Social Work Education in the United States: The Report of a Study Made for the National Council on Social Work Education 9780231890847

Table of contents :
Foreword
Preface
Contents
Tables
Charts
Part I. Foundations for Educational Planning
I. Evolution of Social Work Education
II. The Scope and Status of Social Work
III. An Expanded Role for Social Work
Part Two. Charting a Course for Social Work Education
IV. The Undergraduate College in Social Work Education
V. Graduate Professional Education for Social Work
VI. Organization and Administration of Schools of Social Work
VII. Educational Responsibilities of Social Work Organizations
VIII. Accreditation of Social Work Education
Part Three. Implication
IX. Translating This Report into Action
Index

Citation preview

SOCIAL

WORK

EDUCATION IN

THE

UNITED

STATES

Social Work Education in the United States THE REPORT NATIONAL

OF A STUDY MADE FOR

COUNCIL

ON SOCIAL

WORK

THE

EDUCATION

ERNEST V. HOLLIS Chief of College Administration, Office of Education, Federal Security Agency AND

ALICE L. TAYLOR Training Consultant, Bureau of Public Assistance, Federal Security Agency

NEW

YORK

• COLUMBIA

UNIVERSITY

PRESS • 1951

COPYRICHT

1951

B Y COLUMBIA

UNIVERSITY

PRESS, NEW

YORK

PUBLISHED IN GREAT B R I T A I N , CANADA, AND INDIA B Y G E O F F R E Y OXFORD UNIVERSITY

CUMBERLEGE

PRESS, LONDON, TORONTO, AND B O M B A Y

M A N U F A C T U R E D IN T H E UNITED STATES OF

AMERICA

ADVISORY COMMITTEES AND STAFF National

Council

NATHAN

E.

on Social Work

COHEN,

Education

Chairman

New York School of Social Work, Columbia University JOSEPH

P.

ANDERSON

American Association of Social Workers, Secretary

Study

Committee

HARRIETT

M.

BARTLETT,

Chairman

School of Social Work, Simmons College ERNEST

B.

HARPER

Department of Social Service, Michigan State College JANE

M.

HOEY

Bureau of Public Assistance, Federal Security Agency DONALO S.

HOWARD

Department of Social Welfare, University of California at Los Angeles WLLBER I.

NEWSTETTER

School of Social Work, University of Pittsburgh •KENNETH

L.

M.

PRAY

Pennsylvania School of Social Work SUE

SPENCER

Nashville School of Social Work,

Secretary

Study Staff ERNEST

V.

HOLLIS,

Director

ALICE L. TAYLOR, Assistant JOSEPHINE O .

CORTES,

Director

Secretary

HAROLD L. PUNKE, temporary staff

National

Advisory

JAMES L .

MORRILL,

member

Committee Chairman

President, University of Minnesota ARTHUR J.

ALTMEYER

Commissioner, Social Security Administration, Federal Security Agency PAUL

H.

APPLEBY

Dean, Maxwell School of Citizenship, Syracuse University A . J.

BRUMBAUGH

President, Francis Shimer College • Died, March, 1948.

ADVISORY LYMAN

COMMITTEES

AND

STAFF

BRYSON

Educational Consultant, Columbia Broadcasting Company; Professor of Education, Columbia University WILSON

COMPTON

President, Washington State College MARK

F.

ETHRIDGE

Publisher, Louisville LESTER B .

Courier-Journal

GRANGER

Executive Secretary, National Urban League R.

G.

GUSTAVSON

President, University of Nebraska RUFUS C .

HARRIS

President, Tulane University RAYMOND A .

MCGOWAN

Director of Social Action, National Catholic Welfare Conference JAMES

H.

MEANS,

M.D.

Professor, Harvard University Medical School WILLIAM

C.

MENNINGER,

M.D.

The Menninger Foundation • A G N E S E. M E Y E R (Mrs. Eugene) Journalist and social welfare leader WILLIAM

T.

SANGER

President, Medical College of Virginia T H E L M A S H A W (Mrs. Victor) Vice President, Community Chests and Councils of America, Inc. CHARLES

P.

TAFT

President, Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America ELBERT D .

THOMAS

United States Senator from Utah FRANK L .

WEIL

Attorney; Honorary President, National Jewish Welfare Board DONALD R .

YOUNG

Director, Russell Sage Foundation • • Resigned, January, 1950.

foreword c

reflects the rapid expansion of social work under the impetus of a depression and two major wars. Development, although rapid and extensive, has not always been definitive and integrative. Two major problems emerging from this pattern of growth led to the formation of the National Council on Social Work Education in 1946, namely, the need to resolve some immediate pressing problems relating to accreditation, and the need to define more clearly the objectives and content of social work education on the undergraduate and graduate levels. The Council undertook as its first major project, therefore, the sponsorship of a study of social work education. In the autumn of 1946 Mrs. Irene Conrad, chairman of the Council during the period 1946-1948, appointed a Study Committee consisting of Kenneth L. M. Pray, Chairman, Harriett M. Bartlett, Ernest B. Harper, Jane Hoey, Donald S. Howard, and Sue Spencer, secretary. The death of Mr. Pray in March, 1948, deprived the committtee of his inspiring leadership. Miss Bartlett was appointed to succeed him as Chairman, and Wilber I. Newstetter was added as a member of the committee. Sue Spencer and Joseph P. Anderson gave staff service to the committee. The study was made possible through a grant from the Carnegie Corporation and through the wholehearted support of social workers and social agencies. The Council, after thorough exploration and consultation, concluded that the purposes of the study could best be served by obtaining an educational expert from outside the field as Director. In the summer of 1948 Dr. Ernest V. Hollis, Chief of College Administration, Office of Education, Federal Security Agency, was asked to take charge of the study. He selected Alice L. W O C I A L WORK EDUCATION TODAY

viii

FOREWORD

Taylor, Training Consultant, Bureau of Public Assistance, Federal Security Agency, as Assistant Director. T h e Study Committee of the Council was requested to function as a technical advisory committee to the study staff. One of the primary purposes of the study was to build a framework of principles within which existing programs of social work education might be examined and to submit proposals for the consideration of the profession for immediate action or for further study and planning. Another important objective was the development of a comprehensive structure within which the accrediting bodies, schools of social work, practitioner organizations, and employing agencies could achieve a working agreement on what constitutes acceptable programs of social work education for the immediate present and for the future. T h e Council believes that in a large measure these objectives have been achieved. T h e report presents a thoughtful and helpful analysis of social work education as a continuing process from the foundation laid in undergraduate study through the graduate school to professional development on the job. It emphasizes the interrelationship of education and social work practice. It brings a fresh approach to the pressing problems of field work and of specialization. T h e report states forcefully that the responsibility for social work education rests with the total social work community, and it suggests appropriate roles for educational institutions, practitioner organizations, employing agencies, and the supporting public. In addition to identifying the basic problems facing social work education, the report suggests possible lines of action which the profession might follow in seeking solutions. In submitting this report to the field of social work the National Council on Social Work Education does not see as its role the approval or disapproval of specific findings and proposals of the study. It believes that the report will make a challenging contribution to the thinking of all persons and organizations concerned with the development of sound programs of social work education by stimulating them to think critically about the issues and proposals. Furthermore, the fact that a representative of another field, that of higher education, has confirmed many basic convictions held by the field of social work, and has formulated many questions

FOREWORD

ix

which have been of growing concern to the field, should provide real encouragement to the social work profession. T h e written report represents another stage in a continuing study process which has been of great value. Through conferences, consultation, and through written inquiry the study has involved a large number of persons in examining various facets of social work education and practice. Thus it reflects the thinking of many social workers and educators. Furthermore, the study process has in turn influenced their thinking and has already moved the profession forward constructively in relation to a number of important issues. No study, especially within the resources available to this one, could possibly attempt to deal with all the significant areas in practice and education. T h e present study, however, has not only provided a foundation on which further research can be more soundly developed but also has suggested areas for further exploration. T h e National Survey of Salaries and Working Conditions in Social Work, for example, which was conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, under the joint auspices of the National Council on Social Work Education and the National Social Welfare Assembly in cooperation with other federal agencies, was a direct result of the present study. These two studies, the Study of Social Work Education and the National Survey of Salaries and Working Conditions in Social Work, represent milestones of unusual significance for the social work profession. Much will be gained if the process which has been started can be continued and strengthened. T h e National Council on Social Work Education wishes to take this opportunty to express its deep appreciation to all those who have contributed to this significant project; to the Carnegie Corporation for making the study possible; to Dr. Oliver C. Carmichael, President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, for his helpful counsel; to the study staff for its thoughtful and challenging contributions to a complex problem; to the Study Committee under its two able chairmen, Kenneth L. M. Pray and Harriett M. Bartlett, for its competent assistance to the study staff; and to the United States Office of Education and to the Bureau of Public Assistance of the Federal Security Agency for making the time of staff available and for the use of facilities. Neither the Office of Education nor the Bureau of Public As-

x

FOREWORD

sistance, however, has any responsibility, officially or unofficially, for the findings and recommendations of the report. Finally, this study would not have been possible without the enthusiastic and sincere support of the constituent groups of the Council. Upon them, in fact, will fall the responsibility of writing the epilogue of the study. It will be their task to put spirit into, and flesh onto, the principles and recommendations set fourth in the report. It can be truthfully stated that the success of the study is now in their hands. NATHAN E. COHEN,

