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TRANSCRIPT
University Teachers Establishing
Social Work Agencies—
Characteristic of Chinese Social
Work Development
Songguo Yi
Shenzhen University, China
At present, there are 326 universities with social work program on bachelor degree in mainland China, with about 3,000 social work teachers.
It is deduced that about 300 university teachers have established their social work service agencies. And more are considering to join the group or in the process.
It means that more than one tenth of the university teachers have established social work agencies; and there will be more in the coming years with the development of social work in China.
2
Background
Social work practice
Social work policy
Social work education
3
Social Work Practice
There were no social work services in mainland China before 2003.
In 2003, Shanghai began experiment in the field of judiciary social
work service.
In 2007, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, PRC., began social work
experiment in Shenzhen, a southern city neighboring to Hong Kong.
Since 2008, social work services have gradually and very slowly
developed in some other cities.
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Social Work Policy
In 2006, the general secretary of the CPC proposed to build a grant team of social work talents in the report of the sixth plenum of the 16th CPC central committee.
In 2009, the Ministry of Civil Affairs encouraged university teachers to establish social work service agencies in its Notification on Promoting the Development of the Civilian-run Social Work Service Agencies.
In 2011, 19 ministries of the central government proposed to set up a system for university teachers to establish social work agencies and to reform the evaluation system of university teachers, taking their social practice into consideration in its Opinions on Advancing the Development of Social Work Talents.
In 2014, the Ministry of Civil Affairs encouraged university teachers to establish social work service agencies in its Opinions on Advancing the Development of Civilian-run Social Work Service Agencies.
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Social Work Education Social work major was set up as a discipline in the
university very late in China, but it developed very
quickly in recent years. (see table 1)
It was first set up in Peking University in 1989. Most
universities set up the social work major after 2000.
Most university teachers in social work major are
not professional in social work. (see table 2-3)
Most of them are from disciplines such as sociology,
psychology, management, politics or even history.
There are hardly any professional service agencies
for social work students’ internship.
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Research questions
How many university teachers have established social agencies？
Which university teachers have established social agencies？
Why university teachers have established social agencies？
How about the agencies established by the university teachers?
What roles do the university teachers play in their agencies?
What influences do university teachers establish social work
agencies?
How do the university teachers who have established social work
agencies look upon on dropping out from their agencies?
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Research Method
Population: university teachers who have established
social work service agencies in mainland China.
Research strategy: survey research
Respondents: the leading establishers of the agency.
Data collection
self-completion, internet, email, attached
Survey time: The survey began in early March and
ended in mid-June, 2016.
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1. Establishing a total name list of the respondents.
Method: To find a university social work teacher as the contact
person in every province/municipality, asking him/her to collect
the names and contact information of the university teachers
who are the leading establishers of the social work agency,
finally to have built a name list with 205 teachers.
2. Contacting the respondents
Method: To give every respondent a call, asking him/her to
give me the email address and fill in the questionnaire for me.
Altogether, 196 respondents were contacted and agreed to help.
3. Collecting the questionnaires.
Method: Sending and collecting the questionnaires by email.
191 valid questionnaires are collected, with the valid response
rate of 97.5%.
Procedures
Findings
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About the Respondents
The respondents covered all the
provinces/municipalities in mainland
China except Tibet. (see chart 1)
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male
59%
female
41%
Sex
12
It’s interesting that, most probably more than 70% of the social
worker teachers in the university are female, but most of the
establishers are male.
Age
34.00%
36.70%
26.10%
3.20%
below 40 41-50 51-60 above 61
Mean = 44.8 S.D.= 8.2
13
bachelor
6%
master
45%
doctor
49%
Education
14
Whether or not social work background
Yes
50.3% No
49.7%
15
Professional Title
assitant lecturer associate
professor
professor
2.10%
23.20%
39.50%
35.30%
16
Whether or not a leader in the school/department when
establishing the agency?
Yes
56%
No
44%
17
It’s worthy to note that two thirds of the establishers are leaders of the school/department.
