Students’ perceptions of international social work: A comparative study in the USA, UK, and Georgia

Abstract

The field of social work worldwide has been increasingly influenced by globalization, migration, and other conditions that require professionals to be responsive and knowledgeable in addressing them. This collaborative project examined students’ perceptions of international social work at three universities in the United States, United Kingdom, and Georgia. Students’ responses indicated an overall strong interest and widespread agreement that there is a link between local and global social issues. The findings suggest that social work education needs to be globalized and tailored to students’ needs, which will help them identify social work strongly as part of a profession and affect change across the globe.

Pedagogy of international social work: a comparative study in the USA, UK, and Georgia

“…The findings presented in this paper are part of a larger project that examined overall students' perceptions toward the field of international social work (Lalayants, Doel, & Kachkachishvili, 2011, 2013.…”

Reflective Learning and Teaching in Social Work Field Education in International Contexts

“…Smith (2004) asserts that social work students and new graduates themselves can contribute towards building the social work knowledge base. There has therefore been an increase in the number of relevant publications in the past decade, such as books by Gilchrist et al (2009), Lager et al (2010 and Cox and Pawar (2013), and several articles (Barlow, 2007;Cleak et al, 2014;Crabtree et al, 2014;Das and Anand, 2014;Gilin and Young, 2009;Hawkins and Knox, 2014;Heron, 2005;Heron and Pilkington, 2009;Jung and Tripodi, 2007;Kreitzer et al, 2012;Lalyants et al, 2015;Lam et al, 2007;Lindsey, 2005;Loakimidis, 2011;Nadan, 2014;Nuttman-Shwartz and Ranz, 2014;Pawar et al, 2004;Pettys et al, 2005;Wehbi, 2009).…”

Glocalization and international social work education: A comparative study of Palestine, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen, Egypt, Libya, and Morocco

“…In international social work, global forces toward standardization and homogenization are resisted so as to respond in locally relevant ways to local issues. Given that international social work draws on internationalizing forces to connect its values, professional unity, and the will to solve social problems that bring social justice to marginalized and oppressed people wherever they are, it also encourages awareness of the diversity of cultures across contexts through cross-cultural and culturally relevant practice (Brydon et al, 2012; Ibrahim, 2015a; Lalayants et al, 2015; Lord, 2011). This terrain of comparative analysis is essential to understand diverse and common issues and problems across countries and policy and service responses.…”