National

Council on Social Work

Chairman Education

Preface T

V H E PURPOSE OF THIS REPORT IS t o establish s o m e b e n c h m a r k s

in the field of social work education that the profession and university officials can use in charting a course for the next two or three decades. It does not provide a blueprint for such a venture. T h e study grew out of a firm conviction on the part of social work educators and practitioners that the time was ripe for a comprehensive study of social work, including education. T h e practical limits of time and money, and the immediate pressing issues concerned with accreditation of schools of social work, led the National C o u n c i l on Social W o r k Education to undertake an orientation type of study of social work education instead of the inclusive research project initially envisioned. From the immediate question of who should do the accrediting of social work education, the investigation quickly moved to a consideration of what should be accredited and this, in turn, led to an over-all examination of education in relation to the responsibility of social work in the broad field of social welfare. T h e character of the report, therefore, has been largely shaped by the necessity of establishing a tentative framework for use in deciding what social work is and what it is not, and for use in appraising the educational implications of the nature, scope, status, and trends of social work. It is only within such a frame of reference that educational proposals have essential meaning. Recommendations for developing and regulating social work education, when projected on so large a canvas, are necessarily concerned with broad fundamentals. T h e relation, for example, of general or liberal education to undergraduate work in the arts and sciences basic to social work can be shown, as can the function of

xii

PREFACE

graduate professional programs of study, but within so broad a framework it is not feasible to develop systematic curriculum proposals. Accordingly, the report is not a curriculum study; it deals with objectives, content, and methods only as they are needed to illustrate or give body to more comprehensive educational proposals. Neither is it a survey of schools of social work, nor a treatise on their organization and administration; such data are introduced only as needed to establish bench marks that educators may need for more detailed planning. Finally, the report is not a manual on accrediting schools and programs of social work education. It seeks rather to establish principles, policies, and organization for all such undertakings but leaves to the profession the formulation of criteria, the development of content, and the establishment of administrative procedures. T h u s the report is focused on establishing a few fundamental positions. If, after critical examination, these positions are accepted and implemented by the social work profession and university administrators, they should enrich, stabilize, and extend professional practice and education throughout the field of social work. Analyses, appraisals, and judgments of the kind made in the report necessarily flow from the economic, cultural, and educational values held by those who prepared it. T h e philosophy of professional education, the concepts of university organization, and the ideas of professional self-regulation which they hold, for example, find expression in the conclusions and recommendations of the report. It is, therefore, recognized that the positions taken represent the best judgment and insight, as well as the bias and predilection, of all of those closely associated with the study—but especially of the authors, who assume full responsibility for the printed report. It is also recognized that those who read the report may be expected to accept or reject statements in terms of their background and viewpoint instead of on the authority of the authors. T h e method used in developing hypotheses and in determining the validity of proposals and conclusions proved to be fruitful. T h e several segments of the report have had the benefit of constructive criticism through group discussion as well as individual review from social work educators, practitioners, and laymen in the field, and from college and university presidents, deans, professors, and

PREFACE

xiii

educators in government and in voluntary associations. In a very real sense, therefore, the report is a group project that reflects the views of many thoughtful leaders in social work and in education. In addition to the widespread participation of groups throughout the country and of selected individuals, the staff has had the benefit of continuous stimulation from two select committees whose names appear on pages v and vi. T h e Study Committee was appointed by the National Council on Social Work Education and had as its primary function counseling the staff on professional and technical matters. The Director selected the National Advisory Committee to help him relate education for social workers to the rest of the intellectual and administrative fabric of higher education, and to the realities of social welfare as they are seen by citizens who are laymen in the field of social work. While the authors are deeply appreciative of the generous help given by the two committees, and by many organizations and individuals who have shared in shaping the study and in developing the report, they reiterate that these bodies were not asked to endorse the report as a whole or to subscribe to its conclusions and recommendations. T h e report, by agreement at the time the study was undertaken, is a staff document. The authors are especially indebted to Grace Coyle, of Western Reserve University, for a research memorandum on the group work portions of Chapter I; to Harold H. Punke, of Alabama Polytechnic Institute, and David G. French, of the American Association of Social Workers, for research and drafts of material used in Chapter II; to Eveline Burns, of the New York School of Social Work, for research and the preparation of a first draft of Chapter III; and to Josephine O. Cortes, of the United States Office of Education, for administrative and secretarial services throughout the project. ERNEST V. ALICE

Washington, July, 1951

D.C.

L.

HOLLIS TAYLOR

Contents

Foreword by Nathan E. Cohen

vii

Preface

xi

PART

I.

FOUNDATIONS

EDUCATIONAL

i. 11. HI.

Evolution of Social Work Education

53

A n Expanded Role for Social Work II.

CHARTING

SOCIAL

v.

3

T h e Scope and Status of Social Work

PART

IV.

FOP

PLANNING

WORK

A

COURSE

113 FOR

EDUCATION

T h e Undergraduate College in Social Work Education

155

Graduate Professional Education for Social W o r k

210

vi.

Organization and Administration of Schools of Social W o r k 280

VII.

Educational Responsibilities of Social W o r k Organizations 323

vui.

Accreditation of Social Work Education PART

ix.

III.

363

IMPLICATION

Translating T h i s Report into Action

391

Index

405

Zables

i. i.

3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

8. 9.

10.

11. 12.

13.

Public Expenditures for Social Security and Related Purposes in 1946 65 Expenditures for Assistance under Four Categories of the Social Security Act and for General Assistance in the United States, for the Month of January, 1951 65 Expenditures for Social Work Programs in 1948 in 29 Cities, by T y p e of Program and Source of Funds 68 Expenditures for Public Assistance, by T y p e of Assistance Program, 1936-48 71 Private and Public Assistance in 1 1 6 Urban Areas, 1929-37 73 Service Data on Social Work Programs in 49 Urban Areas 75 Estimated Number of Social Workers in the United States and Ratio of Social Workers to General Population, Distributed by Regions, Spring, 1950 79 Comparison of Ratios of Social Workers, Nurses, and Teachers to General Population, by Region 81 Percentage of Rural-urban Distribution of Social and Welfare Workers Compared with That of the General Population 82 Percentage Distribution of Social Workers among Different Types of Social Work Programs, as Shown by Michigan, California, and American Association of Social Workers Studies 85 General and Professional Education of Social Workers in Public Assistance Agencies of Georgia and Michigan 89 Educational Background of 1,815 Los Angeles County Social Workers in 1949, Arranged by T y p e of Agencies and Positions 93 Percentage of Graduate Social Work Education of 1,986 Persons in Social Work Positions in Michigan, by T y p e of Program, 1948 96

xviii

TABLES

14.

Average Annual Salaries of 1,986 Persons in Social Work Positions in Michigan, by Amount of Graduate Education and by Sex, 1948 15. Average Annual Salaries of Social Workers by Position and Sex, United States, 1950 16. Median Salaries of Classroom Teachers and Principals at Selected Dates, by Size of City 17. Weekly Work Load in Hours of 166 Social Work Faculty Members, Distributed into Nine Categories of Activity by Five Primary Areas of Responsibility 18. Distribution of Faculty in Schools of Six Professions, by Maximum, Minimum, and Median Salaries for Four Academic Ranks 19. Analysis of Social Work Education Costs, " H " University, March, 1949

100 101 104

312

315 321

Charts

I.

An Estimate of Philanthropic Giving, 1929-49

70

II.

Ratio of Social Workers to General Population, by Region

80

III.

