How we think about universities, their purposes and about the place of postcompulsory
education in our society is the exemplification of a number of attitudes
about humanity and life in general. Perceptions about the place of tertiary or postcompulsory
education in the life of the ordinary person have changed along with a
broader sweep of changes in the way people view themselves in relations to the
world. The meaning of education in general and in particular, that of tertiary or postcompulsory
education in the life of people today occupies a very different one to that
of as little as forty or thirty years ago. The recent movements in the policies and
processes surrounding the structure, form and purpose of higher education in
Australia signifies to some extent at least the depth of these shifts in perceptions.
In the field of social welfare education changes in political and social attitudes have led
to calls for increased accountability in standards of practice in both service delivery
and professional education, yet this call has come at a time of change in the cultural
climate where there is decreasing clarity about what is expected of social welfare as a
service, and of education for professional practice in the area.
This thesis contends that the practice of and education for social work and social
welfare stand in an invidious position in the current society in that practitioners and
teachers, agencies and universities are being called on to be more accountable both
philosophically and pragmatically, but that at the same time as this call for
accountability presses upon the profession, questions are also being asked about the
value basis of professional practice. Criticisms are being levied at the profession
some suggesting that it is ideologically bound and ineffective in dealing with social
problems seen to be within its scope of contribution to society. With justification these
same criticism are being aimed at social work and welfare training programs with
suggestions that contend that the education of people to work in the social welfare
sector is at a cross-roads. Unless a reassessment of the goals and purposes of
education for this field takes place it may lose all social status and relevance, yet there
are those who suggest that change is long overdue and that there has been little change
in the philosophy and practice of social welfare education
The thesis has a primary contention that training people to work as social workers and
other professional providers of social welfare in the current society is being placed
under the microscope as a consequence of a number of movements in educational and
political thought that have had their culmination in the competency movement that has
impacted on both tertiary education, the professions and the industries.
The institutions in which this training or education takes place have been changed in
form and function particularly since 1989, following the Dawkins restructuring of the
tertiary education sector and the account of these changes provides a backdrop for the
story about social welfare education in Australia.
These changes have included the construction of a national training platform with the
espoused intention of formulating a seamless web of credentialling linking schools,
the workplace, industry based training, DeTAFE and universities.
The introduction of Competency Based Education, where training is asked to
demonstrate a higher level of accountability and transparency than has been the case in
the past, and the introduction of higher, sharper demands for effectiveness and
relevance have shaken the universities out of comfortable complacency.
In particular the competency movement has placed demands on the professions to
demonstrate that they are able to describe their skills, roles and functions in accessible
and assessable terms. This demand has also been placed on the social welfare
profession. The requirement for the social welfare profession to formulate
competencies has thrown into sharp relief an ideologically bound framework of
practice that is seen to be out of touch with the needs of the current society, and this
has had direct relevance for the education programs preparing people to practice in
these areas.
Chapter One focuses on views of knowledge and education and goes on to critique the
changes in higher education that have occurred over the last half-century in Australia
in general and in South Australia in particular, specifically in reference to the
programs for educating social welfare workers. This chapter is largely historical, but
this history is told with more of an appreciation of the spectacle of history's passing
or recycling parade rather than of social progress.
Chapter Two addresses the impact and significance of the structural and policy
changes within the higher education sector with a particular focus on the competency
movement as a demonstration of one of the currently perceived purposes of
education.
Chapter Three explores responses to the competency movement as further indicators
of the views about the purposes of higher education in general and their relevance to
those teaching with the social work and social welfare programs.
Chapter Four locates voices in the discourse about the social welfare field, the type of
work involved in the area, the sort of training needed, and the dilemmas inherent in
the profession in the current society. This chapter highlights the need for a consensus
position to support the formulation of standards for practice as implied in the design
of competencies, and the ramifications of the lack of such consensus.
Chapter Five displays the state of disarray in the profession through the analysis of
the draft competencies produced so far, where lack of vision and consensus are seen,
in the final reckoning, as the stumbling blocks to future clarity of purpose. Of any
profession, social welfare work is one of the most difficult to put into competency based
form due to both the nature of the work and the lack of a consensus view of its
primary goals and purposes, yet it is essential that this can be achieved given the
impactful and intrusive nature of the work, and the push for accountability implicit in
the competency movement.
The thesis concludes with a statement of hope that clearer standards for practice can be
formulated and that social welfare education and practice can re-configure to
contribute relevantly to the current society.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/218821 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | Cameron, Helen, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Helen Cameron |
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