Challenges to theory-practice integration of social work education in China: theory learning

ABSTRACT

Theory-practice integration is vital in social work education. This study examines China’s social work education system, focusing on challenges and solutions in theory-practice integration. Data from 90 participants (faculty, administrators, and students) across 7 schools in different regions were gathered via focus groups and individual interviews. Challenges include faculty lacking social work training and practice experience, limited teaching materials, systemic higher education constraints, and a lack of indigenous social work theory. Faculty overcome these challenges through dedication, acquiring relevant knowledge, and establishing new practice agencies. University-level recognition of social work’s practice-oriented nature and the development of indigenous theories are crucial.

KEYWORDS:

• Social work education in China
• theory-practice integration
• theory learning
• indigenisation of theories

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Winnie W. Kung

Dr. Winnie W. Kung is a professor at Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service. Her research interests mainly focus on mental health and families, with an emphasis on cultural impacts. Her recent publications include the mental health impact of the World Trade Center attack on Asian Americans and their service use through her grant from The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health under the Center on Disease Control and Prevention. She did an intervention research on an ethnically sensitive family intervention for Chinese American caregivers of patients suffering from schizophrenia with research grants from The Lois and Samuel Silberman Fund, Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation. She also did studies on Chinese Americans caregivers’ burden and causal attributions of schizophrenia, Chinese Americans’ help-seeking behaviors and barriers to mental health treatment, integration of primary care and mental health services, and the sociocultural contexts in shaping divorced women’s stress and coping in Hong Kong. She researched on depression and marital distress as well as depression among Mexican Americans.

Naishuo Sun

Dr. Naishuo Sun research interests include parenting and parent-child relationships among immigrant families. Her recent study focuses on the effects of parent-child separation among Chinese immigrant families in New York City.