Number of Full-time Students and Graduates of AASSW Schools of Social Work, 1932-50

99

PART

ONE

Joundations for Sducational Planning

CHAPTER

Svolutm of

I

Social Work Education

T

V ' H O S E WHO WOULD EXAMINE professional education for social work with the objective of improving it should do so within the framework of certain developments in the general field of social work. Education for social work, as in other professions, grew out of the needs and efforts of practitioners and retains its vitality by remaining close to practice. Any attempt to evaluate the m a j o r developments in education, should, therefore, take into consideration the relationship of education to developments in the field of practice. Neither education nor practice can be seen with any degree of validity without reference to the other. T h i s chapter does not presume to sketch the history of social work or of social work education. It will be concerned with only those events and forces that are significant to the issues dealt with in this report. T h i s study marks the close of fifty years of education for social work in the United States; a half-century in which not only our country but the world experienced tremendous social, economic, and technological changes. In this period social work education, like the field of which it is an integral part, has developed as it ran. Charlotte Towle in opening the T h i r t i e t h Annual Meeting of the American Association of Schools of Social Work made reference to the forced nature of this growth:

Social work education is older than its years. This is partly due to adversity; partly to forced growth; and also, in large measure, to an early developmental period in the field of practice and to the borrowings from educational systems of older professions. Social work education is com-

4

EVOLUTION

OF SOCIAL

WORK

EDUCATION

ing of age through what it has learned on its own,—the hard way—as well as through identification with others. 1 When viewed objectively, whether from a vantage point within the profession or f r o m the outside looking in, the tasks ahead are numerous and challenging, in many respects overwhelming, particularly when seen in terms of supply and demand. A conservative estimate of the n u m b e r of social work positions in the United States, according to the Bureau of L a b o r Statistics, is 75,000 persons, but the six practitioner organizations with membership requirements based chiefly on social work education number only slightly over 18,000 members. Changes in the nature of educational programs have not kept pace with the rapidly expanding needs of the field, particularly in public welfare. T h e r e is serious dearth of educational resources—field work opportunities, qualified faculty, and research facilities. T h e r e are still very disjointed relationships in social work among the various requirements commonly established f o r protection of the public interest such as,—for example, those for accreditation of education programs, employment in social agencies, membership in professional organizations, and regulation of practice. It is necessary to understand the causes of this rapid and uneven development, if the profession is to go forward in an orderly manner. T h e historical events of significance to the present study are those associated ( 1 ) with the influence of practice on the nature of social work education; (2) with professional trends reflected in the organizational history of practitioner groups; and (3) with major developments within the schools of social work. T h e s e will be discussed according to significant trends in philosophy and practice, major institutional developments, and the nature of educational programs occurring roughly during three periods: 1898 to 1930, the decade of the 1930's, and 1940 to the present. Some events will be dealt with only in the period in which they occurred initially; others will be introduced in an early period but discussed in detail in a later more significant phase; and in some instances periods will be merged to give the perspective necessary to the purposes of this study. 1 Charlotte Towle, "Issues and Problems in Curriculum Development," Social Work Journal, X X X (April, 1949), 67.

EVOLUTION

OF SOCIAL

WORK

EDUCATION

3

THE FIRST THREE DECADES

Development in Practice Early social work was identified with the philanthropic and social science movements of the nineteenth century. T h e early settlement movement with its emphasis on social action, community organization, and work with neighborhood groups has affected social work education and practice in the United States much less than did the charity organization society movement. T h e latter began with emphasis on development and coordination of community services, but with growth of community councils in the 1920's the societies directed more attention to formulation of casework philosophy, and to development of methods and standards in services to individuals and families, with community organization as a second major function. T h e charity organization society movement, the settlements, and other welfare organizations stemmed from a common base. T h e y represented a desire on the part of those who were socially and economically advantaged to bridge to some degree the wide chasm of difference in opportunities between the rich and the poor that became sharply apparent with the concentration of population in cities d u r i n g the Industrial Revolution. T h e settlements chose the method of emphasizing civic responsibility and social reform by means of firsthand study and resolution of neighborhood problems and by means of political action. D u r i n g the same decades which saw the rise of the Charity Organization Society and the settlements, other movements were generating which are today increasingly a part of social w o r k — t h e Y o u n g Men's Christian Association, founded in the 1850's; the Y o u n g Women's Christian Association (1866); the Y o u n g Men's (1911) and Y o u n g Women's (1913) Hebrew Associations; boys' and girls' clubs; and a great variety of church-affiliated youth organizations that developed in local communities through the last half of the century. Many of them eventually federated into large national agencies. A second growth of youth organizations sprang up in the first two decades of the century. T h e s e included the 4 H C l u b s (1906), the Boy Scouts (1910), the Campfire Girls (1910), and the

6

EVOLUTION

OF SOCIAL

WORK

EDUCATION

Girl Scouts ( 1 9 1 2 ) , and similar programs. Both these and the older organizations represented new factors in American life, namely, a concern for youth as a group and a widespread attempt to meet through group activities of various kinds the needs which youth began to manifest in urban settings and under the impact of modern changes in family life. Most, though not all, of these youth services were under private auspices. In the last half of the nineteenth century a substantial increase in interest in recreation and adult education was also evident. Public recreation, which developed first from a humanitarian concern for children's playgrounds in crowded slum areas, grew into a recognized public responsibility increasingly accepted by municipalities and state and federal agencies. Sufficient growth had taken place by the first decade of this century to lead to the founding of the National Recreation Association in 1906. Similar interest in adult education had grown in the same period as leisure time increased with the shorter working week. T h i s too produced adult education in a variety of forms in the settlements, within university extensions, and under other auspices more remote f r o m what was then regarded as social work. T h e American counterpart of England's T o y n b e e Hall, where philanthropic persons "settled" and worked among the less fortunate "classes," emphasized the contributions of other national groups to the community and placed value on differences. A major concern of these early settlement houses was research and social action to secure reform and needed community services. Staffs representing many areas of cultural interests, and drawn widely from those interested in adult education, are among the important heritages of modern group work from those early beginnings. T h e charity organization societies of the 1870's were deeply concerned with the inefficient administration of public and voluntary funds in the face of great distress. T h e y developed as an attempt to organize the relief efforts of small philanthropic organizations. According to deSchweinitz's interpretation they relied on a method that " w o u l d rehabilitate the individual, thus making financial assistance unnecessary. T h e y would stimulate his capacity to do for himself. T h e y would develop his resources in such a way

EVOLUTION

OF SOCIAL

WORK

EDUCATION

7

that he would become once more self-maintaining. Through the power of personal influence they would reform the man who was wilfully poor and inspire and invigorate the helpless and weak. T h e y would save the miserable from the sin of poverty." 7 While these societies did place emphasis on the dangers of creating pauperism by indiscriminate and overlapping relief practices and believed they could rehabilitate the individual, thus making continued financial assistance largely unnecessary, the practical needs of fatherless families and others without any source of income early introduced the practice of family budgeting and relief payments. T h e American Association for Organizing Charity, established in 1911, later designated the Family Welfare Association of America, grew out of this movement. This organization, now the Family Service Association of America, was the pioneer in formulating a more positive set of principles and more constructive methods of social investigation, diagnosis, and treatment of family and individual problems. These concepts and methods stemmed from the democratic concept of the worth and freedom of the person, and became eventually the social casework of today, a unique contribution of social work to the human welfare professions. Mary Richmond, in Social Diagnosis,3 identified the factual bases and methods in differentiated treatment of individuals and families. It is considered the classic social work text that laid "the scientific basis of a new profession." Her theories were based on a systematic study of large numbers of case records and upon her extensive knowledge of "philosophy and literature, history, logic, education, medicine, psychology, criminology, and perhaps most of all the laws of evidence developed by jurisprudence." 4 T h e diverse sources out of which Social Diagnosis was developed illustrate the influence of both tradition and practical need in the evolution of a new profession. T h e leadership of the author and the influence of her ideas were important factors in shaping the early stages of social work thinking and practice. Social work, like other professions, depended quite appropriately upon the knowl2 Elizabeth and Karl deSchweinitz, " T h e Contribution of Social Work to the Administration of Public Assistance," Social Work Journal, X X I X (July, 1948), 109. s Mary Richmond, Social Diagnosis (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1917). < John M. Glenn, Lilian Brandt, and F. Emerson Andrews, Russell Sage Foundation, /907-/9./6 (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1947), I, 129.

