teaching social welfare policy and services in the social work curriculum of canadian schools

TEACHING SOCIAL WELFARE POLICY AND SERVICES IN THE SOCIAL WORK CURRICULUM OFCANADIAN SCHOOLSAuthor(s): Albert RoseSource: Canadian Journal of Social Work Education / Revue canadienne d'éducation en servicesocial, Vol. 1, No. 3 (SUMMER/ÉTÉ 1975), pp. 4-12Published by: Canadian Association for Social Work Education (CASWE)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41668829 .

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TEACHING SOCIAL WELFARE POLICY AND

SERVICES IN THE SOCIAL WORK CURRICULUM

OF CANADIAN SCHOOLS*

Albert Rose Faculty of Social Work University of Toronto

RESUME L'élaboration des programmes ďétudes en

service social soulève toujours la question controversée de "l'éducation" versus "l'ap- prentissage". Les divers champs d'applica- tion en service social réclament une prépara- tion à la pratique professionnelle tandis que les éducateurs ont une vision plus large et pri- vilégient les exigences de la carrière. A tra- vers les années, le service social s'est éloigné de l'action sociale basée sur le système politique et économique pour devenir une profession à visées thérapeutiques. Les profes- seurs et les étudiants continuent de discuter de politique et d'action sociale mais pour la plupart des étudiants leur programme d'études ne traite pas des connaissances requises pour effectuer des changements en politique sociale. Prôner le changement social est une chose; mais comprendre ce qu'on essaie de changer, c'est tout autre.

Récemment les candidats aux études en service social ont soutenu avec force qu'ils possé- daient une base solide en sciences sociales et en sciences du comportement. Ils se sont mon- trés moins empressés pour faire état de leurs connaissances en science politique et écono- mique. Ils considéraient même ces disciplines peu pertinentes à leur préparation professionnelle. En conséquence, les étudiants qui ne s'aventurent pas dans les cours fondamentaux traitant des services sociaux se rendent compte souvent qu'ils ne possèdent pas les connaissances requises pour un examen même élé- mentaire de notre système complexe de services sociaux intergouvernementaux.

En aucun moment, au cours de ce siècle, les travailleurs sociaux ont-ils été plus en de- mande et, pourtant, moins considérés par les

* Presented to the Annual Conference of the Canadian Association of Schools of Social Work, Edmonton, Alberta, May 29, 1975.

autres professions. Ils continuent d'être privés de cette position professionnelle unique dans la société qui leur conférerait le droit exclusif de pratiquer un art destiné à aider ceux à qui il s'adresse. L'action interdisciplinaire basée sur le respect mutuel exige chez ceux qui col- laborent, l'assurance que leurs collègues pos- sèdent un corps de connaissances qui leur est propre. Les principaux employeurs des travailleurs sociaux comptent sur un "produit" édu- qué, sur des employés disposés à reconnaître leurs lacunes et à poursuivre leur formation professionnelle. Cependant, les écoles de service social devraient réaffirmer leur finalité première, à savoir, la formation en vue d'une carrière de toute une vie et non pas l'appren- tissage à des tâches spécifiques.

The fundamental question in de- signing programmes of social work education has always been that of "education" versus "training". In every professional discipline educational authorities face the identical dilemma in developing their curricula. On the one hand, the pressure from the various fields of practice and from a substantial proportion of students has always tended in the direction of preparation to undertake the activity or practice of the helping profession. On the other hand, educators have tended to view the matter from a long- er range perspective and to emphasize the requirements of a professional education for a life-long career. This is, after all, the prime raison d'etre for professional education under uni- university auspices.

In the first half-century of university programmes of social work education the priority of education versus preparation for practice was relatively unchallenged. It was taken for granted

4



in the schools which developed before and after World War One that a social worker needed an intensive understanding of society's political, economic and social structure and the forces affecting the future. In the 1920s, professional education for social work practice began to move from its former emphasis on the attainment of breadth and depth of fundamental knowledge to a linkage with the emerging social science disciplines of psychology, sociology, and in particular, with the medical speciality which be- came known as psychiatry. In short, social work began to turn away from social action, based upon a knowledge of the interrelated political and economic social systems in Western society, to therapeutic practice in which personal and professional status would be achieved and accepted by the health professionals and by the social scientists.

The prime concern of this paper is that, during the past two decades, a major proportion of students and an important segment of faculty members within university social work programmes have turned increasingly away from the acquisition of fundamental knowledge which ought to pre- pare entrants to any profession for years of responsible development to an emphasis on the needs of the first or second employment in the field. Both teachers and students continue to talk about social policy and social action but the curriculum for most students does not include the requisite knowledge upon which social policy changes might be built. It is one thing to advocate social change; it is an- other to understand what it is that one is attempting to change. It is not an exaggeration to suggest that the rel- ative lack of influence of profession-

al social workers in the evolution of social policy in recent years is directly related to the lack of knowledge of the social welfare system which they seek to change. Credibility will always be based upon knowledge, and it is fundamental knowledge that is not being communicated as fully as it should be, nor is it being absorbed by students as fully as it should be to attain the desired respect and credibility. These concerns may be exempli- fied in two anecdotes of recent experience.

In the fall of 1974, the author was visited bv a graduate student who sought an interview to consider, in his course in the social services, the significant issue of selectivity versus universality in income maintenance. The student was asked if he was aware of the White Paper on Income Security for Canadians (tabled in the House of Commons in December 1970 by the federal Minister of Health and Welfare). He indicated that he was not. He was then asked if he was fam- iliar with the Working Paper on So- cial Security in Canada (tabled in the House in April 1973 by succeeding Minister). He indicated that he was not. The student was then shown the two documents which were available without cost from Information Canada. He had never seen the documents.

The incident might not be surpris- ing, but what is shocking is the fact that the instructor responsible for this course in the social services had not, in the student's opinion, ever mentioned these documents, nor indicated that these were important sources of information in a search for the issues involved. Since it is clear that the fail- ure of the White Paper on Income Security and the success of the Work- ing Paper on Social Security are re-

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lated to the difference of views held by the federal government on the question of selectivity versus universality at successive points in time, one can only conclude that either the instructor was ill-informed or negli- gent, or that the student lacked imag- ination in his search for appropriate information.

A second anecdote concerns the visit to the author's Faculty of a visiting professor from the United Kingdom who, in speaking to a group of students and teachers about the British social services, mentioned several times the present system of Supplementary Benefits. The visitor was asked to explain the concept of Supplementary Benefits and very simply noted that this was the cur- rent basic public assistance programme in the United Kingdom. In a comment this author made reference to "the language of 1909". It was clear that, with the possible except- ion of the visiting academic and my- self, no person in the room understood the reference to "the language of 1909".

The reference was, of course, to the Royal Commission on the Poor Law to which Sidney and Beatrice Webb submitted, in that year, a Minority Report which commended itself to the government of the day far more than did the report of the majority. The Minority Report laid the foundation for the welfare system which emerged before and after World War Two and which, ultimately, led to what be- came known as the British Welfare State. In the educational programme at Toronto during the years 1948 into the early 1960s there was not a Master's candidate who would not have understood the reference and who would not have known the signi-

ficance of the evolution of the Brit- ish Poor Law on the Canadian welfare system. The knowledge of all teachers is a different matter.

A Teaching Sequence in Social Welfare Policy and Services

In 1948 the University of Toronto School of Social Work was given the right to award the degree of Master of Social Work to graduate students who had completed the requirements of a two-year programme of study. The basic assumptions prevailing in the teaching of social work from its beginning in the early part of the century underlay the development of the new curriculum. Each student was required to undertake one course per term in each of the curriculum areas later described as "Social Welfare Policy and Services" and "Human Be- haviour and the Social Environment". Thus, eight courses were required and there was reasonable choice.

For the next 15 years the teaching of the social services began with a course designed to interest the student in the history and philosophy of social welfare. The course was followed by one entitled "The Social Services" and the student had a choice in a wide range of topics based upon the specialized knowledge available among the teaching staff. Thus, for example, this second course could be focused upon child and family welfare services, the correctional services, services for the elderly, and so on.

The sequence of courses was based upon the following development of a logical approach to an understanding of the public and voluntary social and health services: (a) History and philosophy of social

welfare (b) The social services

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(c) Social policy formulation (d) Issues in social policy By the third semester, therefore, the student was ready to undertake a deep- er study of the forces that worked in the society to determine the formulation of social policy on major issues: income maintenance, unemployment, public medical care, intergovernmental responsibilities in the field of public assistance, and others. Once again, each student had a choice and there was a wide range dependent upon the interests of members of the teaching staff or other persons in the university or the community who might be recruited for a one-semester course by virtue of their specialized knowledge.

In the final term of the two-year programme the course in the social services opened up a number of new- er, emerging issues so that students could both broaden their knowledge of the concerns likely to dominate the public debate of the next decade or so and to deepen their knowledge in certain fields of personal interest. The range of options was as wide as in the past, particularly since specialists could be drawn from within or out- side the university.

It must be emphasized that in the second and third semesters, in this four-term sequence, the teaching staff who formed what was known then as the ''Social Services Teaching Group" attempted to operate on a common set of principles and approaches. In the teaching of the social services in the second semester, for example, whatever the topic, the basic objective was to elucidate the man- ner in which any social services programme in Canada could be studied and evaluated. The emphasis was upon the search for the appropriate legislation; an understanding of inter-

governmental relationships required to implement such legislation; the way in which legislation must be read and interpreted; the significance of "Reg- ulations" laid down by government bureaucrats as against the legislative enactments themselves; the kinds of data required to understand the degree of implementation of the specific programmes^ and, similarly, the kinds of data required to develop a systematic approach to evaluation.

The reality may not have approxi- mated the goals of the teaching staff but, in principle, it should not have mattered whether the student was studying child and family welfare services or the correctional services. The approach to teaching should have been roughly identical and the major differences would lie primarily in the specificity of the content rather than in the degree of understanding. A similar set of principles was devised for the courses in "social policy formulation" and, for that matter, in the courses on "issues in social policy".

The writer is frank to admit that among a group of colleagues there was not and there never could be a per- fect translation of these principles in the teaching programme. Teachers are individuals and often individualists who agree in groups to accept identical approaches, common course outlines, common sets of objectives; in practice, however, they may indeed "do their own thing". This argument therefore is not an essay in nostalgia, since I am certain that colleagues would argue that my conclusions are not their recollection of the process.

The Social Services at Century's End It is this author's conviction that,

during the past decade, students and some teaching staff members in every

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university programme have worked together for different reasons to weak- en significantly the profession's emphasis on an understanding of the system of social welfare as a fundamental in social work education. The War on Poverty, the rapid pace of ur- banization, the decline of the cities in North America as decent and safe places in which to work and live, the movement away from reliance upon traditional institutional structures, have all combined to emphasize the existential nature of practice as against the significance of historical developments.

The fact is that fewer and fewer of our graduates in Canadian social work programmes have a strong understanding of the political, economic and social systems within which they will practise social work. Their emphasis is upon "doing" and not upon "understanding". They are, in this author's view, ill-prepared for a career and the consequence of their lack of preparation will be significantly detri- mental to social work as a profession. The weakening of the educational components in graduate social work education has come about as a result of two forces. On the one hand the whole society has accepted the view, and the students have been quick to pro- pagate and exploit the notion, that they are the best prepared generation in history.

In recent years, more than ever before, students have been accepted in- to graduate programmes in social work education insisting that they have very strong backgrounds in the social and behavioural sciences, particularly in psychology, sociology, and in re- search and statistical methods. They are much less prone to argue that they are well prepared in political

science and economics and, for the most part, do not consider these latter disciplines to be significantly relevant to the preparation of a social worker for professional practice.

In 1970 the curriculum in the Uni- versity of Toronto programme was al- tered to both dissolve the distinction between "Social Welfare Policy and Services" and "Human Behaviour and the Social Environment", and to re- duce the number of required élect- ives from eight to six. An examination of the educational programmes completed by the first graduating class under these new requirements re- vealed the following startling evi- dence:

14 students had 5 courses in HBSE and 1 in S WPS (1 had this reversed) 43 students had 4 courses in HBSE and 2 in S WPS ( 1 1 had this reversed) 22 students had 3 courses in each series

These students had only one year to utilize the new formulation. In the first year group those who show- ed 4 completed courses in the new formulation were:

6 students had 4 in HBSE and none in SWPS (1 had this reversed) 22 students had 3 in HBSE and 1 in SWPS 13 students had 3 in SWPS and 1 in HBSE 24 students had 2 in each area