Chart 2 Regional distribution of the teachers who have established social work agencies
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
10
8
9
4
13
6
3
2
4
5
6
5
4
7
29
7
3
5
2 2
8
3
2
13 13
2 2
3
4
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Number of agencies established
Frequency Percent Valid Percent
Cumulative
Percent
Valid 1.00 135 70.7 71.1 71.1
2.00 38 19.9 20.0 91.1
3.00 11 5.8 5.8 96.8
4.00 1 .5 .5 97.4
5.00 1 .5 .5 97.9
6.00 1 .5 .5 98.4
10.00 1 .5 .5 98.9
21.00 1 .5 .5 99.5
22.00 1 .5 .5 100.0
Total 190 99.5 100.0
Missing System 1 .5
Total 191 100.0
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Number of cities where the agencies distribute in
Frequency Percent Valid Percent
Cumulative
Percent
Valid 1.00 147 77.0 79.5 79.5
2.00 25 13.1 13.5 93.0
3.00 5 2.6 2.7 95.7
4.00 3 1.6 1.6 97.3
5.00 3 1.6 1.6 98.9
18.00 1 .5 .5 99.5
20.00 1 .5 .5 100.0
Total 185 96.9 100.0
Missing System 6 3.1
Total 191 100.0
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About the First Agency
Frequency Percent Valid Percent
Cumulative
Percent
Valid 2005 1 .5 .5 .5
2007 4 2.1 2.1 2.6
2008 5 2.6 2.6 5.3
2009 9 4.7 4.7 10.0
2010 14 7.3 7.4 17.4
2011 17 8.9 8.9 26.3
2012 25 13.1 13.2 39.5
2013 39 20.4 20.5 60.0
2014 47 24.6 24.7 84.7
2015 26 13.6 13.7 98.4
2016 3 1.6 1.6 100.0
Total 190 99.5 100.0
Missing System 1 .5
Total 191 100.0
Time established
21
Services provided
86.90%
3.70% 1.00% 8.40%
22
Categories of establishment
Frequency Valid Percent University/ School/ Department established,
and you are responsible 30 15.8
Your established it independently
66 34.7
Your established it with other teachers
72 37.9
You suggested but no investment
13 6.8
Other 9 4.7
190 100.0
System missing 1
Total 191
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Whether or not having informed the leader of the
university/school/department of the establishment
Yes
79%
No
21%
24
Whether or not having got approval from the leader of
the university/school/department
57.90%
42.10%
Yes
No
25
Whether or not having obtained support from the
university/school/department
Frequency
Valid
Percent
support
Frequency
Valid
Percent
Having obtained
funding
21
11.1
Support from the
90
46.6
Office place
58
30.7
School/department
Office equipment
22
11.6
staff
36
19.0
No support at all
101
53.4
26
Ranking by time of establishment in the city
the first the second the third after the
fourth
29.30%
17.70%
8.20%
44.90%
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Whether or not providing any services and the purchaser
of services
Services Frequency
Valid
Percent
Service purchaser Frequency
Valid
Percent
Government purchased
social work positions
30
15.7
Yes
185
96.9
government programs
172
90.1
Non-government social
services
109
57.0
No
6
3.1
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Note: multiple choices
Source of the agency’s annual income
government
83%
non-
government
17%
29
Average number of staff in the agency
13.4
4.9
1.6
5.4
30
Main reasons/motivations to establish the agency
Main reasons Frequency Valid Percent
Required by the government 55 28.8
Required by your university/school/department 22 11.5
To push the development of the local social service 150 78.5
To improve social work education in your department 142 74.3
To improve your academic knowledge in social work 91 47.6
To enhance your research 56 29.3
To increase your income 10 5.2
Just to follow other teachers who have established an
agency
4 2.1
Other 17 8.9
Note: multiple choices
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Role in the Agency
Whether or not the legal representative of the agency
Yes
74%
No
26%
32
Position in the corporate council
president vice
president
director other no post
74.30%
12.60%
6.30% 4.20% 2.60%
33
Administrative position in the agency
53.40%
3.70%
22.20%
4.20% 3.70%
12.70%
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Role in the agency
Role in the
agency Frequency
Valid
Percent Frequency
Valid
Percent
Decision-maker 159 83.2
Administrator 93 48.7
Yes
189
99.0
Resource connector 144 75.4
Supervisor/trainer/
consultant
132 69.1
Service supplier 41 21.5
No
2
1.0
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Influences of Establishing
A Social Work Agency
Measurement
Designing a scale with 16 items（Reliability=0.85) and
asking the respondent to illustrate the positive or negative
effects of establishing the social work agency. For each
item, “+3” indicates big positive effect, “-3” indicates big
negative effect, “0” indicates no effect.
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-0.41
1.97 2.08
0.22 0.36
-0.56 -0.15 -0.23
37
2.32 2.17
1.58 1.45
1.71 1.86 1.86
1.7
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Attitude and Dropping out
fully agree agree neither
agree nor
oppose
oppose fully
oppose
19.40%
40.80%
31.90%
7.90%
0%
Attitude on university teachers establishing social work agencies
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Whether or not think the teacher should drop out from
the agency
Yes
24%
No
76%
40
Whether or not having planned to drop out from the
agency
Yes
44.5% No
55.5%
41
Whether or not having drop out from the agency
No
64%
Yes, partly
34%
Yes,
completely
2%
42
Conclusions
That university teachers establish social work agencies is the result of particular social context in the specific period of time, and characteristic of social work development in China.
The university establishers are generally comparatively successful professors with more social resources.
That university teachers establish social work agencies is both altruistic and egocentric, with the former as the primary motivation.
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Most of the agencies established by the university teachers are very small in size and seriously dependent on the government.
Most university establishers play an very important role and are deeply involved in the agency.
Most university establishers support the establishment and disagree to completely drop out from the agency.
University teachers establishing social work agencies has totally positive effects on the society and more negative effects on the establishers themselves.
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Issues to Be Researched Why, as a phenomenon, university teachers establishing
social work agencies occurs in China instead of other countries in the world?
What positive influences it has on Chinese social work education, practice and policy? And how?
What roles university teachers should play in the agency? Should they drop out? When and how?
How about the phenomenon in the western countries now and in the past? How do their university teachers play a role in human service agencies? Can we have a comparative analysis?
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