8

EVOLUTION

OF SOCIAL

WORK

EDUCATION

edge and methods of other disciplines. T h e broad nature of social work, concerned as it is with a gamut of social relationships, continues to require a special combination of knowledge, skills, and attitudes to fulfill its coordinating and integrative function. Today this creates a problem in arriving at precise definitions of both function and scope of the field and consequently of the educational program. T h e latter is less specific at this time and less tangible as an entity in comparison with the usual professional curriculum, not only because of its youth and historical precedents but due to the nature of the particular combination of competencies expected of social workers. During the nineteenth century, social work was undifferentiated from the social science movement, which also included such fields as economics, history, political science, statistics, and sociology. Gradually, national social science associations, interested primarily in theory and research, were being formed, budding off from the American Social Science Association. In 1879 the Conference of Boards of Public Charities, meeting under the auspices of that Association, became an independent body called the National Conference of Charities and Correction. This was the first national association with the specific purpose of discussing common problems in the broad field of social welfare. Its name, changed to the National Conference of Social Work in 1917, symbolized the shifts that were taking place in philosophy and practice. Many of the pioneers in social welfare used the only partially developed tools of scientific social study in their search for causes of poverty and dependence; but their chief concern was how to supervise and administer state institutions providing care for mentally ill, physically handicapped, imprisoned, or dependent persons. Indeed, members of the state boards of charities, particularly those in Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio, Indiana, and New York, made substantial contributions to modern principles of social welfare administration—among them centralized responsibility and methods of coordination, emphasis on prevention, education of the local community, use of voluntary resources, and the values of family care as contrasted to institutional living. In fact, early social work was characterized by efforts to remove from almshouses the mentally ill, delinquent children, and the sick and the aged, and

EVOLUTION

OF SOCIAL

WORK

EDUCATION

9

to provide appropriate institutional care for each of these groups. As important as these developments were, Frank Bruno suggests that the field still suffers from this very early concentration on method and subsequent diversion from research.6 For this dichotomy between theory and practice appeared at a beginning stage in the development of the profession when there was great need for a "consistent correction of criticism and experimentation" and for conscious attention to philosophy as well as method. Edith Abbott through the years also called to the attention of the profession the tragedies of human suffering and the waste of public funds that have resulted from good intentions combined with empirical methods and overattention to perfecting "techniques." She called for a clarifying knowledge of historical perspective and basic and experimental research that would lead to better scientific methods in social welfare administration. T h e University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration and its predecessor, the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, under the Breckinridge-Abbott leadership consistently placed strong emphasis on research as well as on legislative action and public administration. Early Education Programs As recognition of the complexity of family and social problems grew, the social agencies developed institutes and training courses for their salaried workers who were gradually replacing the voluntary "friendly visitors" by the close of the nineteenth century. Preparation moved gradually from apprenticeship, as in the older professions of medicine and law, to a more formal type of vocational education when embryonic schools of social work were established. T h e pioneer, the New York School of Philanthropy, was founded in 1898 as a six-week summer school by the Charity Organization Society of that city. This initial effort became a full academic year in 1903-4 and by 1910 a two-year program. These early schools were chiefly independent training centers for family casework agencies in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and St. Louis. One center, the Institute of Social Science, a settlement undertaking and an early experiment in extension work at the University of 5 Frank J . Bruno, Trends in Social Work (New York: Columbia University Press, 1948), p. 141.

IO EVOLUTION

OF SOCIAL

WORK

EDUCATION

Chicago in 1901, became the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy in 1907. T h e affiliation of the Chicago school with the University of Chicago marked the first real university sponsorship of a school of social work. Other schools had tenuous university affiliations or, in a few instances, consisted of a sequence of courses in undergraduate sociology departments of state universities as in Minnesota, Missouri, and Ohio. A series of four-week Charity Organization Institutes was held annually from 1910 to 1922 by the Charity Organization Department of the Russell Sage Foundation. These, and the later Supervisors' Conferences, were under the leadership of Mary Richmond and were for selected caseworkers, executives, and supervisors from charity organization societies across the country. This outstanding example of early informal education may well be said to have contained the germ of the modern staff development concept. Those familiar with the history of the efforts to prepare teachers for the public schools will recognize the close parallel with institutes for teachers, first used by Henry Barnard in 1839. Similarity is equally noticeable between the early schools of social work and the normal schools for teachers established by Horace Mann in 1838. From an exchange of thinking on matters of common concern among those responsible for these early educational efforts, the Association of Training Schools for Professional Social Work was formed in 1919 with seventeen charter members, located for the most part in the Eastern half of the United States. T h e development of uniform and responsible professional standards in education for social work moved forward with the formation of this Association. Few of the charter members were as yet within universities, and a number of schools and leaders in the field doubted that affiliation with universities was desirable, because it was feared that this type of education would be largely theoretical, and likely to be controlled by the social sciences. This point of view was no doubt a major factor in directing formal beginnings in education for social work less toward an academic orientation and more toward practice. T h e importance of association with a university in the development of scientific professional education for social work, as contrasted with a narrow emphasis on a single field or overattention to techniques of practice, is pointed out by Edith Abbott in Social

EVOLUTION Welfare

OF

and Professional

SOCIAL

WORK

Education,

EDUCATION

u

a n d i n h e r r e v i e w of the trans-

f e r of the School of Civics a n d P h i l a n t h r o p y to the

University

p r o p e r in 1920: W e were clear in Chicago twenty-one years ago that education in the field of social welfare should prepare students for the public services, and we were convinced that the kind of education we believed to be necessary could be given only to students w h o were well prepared for advanced professional work. We had had discussions over a long period of time with the University of Chicago about the possible transfer of the work of the School. We were very insistent, however, upon one point. W e said that the School would give up its work as an independent institution and move to the University only if the University would give the School the status as a graduate professional school that was enjoyed by a law school. We were not willing to become a part of any social science department, nor were we willing to be just another department in a graduate school of arts, literature, and science. It was clear to us that professional education for our field would make necessary the use of courses given in several different University departments, and we were not willing to be submerged in any one of them. More important, however, was the fact that we needed a new kind of program including class work, field work, and research in our special field, and this kind of professional program could not develop in any one of the social science departments . . . . . . A few students needed the advanced social science courses that the University offered, and a few needed the elementary courses, and we knew the waste of trying to duplicate this work. We needed some of the courses offered in the Law School and the School of Business; and we needed the cooperation of the medical faculty; and we greatly needed the research facilities of the University, particularly the library; and we needed the protection and stimulus of University scholarship and University educational standards. 6 The

Special

Fields

of Practice

Contribute

to

Education

B r u n o places considerable emphasis on t h e effect of F l e x n e r ' s p r o n o u n c e m e n t at the N a t i o n a l C o n f e r e n c e of C h a r i t i e s a n d C o r r e c t i o n in 1915 that social w o r k was n o t a profession because t h e r e was n o d i s t i n g u i s h i n g " t e c h n i q u e c o m m u n i c a b l e b y an e d u c a t i o n a l process."

7

It is significant that at the same m e e t i n g F e l i x F r a n k -

« Edith Abbott, "Twenty-one Years of Education for the Social Services," Social Service Review, X V (December, 1941), 671-7«. 7 Bruno, op. cit., p. 141.

12

EVOLUTION

OF SOCIAL

WORK

EDUCATION

furter emphasized the importance of three to four years of university education with professors who gave full time to teaching in order to qualify social workers for the serious professional responsibilities in what he referred to as "the very definite, if undefined profession" that guides and deals with "the social forces of the day." 8 Whatever the relative weight of events, from the beginning the practical and pressing demands of many agencies shaped the curriculum of the schools toward a major emphasis on casework and toward the preparation of practitioners to work in family welfare, child welfare, medical, and psychiatric social work. Special fields of social work had developed early in the century, and each made significant contributions to practice and education. Within the first three decades a number of important developments also occurred in the field of child welfare. The children's courts, emphasizing the philosophy of individualized social study and treatment in contrast to a focus on the offense and the penalties of criminal law, came into being in 1899. The decennial White House Conferences began in 1909, and in the first one called there was enunciated the important principle that children should not be separated from their families for economic reasons alone. This concept and the principle of public responsibility for the maintenance of children in their own homes were established by court decree in 1909 in New Jersey, and by state law in 1911 when Illinois and Missouri passed mothers' aid legislation. In the next year, as a result of citizen interest in all parts of the country, the United States Children's Bureau was created, signifying the concern of the federal government with "all matters pertaining to children." There began significant investigation, public education, and promotion of adequate standards and legislation in relation to birth registration, infant and maternity care, child protection, social services, and child labor. Institutional care continued for mentally deficient, delinquent, and dependent children, but use of foster family homes and payments for boarding care gained headway steadily under the leadership of local and state, public and private agencies. With die found» Felix Frankfurter, "Social Work and Professional Training," Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and Correction (Chicago: Hildman Printing Co., 19»5). PP- 591-96-

EVOLUTION

OF SOCIAL

WORK

EDUCATION

ij

ing of the Child Welfare League of America in 1920 there was established a voluntary national organization that gave particular attention to study and standard-setting in foster family and institutional care to meet the individualized needs of the child. A l l these developments contributed directly to social work education by providing field work opportunities for students from schools of social work and by enriching the content of classroom courses. Another significant influence exerted on the content of social work education was the introduction of modern medical and psychiatric concepts and practices. These emphasized emotional and social causes and treatment of maladjustments reflected in individual behavior, and tended to divert social work from its earlier focus on environmental factors and need for social reform to correct social injustices. Medical social work began in Massachusetts General Hospital and Bellevue Hospital, N e w York City, as early as 1905. T h e hospital social workers, stimulated by the necessity to differentiate their role from that of the nurses giving care to the sick and to define their function in relation to the doctors with whom they worked in hospital and clinical settings, very early gave consideration to the relation of practice and education. T h e American Association of Hospital Social Workers, now the American Association of Medical Social Workers, was formed in 1918 to discuss matters of common interest. , From the beginning this group was concerned with systematic study and development of both practice and education. Committees of the Association initiated a significant research series on functions and practices in medical social casework that stands as a model the profession could well emulate. T h e series developed gradually and ranged from the "functions studies" in which medical social workers and educators focused on self-study and clarification of activities and function," through formulation of a medical social curriculum for social workers and joint study and identification of educational content to be shared with another profession, 10 to the difficult and » P u b l i c a t i o n s of the A m e r i c a n Association of M e d i c a l Social W o r k e r s , W a s h i n g t o n , D.C.: The Functions of Hospital Social Service (1930); H a r r i e t t M. B a r t l e t t , Medical Social Work: a Study of Current Aims and Methods in Medical Social Work (1934); Bartlett, The Participation of Medical Social Workers in the Teaching of Medical Students (1939); B a r t l e t t , Some Aspects of Social Case Work in a Medical Setting (1940). 10 widening Horizons in Medical Education, a Study of the Teaching of Social and

i4

EVOLUTION

OF SOCIAL

WORK

EDUCATION

important popular interpretation of the role of the medical social worker in the teamwork relationship. 11 T h e contribution of medical social work to professional education is discussed further in other sections of this report, but it is important to note here that the central purpose of the Association was to improve medical social services to patients and that research and educational objectives stemmed from this. Impetus was given both to social work practice in hospitals and to education for social work in general when the United States Public Health Service through the American National R e d Cross made plans for the training of additional personnel to meet the needs of veterans of World War I. T h e Red Cross financed training programs in twenty colleges and universities that stimulated the development of several new schools of social work, chiefly in the Eastern half of the United States. Developments in psychiatric social work also began early in the century in public and private hospitals for the care of the mentally ill and in clinics where emotionally disturbed patients were seen to need help. T h e first course to include systematic psychiatric content was offered in the School of Civics and Philanthropy at Chicago in 1908 by Dr. William Healy and others, and the course for apprentices at Boston Psychopathic Hospital, established during World War I, became a permanent part of the Smith College program in 1 9 1 8 - 1 9 . One of the significant contributions of psychiatric social work to schools and agencies has been the deepening of the understanding of teachers and practitioners concerning the emotional implications of behavior in themselves and those whom they serve. T h e psychiatric social work group was originally a section of the American Association of Hospital Social Workers and did not become an independent national organization until 1926. Individual practitioners, educators, and committees of this professional membership group have continued to contribute to the development of practice and education. Articles and committee reports on these Environmental Factors in Medicine. A report of the Joint Committee of the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Association of Medical Social Workers (New York: Commonwealth Fund. 1948). 11 Caroline H. Elledge, The Rehabilitation of the Patient: Social Casework in Medicine (Philadelphia: J . B. Lippincott Co., 1948).

EVOLUTION

OF SOCIAL

WORK

EDUCATION

15

subjects have appeared since 1932 in the News-Letter of the Association, now the Journal of Psychiatric Social Work. There has been a good deal of discussion over the years about the development of a special curriculum for psychiatric social work that has reflected the differences in opinion as to definition of the field within and without the hospital setting. The development of a fairly broad, specialized curriculum and field practice in psychiatric social work, outside hospitals came largely through the work of psychiatric social workers in family and children's agencies and through stimulation by the National Committee on Mental Hygiene, and the work of the National Association of Visiting Teachers, now the National Association of School Social Workers. The latter was closely associated with the Commonwealth Fund project on the prevention of delinquency which provided grants for demonstrations, research, and fellowships. This emphasis upon preventive aspects of mental health rapidly permeated both practice and curriculum with a content focused on understanding the development of personality and on ways of helping with problems of a psychological nature. Psychiatric caseworkers began to move from the traditional hospital setting to family welfare agencies, the public schools, and the child guidance clinics. In the child guidance clinics in particular there was a clearer understanding of the social worker's function and more opportunity for teamwork than in many of the mental hospitals. 12 95°)-

Giving (New York: Russell Sage Foundation,

THE

SCOPE

AND

STATUS

OF SOCIAL

WORK

65

TABLE 1 Public Expenditures

for Social Security and Related Purposes in 1946 * M I L L I O N S OF DOLLARS

Federal

State and Local

Percent Federal

4,619.9

3.285.9

58.4

3-275-'

i.743-i

Total

Total Social insurance and related programs Public aid Health and medical services Other welfare services

7,905.8 5,018.2 1,198.3 1,226.7 462.6

486.3 402.6 455-9

6 5 3

40.6 32.8

712.0 824.1

6.7

98-6

» Adapted from "Public Expenditures for Social Security and Related Purposes, by Source of Funds and Program: A.—Fiscal Years 1 9 4 1 - 1 9 4 7 , " The Social Security Almanac (New York: National Industrial Conference Board, Inc., 1949), pp. 1 0 - 1 1 .

By a much narrower definition of social welfare—one that limits it to financial aid and service to the aged, to dependent children, to the blind, and to selected cases in general assistance and in other public and private social work programs—the 12billion-dollar figure drops to an estimated 2.5 billion dollars, of which 2 billion dollars is provided annually from federal, state, and local tax levies and the balance from the gifts and bequests of individuals and corporations. T h e character and volume of the government portion of welfare thus defined are illustrated by the data in T a b l e 2 which shows the number of people served and the money TABLE 2 Expenditures for Assistance under Four Categories of the Social Security Act and for General Assistance in the United States, for the Month of January, 1951» Category

Old-age assistance Aid to dependent children Aid to the blind Aid to permanently and totally disabled General assistance Total

Number

of

Recipients

2,766,866 1,639,107 (in 641,397 families) 95.521 70,745

418,000 b

» Derived from T a b l e io, Social Security Bulletin, •> A case may involve one or more recipients.

Amount

$120,084,486 47,241,783 4,452,149 3,170,640 19,879,000 I194.828.058

X I V (April, 1951), 28.

66

THE

SCOPE

AND

STATUS

OF SOCIAL

WORK

required for this purpose for a single month, and that of voluntary groups is illustrated by the distribution of funds and services shown in Tables 3, 4, 5, and 6. Since the purpose in citing the volume of money devoted to social welfare is to make evident to the public and to college and university officials the importance of modifying, expanding, or introducing educational programs to prepare professional personnel for this relatively new and rapidly expanding field, it does not matter much whether one uses the broad or the narrow definition of social welfare. In either case the public interest would be served by placing the state and local administration of these huge sums more largely in the hands of professionally qualified welfare workers, and this cannot be done until the institutions of higher education do for this field what they have done for law, medicine, teaching, engineering, and other professions. In recognizing the substantial responsibility of social workers for the administration of the multibillion-dollar welfare undertaking, one should not lose sight of the fact that many other professional and nonprofessional groups share the total responsibility. Neither should one assume that a high positive correlation exists between the size of the expenditure for social welfare and the volume or quality of social work services needed or provided. Indeed, the reverse may be true. In the public assistance programs, for instance, in 1950 perhaps 94 percent of the expenditure was for direct payments to economically underprivileged individuals and 6 percent for administration and the services of those who perform social work functions, but most people would agree that the purpose of the grants and the efficiency with which they are administered would be improved through the use of more qualified social work personnel. At the other extreme there are voluntary welfare agencies that devote more than four fifths of their budgets to social work services and less than one fifth to financial aid of individuals. T h e member agencies of the Family Service Association of America, for example, in 1949 reported that on the average they devoted only 18 percent of their funds to "relief" and 82 percent to other social work services. The nature of the social welfare program undertaken rather than its dollar volume should of course determine the character and extent of the social work services required. Concern for the

THE

SCOPE

AND

STATUS

OF SOCIAL

WORK

67

public interest suggests that social service has become too important a function in the welfare activities of government, business, and philanthropy to be administered by any but professionally qualified personnel. The Character of Social Work Expenditures Before turning to a more detailed analysis of certain public and private funds devoted to social work services, it may be well to reiterate and extend earlier cautions on the inadequacies of data. T h e r e are, for example, more than 800 philanthropic foundations in the United States, but less than half of them make public any data on their grants, and not more than 150 foundations provide financial data which can be analyzed to show the categories of use. Financial accounting to the public is even more casual and incomplete for the social welfare activities of churches, lodges, and a host of local benevolent societies.7 There are also many gaps and overlappings in the data reported on public expenditures for social welfare, but the accounting systems of programs authorized by the Social Security Act of 1935, as amended, constitute notable exceptions to this generalization. These inadequacies illustrate the less than satisfactory status of welfare accounting and are matters of real concern to statisticians in the field of social welfare, but they do not invalidate the data for the purposes of this study, namely, calling attention to the huge sums expended for welfare activities in which social work services are or may be extensively employed. A good illustration of the social work services being offered in communities, their cost, and the number of individuals served is provided through reports published by the Community Chests and Councils of America, Inc. T h e 1948 Expenditures Study of this organization covered 29 urban areas with a combined population of 19,312,300 persons, approximately 13 percent of the nation. Comparable information for rural areas has not been compiled. A total of $388,128,958 was spent in these 29 cities in 1948 for social work programs. This represented approximately $ 2 1 . 1 0 per capita. T h e distribution of these funds among different social work programs, and the source of the funds, is shown in T a b l e 3. Several points stand out in a review of this table. First, the great bulk of 1 Cf. Andrews, op. cit.. Chapters 6, 7, and 10.

O - N Cl M M M O 00 2 M -f oc — i — on or,00 OC t t - aS c O oo oo f» X t^ oo r^ « — q-. T t>. CT5 M iO •f ei â> oc oo* m" on ir-, c kT; àft M 8»O q> «oc - C C to« Ci O w C« on

•8 e 3

( n

C e

2 ?

v. 0, •O.

•r c 2 3

M

te. o N on on o q> o CT> N w on «on oo - Vi

a.

t» c •a. vt hi

u

1 -2 u

1 '> S t «A 1 " T3 V B "S N ^

o « ^ 00 « - to iñ to O « LTc5 *

w E « C E u U (9 M = So ut & o 2 ° ^ té cl ° -a Ë. S •o S c §" S S S = ¿0 o Vi a¿ c.s 2 I I I •o -5 c —: r : c I 3 O :— c •c -a ^

-c -c O ^O •O ¿•73 ra b 1 E te .m j ; u 1 1 V -C IS Sâ '0 'C 5-0 ZZO

a —

x: S

U c .a c e < Q

W J « < H

•= s « 2 C Si .K

^

s •"C § S S I fi ii Ss 3 -a. 3 « a. * .t; a. "" ki ~

¡2

"> -2 K § 2 £

«I e a o S r

5 J » £ H

g 3,

£

tC O 9: ti ri IO rs M3C — 00 ifi CO t© ^ -r » w a « N O W t^ri 115 «o

¡SO i - q» »900 0 S • s — 04 s 3 . o « .5 H 01 ai 0 0 ao so o — io m in t^ o woo f to o w N c 13 — « « « — ori — »j 3 ..=

•e c o a

«

aito ai Tf if5 if r»» O) N e iti r^- 'O O* TT 00" -*r - 0 « li 1 « in n © Tf LI n o ^ 2 h. w 01 2

THE

SCOPE

AND

STATUS

OF SOCIAL

WORK

the voluntary health agencies [of Greater Boston], where 93 percent of the professional workers have had what appears to be relatively similar professional preparation. 11 Educational Status of Social Workers in Los Angeles Much more adequate information is available on the educational background of social workers in Los Angeles County, California. In connection with an unpublished study of scholarship needs in the area, the Los Angeles chapter of the American Association of Social Workers reported the general and professional education of 1 , 8 1 5 2,428 social workers employed in 78 public and private agencies of Los Angeles County in the spring of 1949. T a b l e 12 shows the general and professional education of 1 , 8 1 5 social workers by the types of agencies in which they were employed and by the types of positions they held. With a little ingenuity the reader can rearrange the data to produce other pictures of educational status. Nevertheless, in its present f o r m the table presents many more facets of the education picture than is indicated by the generalized comments which follow. Columns 2, 3, and 4 summarize the general and the professional education status of all social workers and of each group listed in column 1. T h e first two rows of figures in column 3, f o r example, show that 1,064 social workers, 58.6 percent of the group under consideration, do not have any professional education. T h e differences between the level of general education of social workers in Los Angeles County and in the state of Michigan are brought into sharper focus by noting that only 8.8 percent of the former do not have a college degree, as compared with 48.5 percent in Michigan. Moreover, from data not shown in T a b l e 1 2 , it is known that in Los Angeles just over one percent of this group is classified as "high school or less," as compared with 10 percent in Michigan. A t the other extreme of general education, it may be noted that approximately half of the social workers in Michigan and in Los Angeles County meet the educational requirement f o r admission to a graduate school of social work but have not undertaken professional study. T h e first two rows of figures in column 4 of T a b l e 12, for ex11 Greater Boston zens, 1949), p. 147.

Community

Survey,

(Boston: T h e Committee of Citi-

THE

SCOPE

AND

STATUS

OF

SOCIAL

WORK

93

T A B L E 12 Educational Background in *949, Arranged

of 1,815 Los Angeles by Type of Agencies

County Social Workers and Positions »

EXTENT OF EDUCATION SUMMARY

GENERAL

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

EDUCATION

General ProfesGROUPS OF Edu- sional Less More Less SOCIAL WORKERS cation Eduthan Four than than One Total Only cation 4 years Years 1 years 1 year Year /

All social workers Number Percent of total Private agencies Number Percent of total Public agencies Number Percent of total Public agencies Federal: Number Percent of total State: Number Percent of total Local: Number Percent of total Type of position Casework: Number Percent of total Group work: Number Percent of total Community Organization: Number Percent of total Other positions: Number Percent of total

Two Years

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

1,815 100.0

1,064 58.6

75 1 414

160 8.8

814 449

9° 4-9

185 10.2

223 12.3

343 18.9

420 100.0

108 25.8

312 74.2

22 5-2

57 '3-7

29 6.9

53 12.6

79 18.8

180 42.8

'•395 100.0

956 68.5

439 3'-5

138 9-9

757 54-2

61 44

>32 9-5

'44 10.3

163 11.7

97 100.0

1 1.1

96 98-9

11 "•S

85 87.6

118 100.0

4« 35-6

76 64.4

25 21.2

11 9-3

6 5-1

'4 11.9

36 3°-5

26 22.0

1,180 100.0

9'3 774

267 22.6

>'3 9-6

746 63.2

54 4.6

118 10.0

97 8.2

52 44

'•479 100.0

801 54-2

678 45.8

25 ••7

73° 49-4

46 3-1

165 11.1

210 14.2

303 20.5

235 100.0

200 85.1

35 14-9

103 43-8

81 34-5

16 6.8

>4 6A

7 30

>4 6.0

48 100.0

24 50.0

*4 50.0

1 2.1

1 2.1

22 45.8

3 6-3

4 8-3

>7 354

53 100.0

39 73-6

>4 26.4

3< 58-5

2 3-8

6 "•3

3 5-6

2 3-8

9 17.0

1 1.1

» Adapted from an unpublished report of the Subcommittee on Scholarships, Professional Education Committee, Los Angeles Chapter, American Association of Social Workers, J u n e 10, 1949, Tables 12-15.

94

THE

SCOPE

AND

STATUS

OF SOCIAL

WORK

ample, show that 751 persons, or 41.4 percent of the group, have had some preparation in a graduate school of social work, a proportion less than the 54.2 percent for social workers in Michigan. Caution should be used in making comparisons, however, because it is not known whether the data in column 8 include or exclude persons who have taken occasional part-time courses in a graduate school of social work, but it is known that one third of the Michigan social workers reported as having some professional education had only occasional part-time courses. Otherwise, there are few significant differences between the level of professional education of social workers as a group in Los Angeles County and in the state of Michigan. Sharp differences exist among several of the groups listed in column 1 of Table 12, and between comparable groups in Michigan and Georgia. Calculations made from the appropriate rows and columns of figures in Table 12 show that public agencies employ 77 percent of the social workers in Los Angeles County and that they have only 58 percent of the persons who have had any graduate social work education, and only 48 percent of those who have completed two years of professional study. On the other hand, the private agencies employ only 23 percent of the social workers, have 42 percent of those who have had some social work education, and 52 percent of the individuals who have completed two years of graduate professional study. A more detailed analysis of general or professional education data for public agencies shows that a training gradient exists among the public services, with federal agencies making the best showing, state agencies coming next, and the employees of local public agencies having the least educational preparation of all. Information in Table 12 on the educational background of social workers by type of position is worthy of note for its bearing on the programs offered in graduate schools of social work. T h e social worker numerically most predominant in the Los Angeles community in 1949 was one with a bachelor's degree, no formal professional education, and employed by a local public assistance agency. From column 5 it may be noted that recreation group workers and those in the catch-all "other" category constitute an imposing proportion of the social workers who do not have a college degree and therefore who are not eligible to enter a graduate school of social