Those showing 3 completed courses in the new formulation:

7 students had 3 in HBSE and none in SWPS 12 students had 2 in HBSE and 1 in SWPS 6 students had 1 in HBSE and 2 in SWPS

In evaluating these claims against

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the reality of the teaching programme during the past three or four years, my colleagues have found that there is either misunderstanding or bluff involved in many cases. Although the majority of students do have adequate preparation in psychology and sociology, it had been necessary at the Uni- versity of Toronto school to mount courses with such titles as "Introduc- tion to Theories of Personality" and "Introduction to the Social Sciences" for about 40% of the first-year student body; this, despite the fact that the majority of students has had several courses in these fields. No similar attempt has been made in political science and economics, but courses with such titles as "Social Welfare Organization and Development" and "The Political and Economic Basis of Social Welfare" have been offered with varying enrolments and varying degrees of success.

In the case of the social and behavioural sciences per se the Educa- tional Counsellors (faculty advisors) are more adept at identifying deficien- cies and more insistent on student en- rolment in what are essentially "make-up courses". In the case of the requirement to understand the political and economic system in Canada, both faculty advisors and students are in general less convinced that this knowledge is essential and, in any event, the courses offered are not in the nature of make-up, as a course entitled "Introduction to Theories of Person- ality" must inevitably be. In short, those students who do venture into basic courses in the social services may find that they lack the knowledge to pursue even fundamental incur- sions into an examination of our complicated intergovernmental welfare system.

The second factor in the weakening of these educational components has come about as a result of society's emphasis upon the availability of counselling services to a great variety of persons and groups scarcely identified twenty years ago. First there was the emphasis on the multi-problem family; this was followed by strong emphasis upon the family which per- sisted in its poverty in an affluent society. Those persons born after 1945 reached their late teens in the early 1960s and were part of the now fam- iliar combination of student radical- ism, drug culture, opting out of the society, and the movement towards communal living. These phenomena led a great many anxious parents, social workers, and officials of the legal system and the public health system to place great emphasis upon facilities and services for the young, for the new family or non-family combina- tions in the process of development, for the traditional family threatened with a breakdown in its values and or- ganizational structure; and, of course, for the burgeoning number of families supported by a single parent, an increase fostered by the loosening of our divorce laws and other legal impedi- ments to family separation. As a small part of this entire picture, concern was voiced about the needs of the elderly. In this area, too, there was increasing pressure for services, in the form of both individual counselling and group facilities, to assist older persons who were among the almost unnoticed casualties in the incredibly rapid change in our traditional family life.

This great emphasis upon work with individuals, families and small groups meant for many people that the appropriate education for a social

9



worker was a very substantial dose of practice theory, an increasingly intensive dose of practicum experience, and just enough supporting knowledge to keep the professional reasonably credible in the eyes of other practis- ing professionals in our society. It is this author's contention that this process of attempting to devise a new social worker who can practise but barely understand has failed.

The fact is that there has been no time in this century when social workers were more in demand and less highly regarded by members of other professional groups. The reasons are extremely complicated and an entire paper would be required to explicate the forces and attitudes at work. It is sufficient to suggest that social work has failed to establish itself as the professional discipline of highest rep- ute in the solution of human pro- blems. The nursing profession has never regarded social work with either respect or affection. The medical profession has, for most of the century in most places in Canada, ignored social work as a discipline of significance in the treatment of individuals afflicted with physical and emotional disease, although in many hospitals this tendency has been sharply reversed in recent years. Lawyers have been barely tolerant of social workers, since it is a legal tendency to dis- dain those so-called professionals who have no statutory basis as a profession, who cannot be regulated by public authority to the betterment of their clients, and who, conversely, cannot be sued for malpractice. In short, social work is in an incredible dilemma as the last quarter of the twentieth century commences. On the one hand, the supply of social workers from several levels of preparation is

apparently short of society's demand for their services; on the other hand, they continue to lack that unique professional position in society which would give them the exclusive right to practise an art which could benefit, in most cases, those to whom the practise is directed.

