diseño lógico

Universities were established in New Zealand to serve society by preparing individuals for vocations which involve advanced skills and learning. The relation between the professions and universities has always been a close one.... Which new types of study leading to professional careers should be accepted into the universities

placed in technical institutes? 1982)

and which would be more appropriately (UGC Review Committee Final Report,

This chapter considers the issues raised in the above quotation, in relation to social work education. In the previous chapter, I indicated that case studies of the history of social work show a relationship between changing systems of state welfare and the stages through which the profession has gone. As welfare philosophies are under pressure to adapt to monetarism, so managerialism and surveillance methods have become more sophisticated. Welfare agencies employing social workers act as a kind of litmus test for the social work task and the signals sent by employers to those who educate social w orkers indicate ever more persuasively the capabilities and knowledge they want in their workforce. It is here that tensions between the vocational and professional nature of social work can arise as social work has had difficulties on several fronts gaining acceptance as an academic discipline in the universities.

The lack of commitment to employing qualified staff was a continual problem in the eyes of social work educators. For example, Professor

McCreary, in his address to the NZASW biennial conference in 1 972,

pointed out that "an innovation is successful if it meets the felt needs of a society and if the needs are not felt to exist the innovators need to generate a feeling of need". He then asked the conference whether "the introduction of university education in social work met any felt needs within the employers of social workers in this country?"

It was his opinion that the "stimulus for university education came not from the field and not from the employers except to a very limited degree

but rather from private citizens, the National Council for Educational Research and University people" (McCreary, 1972: 59).

An examination of the characteristics of an academic discipline together with conceptualisation of the epistemological structures of the subject matter within disciplines is essential for an understanding of the history of professional social work education. "Enough education" for the purposes of the market may be too superficial for the academic community which aims to turn out social workers with a generic education. Under such circumstances, tensions inevitably arise, where the d istribution of educational resources is concerned, in the relationship between economic and social policies (Margins on, 1993). _{This chapter considers these tensions}

in the context of social work education in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Much of the history of social work education in Aotearoa /New Zealand has been concerned with questions about where social work should be taught and what social workers need to know. Therefore this chapter presents an overview of the literature concerning perceptions of social work as an academic d iscipline l and related issues. It is argued that in the three historical phases I have identified during the period studied here, changing alliances between those with an interest in social service delivery have affected the character of social work education. To begin with, there was a general assumption that social workers would be educated at university. As economic resources became stretched and the demand for qualified basic grade social workers grew, so questions were raised about the extent to which social workers needed an expensive education. Those asking questions were employers, some keen to secure skilled, professional staff and others, to employ technically competent, but not over-educated personnel.

To understand the place of social work courses in tertiary education today necessitates knowledge of the history of social work education and the debates which have taken place make rewarding history. They tell us a great deal about the emergence of a social work identity in Aotearoa / New Zealand. Social work, and the education of social workers are facing great change and social workers now, more than ever, need to understand the core features of their profession.

Prior to the establishment of the School of Social Science, there was little social work training offered in the country. A Dip loma of Social Science was offered by the University of New Zealand in 1922, though this was not specific to social work.2 John Beck, first superintendent of the Child Welfare Division, visited the USA and Canada in 1925 and described the two year diploma at the University of Toronto in his memoirs. He was very aware of the need for his child welfare officers to be trained and saw that the Toronto diploma would be a good model. Later, there was a Miss Cameron who returned to New Zealand after training in Toronto as a medical social worker and introduced a one year course in medical social work into the post-graduate nursing course in Wellington (Jones, 1967). This course consisted of 20 hours theory and 30 hours practice in medical social work and 20 hours social case work theory. In addition there were field visits and a five week placement.3

Mary Lambie, an Aotearoa/ New Zealand nurse, recalled how the National Council of Women and the Federation of U niversity Women mad e representations to the Victoria College o f the University of New Zealand in 1930 that there should be a course for social workers (Lambie, 1956).4 In 1943, the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) held a conference to discuss the provision of professional training for social work in New Zealand. Opinion was divided over whether a university was an appropriate setting for social work courses. Support for the apprenticeship system stemmed partly from concerns that an academic course might lead to social workers becoming distanced from their clients and losing their sense of vocation. Nevertheless, the conference ended with recommendations that the establishment of a school of social work should be investigated. In 1949, a School of Social Science was established at Victoria University College of the UniverSity of New Zealand and the first students were enrolled in a profeSSional course in 1950 (McCreary, 1971a).

Fourteen years later the New Zealand Association of Social Workers was formed - a strong advocate for education and training of social workers. It took almost another ten years before the New Zealand Social Work Training Council was appOinted. Throughout this period, there was

,

- Beeby , the Director of Education, is on record as describing it as "a pot pourri of things already taught in various departments, stuck together loosely by a bit of sociological theory" (Beeby, in Crockett, 1 979).

3 Inventory of training opportunities in New Zealand, circa 1964, from J.R. Robb's archival collection in

Box 47, the Beaglehole Room, VUW library.

4 She was on the adVisory committee for the Diploma in Social Science at VUW when it was eventually established.

ongoing discussion as to how to increase the proportion of qualified social workers in the country, and where their education should take place. There were those who argued that it should be at tertiary level, at university.