) 在中国乡村振兴战略背景下, 探讨这些国家之间通过创新合作而发展新社会工作教育模式的路径。这一模式借用了新西兰毛利人的 Māori Whare Tapa Wha (“健康的四大基石”) 模型, 它是一种应用于新西兰社会工作实践中的跨种族健康实践形式。

KEYWORDS:

• (re)vitalisation
• minorities
• multiculturalism
• asset building
• Muslims
• Māori

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the key projects of China National Social Science Fund: Research on social work practice mode and theoretical innovation in Rural Vitalization Strategy of China (No.: 19AZD021). The authors also wish to thank the Fox Leadership International Program of the University of Pennsylvania for co-supporting the U.S. research. We recognise the research assistance of Chrissy Sessa and Rachel Williams. We also thank Dr. Jena Barchas-Lichtenstein and the anonymous reviewers for your expertise and feedback that helped us to improve this article.

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

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

Notes

1. “Three Districts and Three Prefectures” are areas in China with a high poverty rate, low per capita standard of living, a high degree of dependence on the poverty alleviation policy and extremely limited regional development. It includes Tibetan ethnic areas in the provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu and Qinghai; Southern Xinjiang Prefectures; and Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture, Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture.