Book Review: Stefan Borrmann, Michael Klassen and Christian Spatscheck (eds) (2007) International Social Work: Social Problems, Cultural Issues and Social Work Education. Leverkusen Opladen: Verlag Barbara Budrich. ISBN 10: 3866490879,189 pp

2010 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-141
Author(s):  
Mari Anne Zahl
Author(s):  
Gurid Aga Askeland ◽  
Malcolm Payne

This chapter contains a brief biography and transcript of an interview with Armaity S. Desai, a leader in Indian social work education, who was awarded the Katherine Kendall Award of the International Association of Schools of Social Work in 1992, for her contribution to international social work education. After social work training and practice experience in India and the USA, she held leadership roles at the Nirmala Niketan College of Social Work, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and the Indian University Grants Commission. Areas of social work important in her career included adoption, practice education, integrated practice in social work, using a range of modalities, using social work ideas to inform leadership roles and social development. She saw international social work as giving breadth of perspective, and saw lack of funding and indigenous literature as obstacles to development in social work education. Activism, standing up against the state, is seen as important in social work.


Author(s):  
Gurid Aga Askeland ◽  
Malcolm Payne

Katherine Kendall was an important executive, fulfilling leadership roles in the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) for nearly 60 years. She experienced migration to the USA, the disruption of war, family disability and her own disability in her early life. As a young woman, she travelled in Europe with her husband in the 1930s, taking up social work training on their return. During World War II, she took up US government international liaison posts. Later, she researched international social work education for the United Nations, contributing to her PhD. Taking up executive posts in the US Council on Social Work Education, she became honorary, then executive secretary of IASSW, fulfilling consultancies and international visits, particularly in Latin America. She led a significant international social development project on family planning, and completed publications on issues in social work education and international social work, including historical overviews and biographical tributes to leaders in these fields, drawing on her experience.


Author(s):  
Gurid Aga Askeland ◽  
Malcolm Payne

The chapter presents a content analysis and discussion of interviews with most of the awardees and of biographies of others who received the Katherine Kendall Award, focused on their views on the future of international social work and its education. Debate on the future role of the International Association of Schools of Social Work is also reviewed. Weaknesses in the representation of the full range of international social work education by the Association and the Award are considered. Ways of strengthening representation through greater involvement from the Global South and better funding of representation are explored.


Author(s):  
Leonard Bloksberg

Louis Lowy (1920–1991) was a leader in gerontology and social work education and a pioneer in advancing international social work education. Lowy emigrated from Germany to Boston in 1946 and co-founded the Boston University Gerontology Center in 1974.


2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-162
Author(s):  
Frank B. Raymond

During the last decade increasing numbers of schools of social work have adopted an international mission and have developed a variety of activities to reflect their global perspective. In earlier years, however, relatively few schools expressed a global mission, offered coursework on international social work, provided field placements or other opportunities to expose students to international learning, or extended components of their academic programs to other countries. An early leader in doing such things was the College of Social Work at the University of South Carolina (COSW), where the author was privileged to serve as dean for 22 years (1980-2002) when many of these developments occurred. This paper will discuss how this school acquired an international mission and developed various programs to manifest this commitment. The paper will describe, in particular, the college’s signature achievement in international social work education – the development and implementation of a Korea-based MSW program. The COSW was the first school of social work in the US to offer a master’s degree in its entirety in a foreign country. It is hoped that the recounting of this school’s experiences will offer guidance to other social work education programs that are exploring ways of expanding their international initiatives.


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