Conclusions It may seem paradoxical, and for

some people it will be merely a function of short supply of manpower in the face of steady and perhaps increasing demand, that the members of many other professions at this time in Canadian history seek to carry out the customary functions of social workers. Nurses have never given up the notion that they can handle as com- petently, if not better, many of the tasks which social workers perform in the community; their reason is their knowledge of the relationship between the physical and emotional components of the human system. Lawyers have moved eagerly into an urban society in which the legal rights of disadvantaged people have been grossly neglected and in which disadvantaged individuals and families require strong legal assistance. Such persons are helped not only to obtain their rights in a social welfare system operated by bureaucrats whose defisions are based upon Regulations that are not published or understood by the general public, but also on behalf of persons who cannot afford the expenses involved in exercising their legal rights and responsibilities (for example, adults who seek a legal divorce). The psychologists are convinced that social workers are basically irrelevant because, having gained certificatjion at a high level of educational attainment in most provinces,

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the registered psychologist can act not only as a therapist but has the additional tools of mental tests on a variety of planes of intellectual and emotional experience.

Social workers who happen to have knowledge of the so-called "objective tests" are rare and often lack the capacity to interpret these measures to the satisfaction of medical practitioners and other therapists. Finally, the members of the medical profession feel much more comfortable working with health professionals and the now legally registered psychologists; social workers may come from any one of four or five different levels of educational preparation and their lack of basic knowledge of the several systems within the environmental, physical and emotional framework of man is notorious.

The author must conclude that inter- disciplinary activity based upon mutual respect can only be derived if those who work together know that their colleagues have a body of knowledge that is uniquely or substantially their own. These practitioners must understand that body of knowledge thor- oughly and communicate it in inter- disciplinary activities. The fact is that, if a person in our urban communities wishes to know specifically what the social welfare system provides in terms of income maintenance and how these specifics are broken down into budgetary categories, it would be usually more profitable to ask a person working in the field of public housing or a welfare worker at a low level in a public department (persons in both categories are usually lacking in post-secondary formal education). Admittedly, there is nothing magni- ficent or essential about the cram- ming of specific data concerning

programmes which change every few months in relation to the Consumer Price Index and certainly every year in relation to legislative amendments.

The comments of one of the major employers in the Metropolitan Tor- onto area are germane at this point in the argument. The senior officials in this particular organization told the members of the University of Tor- onto Faculty three years ago that the typical graduate of the two-year Mas- ter's programme was an independent entrepreneur who was willing to accept employment on his own terms and without regard for the agency's function. This allegedly typical beginning practitioner was uninformed about the specific legislation under which the organization operated; and, moreover (this was the unkindest cut of all), did not care to know the details of the legislation. Since the agency was a quasi-governmental organization operating under the terms of major legislation • which conferred specific legal powers, matters of legislation and understanding of the social services were absolutely crucial. Òur students did not have them, nor did they appear to care about the lack of knowledge.

The response to. siich allegations is an approbation that employers must engage in a programme of in-service training. Although it is true that certain business corporations expect to spend a good deal of time and money in training new recruits in business administration, industrial relations, and personnel work, there are very few public or voluntary social agencies which could afford such programmes. Rather, the major employers of social workers expect an educated pro- duct or, at least, employees who are willing to recognize their lack of

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knowledge and do something about it on their own. It is not unreasonable to expect new social work staff to read the legislation governing their activities.

The proper response to the situation should be a re-affirmation by schools of social work that their fundamental objective is education, not training, for specific roles. This re- dedication to the traditional bases of professional education would have many implications, not the least of which in this context would be the identification of a core curriculum in the social services.

If any social work educator or student is in doubt about the serious- ness of this situation they need only look at the vast expansion of governmental activities in the broad field of social welfare. Such an examination would not need to commence with 1929 or even 1939. One need only examine the last decade, which has included enactments at the federal level of the Canada Pension Plan, the Canada Assistance Plan, the integration of medical and hospitalization in- surance, and the creation of a Guar- anteed Income Supplement for the elderly. In terms of expenditures, a good 40% of the annual federal bud- get is devoted to health and welfare services. There is not the slightest doubt that the roles of all governments in Canada will continue to expand in the foreseeable future, the expenditures involved will grow at a rate ex- ceeding the increase in the private level, and the opportunities for employment of social workers will shift dramatically to the public sector. Any social worker who expects tolerance in that sector with respect to lack of knowledge or lack of education will be sorely disappointed.

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teaching social welfare policy and services in the social work curriculum of canadian schools

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