This chapter identifies three phases of internationalization in social work education. It documents foundation dates of social work courses in a representative range of countries. The foundation phase from the 1920s to 1945 brought together early social work schools in a committee under the leadership of Alice Salomon, the German feminist and social worker. From 1945 to 2000, the establishment phase achieved the adoption of social work education virtually universally, with Katherine Kendall playing an important executive role promoting coordination through the International Association of Schools of Social Work. The end of the Cold War in the 1990s led to the consolidation of the policy and social development work in these earlier phases into an issues-based phase when the Association sought to develop influence on global policy issues of social justice, social conflict and social development. Debates about the nature of international or global social work are explored.
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