Social Work: Seeking Relevancy in the Twenty-First Century

by Pardeck; Jean A.

• ISBN13: 9780789006448
• ISBN10: 0789006448
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-02-23
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Social Work: Seeking Relevancy Beyond the Postmodern Era critically examines major issues that social work education and practice must confront if social work is to remain as a mainline profession. As a social work student or professional, you will be exposed to issues in social work that normally are not covered in mainline social work literature such as the use of hypertechnology, the disjuncture of science and social work, problems with social work theories, and the challenge of reconstructing the social work profession. This important book examines these issues and offers an analysis to assist you with taking social work into the next millennium.

Author Biography

Roland Meinert, PhD, is President of the Missouri Association for Social Welfare in Jefferson City, Missouri. John T. Pardeck, PhD, is Professor in the School of Social Work at Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield. Larry W. Kreuger, PhD, is Associate Professor of Social Work at the School of Social Work at the University of Missouri at Columbia.

Table of Contents

Beyond Postmodernism: The Challenge of Reconstructing the Social Work Profession	1	(24)
Flexner Revisited	4	(5)
The Status of Knowledge	9	(4)
Ideological Captivity	13	(1)
The Myth of Values	14	(2)
Professional Ethnocentricity	16	(1)
Postmodernism and Other ``isms''	17	(2)
Social Work and Social Policy	19	(1)
Status of Social Work Education	20	(2)
Summing Up the Challenges	22	(3)
Crisis in Social Work Theory: Can a New Spirit for Social Work Be Constructed Out of the Shattered Grand Narratives of the Past?	25	(16)
Decline of Grand Narratives	26	(5)
Understanding Grand Narratives in Social Work	31	(5)
Prolegomena for a New Spirit for Social Work	36	(4)
Summary	40	(1)
The Disjuncture of Science and Social Work	41	(16)
Uneasy Relationships Between Social Work and Science	42	(1)
The Ecological Worldview	43	(2)
Objectivism versus Constructivism: Social Work's Uneasy Relationships	45	(2)
Research Training and Education	47	(3)
The Social Work Literature	50	(3)
Science-Driven Practice	53	(1)
Summary and Conclusion	54	(3)
Hypertechnology in Social Work	57	(18)
Why Do We Have Hypermodern Technology in Social Work?	59	(1)
Offices Without Walls and Distance-Spanning Innovations	60	(1)
Computers, the Internet, and Related Hypertechnology	61	(2)
What Is Wrong with Hypertechnology in Social Work?	63	(6)
What Should We Do As Educators/Practitioners?	69	(2)
Is Community Possible?	71	(4)
Social Work Education: From Metanarrative to Curricular Variety	75	(30)
Historical Background	75	(4)
A Success Story	79	(2)
BSW and MSW Curricular Tension	81	(2)
The BSW Curricular Conundrum	83	(4)
Concentrations Without Boundaries	87	(2)
Contextual Issues	89	(1)
Program Selectivity	90	(4)
Student Preference	94	(1)
Faculty Resource Disparity	95	(4)
Gender and Diversity Issues	99	(3)
Challenges and Opportunities	102	(3)
Tough Medicine: What Needs to Be Done	105	(20)
Toward a Scientific Social Work	106	(1)
Scientific Practice	107	(2)
Axioms of Scientific Practice	109	(2)
A Scientifically Based Theory of Social Work Practice	111	(7)
Behaving Like Other Academics	118	(2)
Improving Social Work Editorial Boards	120	(2)
Summary and Conclusion	122	(3)
Critical Issues for the Twenty-First Century	125	(6)
References	131	(14)
Index	145