Professional identity of social work students in Mainland China: Social work educator accounts

Abstract

Currently, a systematic empirical study on the efforts of social work education in promoting the development of the professional identity of Mainland China graduates is lacking. This study explores the current state and the development of the professional identity of social work students. Twenty-three social work educators from 11 provinces, two municipalities and two autonomous regions were interviewed. The findings revealed the perception of educators on the current state of development of professional identity among students, the efforts in developing students as future professionals and the ways of partnership with social work organisations. Overall, the study led to an increased understanding of the collaboration between educators and frontline social workers, synergy effects between social work education and service sector, future development of social work practice research and ways of developing professional identity among social work students. Implications are addressed, including collaboration with regional social work organisations and international university networks.

已有文獻還缺乏有關社會工作教育在促進中國內地社會工作畢業生專業認同感方面的系統實證研究, 由此, 本研究試圖探討社會工作學生的專業身份現狀及其發展。研究訪談了來自11個省, 兩個直轄市和兩個自治區, 共23名社會工作教育者。調查結果揭示了教育者對學生專業身份發展現狀、培養學生未來職業方面努力以及與社會工作機構建立夥伴關系方式的看法。總體而言, 本研究可促進更好地理解教育工作者與前線社工之間的協作、社會工作教育與服務機構之間的協同效應、社會工作實踐研究的未來發展以及社會工作學生中發展職業認同的方式。論文也討論了本研究對社會工作教育的啟示, 包括與區域社會工作組織和國際大學網絡的合作等。