THE

SCOPE

AND

STATUS

OF SOCIAL

WORK

95

work; but it should be noted also that most schools of social work do not have a program of study geared to the realities of these fields. Community organization workers have the most adequate general and professional education, 43 percent having had one or more years of graduate social work education and an additional 45 percent having had graduate training in other fields. Caseworkers come next in extent of professional education, those in private agencies being more fully prepared than those in public agencies. A m o n g caseworkers who have had one or more years of graduate social work study, 74 percent were employed in private agencies and 26 percent in public agencies. Educational Status by Type of Position in Michigan T h e Michigan survey of social work personnel corroborates in many ways the findings on education of the Los Angeles study and has the advantage of showing the distribution of workers by a more extensive group of functional categories. T a b l e 13 shows for 1,986 persons in social work positions in Michigan in 1948, the proportion of the total and of the workers in each of eleven programs who had received no graduate social work education, less than one year of such education, and one or more years of graduate study in social work. T a b l e 13 indicates a very uneven distribution among the types of programs of workers who have reasonably adequate professional education (column 5). Data not shown in the table indicate that most of the workers are found in programs where the high percentage figures in column 3 show the level of preparation is lowest. Sixty percent of Michigan social workers, for example, were in public assistance, juvenile court, probation and parole, and group w o r k — programs in which the professional education of workers is most limited and for which it should be noted schools of social work have the least adequate offerings. Only 19 percent of the Michigan social workers were in family service, mental hygiene, medical social work, and community organization—programs where the general and professional education of workers is relatively high, as is shown by the fact that between one half and three fourths of the workers in these programs had completed one or more years of graduate professional study. T h e bench marks suggested in Chapters IV and V

96

THE

SCOPE

AND

STATUS

OF

SOCIAL

WORK

T A B L E 13 Percentage of Graduate Social Work Education of 1,986 Persons in Social Work Positions in Michigan, by Type of Program, 19481

Type of

Program

All Workers

1

2

All programs Public assistance Other family service Child Welfare (except court services) Court services for children Visiting teacher services Mental hygiene clinic Work in mental hospitals Medical social work Parole and probation (adults) Group work Community organization

IOO.O

No Graduate Social Work Education

Less than One Year of Graduate Social Work Education 4

One or More Years of FullTime Graduate Study Social Wc 5

45-8 63.4

26.8

IOO.O

10.6

27.4 27.1 14.8

IOO.O

29-5

29-5 33-6

41.0 15.1 32.0 84.2

25-7

56.0

38-3 32-7

14.7 20.0

IOO.O

IOO.O IOO.O

5-7

IOO.O

4.8 31.8 18.3

IOO.O

47.0

IOO.O

47-3

IOO.O IOO.O

IOO.O

21.3

62.3 11.0 14.8

23.0

9-7

74.6

53-4

55-7

» Devised from unpublished tables prepared by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

as guides for revising u n d e r g r a d u a t e and graduate curricula take into account the fact that social work education does not stress sufficiently the preparation of workers for the areas w h i c h the M i c h i g a n survey indicates as e m p l o y i n g 60 percent of all social workers. Relatidn of Education to Jobs and Schools In c o n c l u d i n g this section, perhaps it should be stated categorically that in showing the educational b a c k g r o u n d of persons now in jobs classified as professional social work positions, there has b e e n n o intention of i m p l y i n g that this report considers all the positions as actually b e i n g at a professional level which requires personnel that has had at least o n e year of graduate social w o r k education in addition to four years of sound undergraduate education. As a corollary, neither does it i m p l y the establishment of e n o u g h graduate schools of social w o r k to maintain a staff of 75,000 two-year graduates. Rather, the report takes the position that there must be

THE

SCOPE

AND

STATUS

OF SOCIAL

WORK

9-j

a systematic study of social work theory and practice, to determine which of the presumed 75,000 social work positions are professional, semiprofessional, and other than professional, before the profession can determine the character, amount, and distribution of the educational facilities it needs. T h e foregoing data suggest that professional standards of employment, including education, are now met by not more than 30 percent of the 75,000 persons employed as social workers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics survey probably will show a higher level of education because social workers having the least professional preparation tend not to return such information schedules. A systematic job analysis probably would show a much larger percentage of these positions to be professional in character, but whatever the number, social work educators cannot plan and develop instructional programs intelligently until a substantial demarcation of functions is made. Obviously the number of one- and two-year graduates of social work is too small in relation to the total professional jobs in the field. For instance, 1,857 two-year students graduated from 52 schools in 1949-50 (half as many more completed one year of graduate professional study), which is too few to staff a profession of 75,000 positions. In other words, in a rapidly expanding profession, schools have done little more than replace the hard core of workers lost by attrition, even though in 1949 they enrolled more than five times as many students as in 1932. The status of social work education since 1932 in separately organized graduate schools is shown in more detail in Chart III. In the intervening eighteen years the number of schools holding membership in the American Association of Schools of Social Work increased from 24 to 52, and the full-time enrollment as of November 1 has grown from 936 in 1932 to 4,719 in 1950. In 1949-50, as of November 1, the schools enrolled 3,130 part-time students for campus courses, and offered extension courses to 459 students. The broken line in Chart III shows the number of one- and two-year graduates of schools affiliated in the American Association of Schools of Social Work. The number of two-year master's degree graduates per year increased from 870 in 1944-45 to 1,857 1949-50. In addition, the 52 schools gave one-year certificates to 594 students, and had in their enrollment 14 persons who com-

98

THE

SCOPE

AND

STATUS

OF

SOCIAL

WORK

pleted work beyond the two-year master's degree program, and two persons who earned a doctor's degree. Slightly more than two thirds of the full-time students received some type of grant-in-aid, with most of it coming from tax sources. T h e 20 schools affiliated in the National Association of Schools of Social Administration reported in September, 1949, an enrollment of 153 graduate students and 818 undergraduate who were majoring in social work education. T h e graduate programs of these schools were limited to one-year programs. A study of the educational leave practices of public welfare agencies in 38 states covering the period 1943-45 indicated that 438 employees had been granted leave for study in schools of social work. Six out of every ten of these were paid from federal child welfare service funds. In 1948, 50 of the 53 states and territories were budgeting enough child welfare funds to make it possible for 600 individuals to take leave for further study. Additional federal funds were provided on a matching basis for educational leave through the Bureau of Public Assistance, and under its current policy, as of September 1, 1951, 16 states had submitted educational leave plans to the Bureau. T h e National Mental Health Act of 1946 provided funds to encourage additional social workers to take leave for advanced study. One hundred and six such stipends were awarded for the school year 1949—50. In addition, 28 schools received grants through this Act to enable them to enrich and expand instruction in psychiatric social work.

INCOME,

TURNOVER,

AND

WORKING

CONDITIONS

Income, stability of employment, and working conditions as well as education provide useful indexes to the professional status of social work. T h e y also are important for planning social work education. T h e y affect the ability of the schools to compete with other professional fields for students of promise. They have a bearing on the amount of time and money that students can afford to invest in light of their future earning power. T h e y determine the extent to which persons with responsibility for dependents can look forward to careers in the field. They are important factors in determining the amount of social work services the community can afford,

so 1932-33

1936-39

1 1

1937-36

1

1936-37

NUMBER OF ONE A ACADEMIC Y E A R .

r01 1 1 I

1934-35

\

1941-42 1942-43 1943-44

8

o

o o

8

w 1»

o o

»

o o o

»

O"

o o

2 Xc

2

Jl

1 1

\

i V •*> \\ C

\ \

Z O

S -t 5 X 0 X 0 c>

F Wl

1945-46

t

r r1

\

t

-1 £ m (/> H C

•1

H

\

1 1

1

\ \

1 1

n z

1 1 1

\

\

y

(/> O •»1

z.

0

1 1 1 1 « ^

V

\

*

\

1946-47

\

NS(

1947- 46 \ «

t

k * \\ 5—

2451

I946-49 1949-50

CHART

III

NUMBER OF FULL-TIME STUDENTS AND GRADUATES OF AASSW

r«i O

Z / c / 2/ ( III ml 30 1

FOR

1944-45

o o o

\

1939-40 1940-41

lu t*

10

Ol

i\

ti

1933-34

1935-36

8o

SCHOOLS OF SOCIAL WORK,

1932-50

Source: A n n u a l statistics on social work education, p u b l i s h e d by t h e American Association of Social Workers.

ioo

THE

SCOPE

AND

STATUS

OF

SOCIAL

WORK

a l t h o u g h society's conviction about the importance of a service to the general welfare is basic to p r o v i d i n g it. The

Income

of Social

Workers

I n f o r m a t i o n on the i n c o m e of social workers has been published in a n u m b e r of places in recent years, b u t a review of these data leaves unanswered m a n y important questions a b o u t this aspect of the profession. If significant and valid inferences are to be d r a w n , salary data must be r e v i e w e d in relation to such factors as educational qualifications, length of experience, level of responsibility, type of social work program, and character of the community. Such a frame of reference for appraising raw salary data will not be available before the c o m p l e t i o n in 1951 of the B u r e a u of L a b o r Statistics Survey of Salaries and W o r k i n g C o n d i t i o n s in Social W o r k . A similar survey in M i c h i g a n , made in 1948, as a pilot study to the 1950 national survey, provides the most m e a n i n g f u l current picture of earnings. T h e m e d i a n salary of 1,986 social workers in M i c h i g a n was $3,100, the m e d i a n for men b e i n g $3,700 and the m e d i a n for w o m e n $2,880. T a b l e 14, based on the survey, shows that workers with graduate education in social w o r k earned substantially m o r e than those w i t h o u t such training, b u t since the individuals h a v i n g m o r e education may also have had m o r e experience and greater degrees of responsibility, these factors w o u l d also have a b e a r i n g on the variations in salary. N o comparison of workers on the same j o b T A B L E 14 Average Annual Salaries of 1,986 Persons in Social Work Positions in Michigan, by Amount of Graduate Education and by Sex, 1948 A M O U N T OF G R A D U A T E

SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION

N o graduate education in social work Part-time study only One year of full-time work T w o or more years of full-time work

AVERACE ANNUAL SALARY

All

Workers

$2,700 3.090 3.580 3,840

Men

$3,480 3,820 4.250 4.250

Women

$2,640 2,800 3,240 3,700

level and w i t h v a r y i n g a m o u n t s of educational preparation is available. T h e fact that m e n received h i g h e r salaries than w o m e n is d u e primarily to type of position, and n o t to a salary differential between men and w o m e n in the same level of job. B u t as noted earlier,

THE

SCOPE

AND

STATUS

OF

SOCIAL

WORK

101

26 percent of the male and 11 percent of the female social workers in Michigan were in executive positions; therefore, it would appear that salary is based at least as much on sex as on education inasmuch as the educational preparation of men in social work positions in Michigan was less than that of women. T A B L E 15 Average Annual Salaries of Social Workers by Position and Sex, United States, 1950* MEDIAN A N N U A L S A L A R Y

Position

All positions Executives Supervisors of case or group workers Case or group workers All other: including teaching, research, consultation

Total

Women

Men

$2,960 3.7°° 3,610 2,73°

$2,800 3,180 3-55° 2,660

?3'43° 4-43° 3.790 2,860

3,710

3,710

3,700

a Derived f r o m tentative u n p u b l i s h e d d a t a of the U n i t e d States B u r e a u of L a b o r Statistics survey of salaries and w o r k i n g conditions in the social work profession.

Unpublished data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics survey show that two thirds of all social workers in 1950 were engaged in providing direct services to individuals. Table 15 shows that these workers received the lowest median annual salaries of the four categories listed. T h e public and the profession must face the question of whether this primary professional function of social work can be carried out by persons who can be recruited and retained at a salary level that is lower than government or industry pays secretaries and semiprofessional personnel. Certainly, it is unreasonable to expect individuals with a bachelor's degree and one year of graduate professional preparation to be retained on such a salary schedule, and that is the accepted minimum standard of education for case and group workers. It should be held in mind that as many of these workers are below as are above a median salary of 12,730. Moreover, since four out of five such workers are women it would be more accurate to think of the median annual salary as $2,660. Scattered fragments of data on salaries in private and public social work agencies across the nation were available for this report, but it is not believed that any useful purpose would be served by reproducing or citing them because there is neither a national nor

io2

THE

SCOPE

AND

STATUS

OF

SOCIAL

WORK

a local frame of reference for interpreting raw salary figures. Suffice it to say that the Michigan figures appear to be representative of the composite of these fragments, but alone or together they are insufficient for drawing sound national inferences on how to use salary schedules to encourage further professional growth through education. One approach to a solution is to establish a wide salary differential between trained and untrained workers who are filling the same type of job and presumably carrying the same level of responsibilities. In the teaching profession, higher salaries are paid to teachers who have more education and experience, even though their job assignments are identical with those of teachers who meet only minimum standards. In teaching, there is direct recognition that the quality of the job done differs with training. This device may be more difficult to apply in the field of social work, but the hurdles are not insurmountable. One of the problems in establishing a differential based chiefly on education is the fact that the majority of social work positions are covered by civil service, which operates on the principle of salary levels based on job classifications. In addition to reviewing salary data on social workers for implications on the status of the profession, something of its relative standing may be inferred by comparing these salaries with those in other professions. T h e available data, although not refined to show differences in educational preparation, supervisory responsibilities carried, and the like, permit general comparisons of the ability of social work to compete economically with other professions that also provide a service motive and the satisfactions of working in the field of human relations. A 1946-47 survey 12 of the nursing profession by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a median salary of $2,328 for public health nurses in the Great Lakes region, where Michigan is located. Public health nurses carry many responsibilities which are comparable to those carried by social workers. Furthermore, over 40 percent of public health nurses have one or more years of graduate education, a higher percentage with graduate education than was found among social workers in Michigan. While salaries in public health nursing 1» The Economic Status of Registered Professional Nurses, 1946-47 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, United States Department of Labor, Bulletin No. 931 [Washington, DC., 1947]).

THE

SCOPE

AND

STATUS

OF SOCIAL

WORK

10j

increased between 1946 and 1948, it would appear that salaries in social work compared favorably with those in public health nursing. T h e median salary of registered nurses as a group in 1946 approximated $2,050, with the lowest one-fourth receiving $1,740 or less per year. A 1949 study of library personnel by the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated a median annual salary in the Great Lakes region of $3,075 among professional employees. 13 T h e median salary of $3,100 for social workers in Michigan compared favorably with that found in the library field. A similar study of dietitians by the Bureau of Labor Statistics during 1949 revealed a median annual salary of $2,940, which again was slightly below the median found in social work. 14 State by state, city by city, and for the nation as a whole, the salaries of public school teachers closely parallel those of social workers. As the cost of living has risen since World War II, teachers have been more successful than social workers in getting salary increases to compensate for part of the decreased purchasing power of the dollar. In addition, the average salary of teachers has been kept slightly higher than that of social workers by the fact that as a group they have more general and professional education in relation to the standards of the profession. Otherwise, for comparable groups, teachers and social workers receive similar salaries. For its use in comparing teachers' salaries with those shown by the forthcoming Bureau of Labor Statistics study, Table 16 is included to show by size of city the median salaries of teachers and principals at selected dates since 1930. In concluding this very limited discussion of salaries in social work, it may be noted that the profession appears to be in a fair competitive status, at least in relation to nursing, librarianship, dietetics, and teaching. Any improvement in these matters rests ultimately on public opinion as to the relative worth of social work. While it is important that educational standards in the profession be raised (and better salary schedules can be used to achieve these ends), an improved educational level per se is not enough to elicit higher salaries and attract qualified students to the field. T h e is News release, United States Department of L a b o r , September 27, 1949. 1« News release, United States Department of L a b o r , February 16, 1950.

104

THE

SCOPE

AND

STATUS TABLE

Median

OF

SOCIAL

WORK

16

Salaries of Classroom Teachers and Principals Selected Dates, by Size of City »

at

PERCENTAGE SALAMES BY DATES

INCREASE

SIZE O F CITY AND SCHOOL LEVEL

1930-31 2

1940-41

'

94¿-47

1948-49

19)0-31 to 1948-49 6

1940-41 to 1948-4*

5 7 Cities over 500,000 Teacher: $4,019 65.1 67.0 Elementary school $3.200 $247 $2.434 4,689 51.0 3,106 High school 3,061 53-2 4.047 Principal: 48.9 Elementary (supervisor) 4.135 5.907 5.077 429 3.966 29.0 High school 5412 6,396 7.321 35-3 5.674 Cities of 100,000 to 500,000 Teacher: Elementary school 1,866 1,901 71.8 75.0 3.265 2.559 2,288 65.8 High school 2,41s 2.993 3.793 57-3 Principal: Elementary (supervisor) 3.°76 2,948 52.0 58.6 4.676 3.764 6,073 High school 45-2 33-6 4.183 4.547 5.049 Cities of 30,000 to 100,000 Teacher: Elementary school 1,609 1,608 2,288 838 2.955 83-7 High school 2,039 68.9 2,111 63.1 3444 2.774 Principal: Elementary (supervisor) 2,646 2470 69.8 3.328 4.195 58.5 High school 4,281 4,000 27.7 5468 4.700 36-7 Cities of 10,000 to 30,000 Teacher: Elementary school 2,778 2,118 94.0 1428 MS« 94-5 High school 1,803 1,876 81.3 3.269 2.595 74-3 Principal: Elementary school 1,900 1,848 2,652 82.6 87.7 3469 High school 4,071 45-2 4.796 32.7 3.613 3.303 Cities of 5,000 to 10,000 Teacher: Elementary school 2,609 102.4 1.289 1,948 100.2 1.303 High school 1,626 1,692 2.375 3.017 78.3 85-5 Principal: Elementary school 1,578 89.0 98.0 2.356 3.'24 1.653 High school 49.8 63.0 2.825 4,232 2.596 3496 Cities of 2,500 to 5,000 Teacher: Elementary school 1,162 1.864 116.1 2483 1.149 113.7 High school 2.877 2,274 86.0 101.5 1428 1.547 Principal: Elementary school 1410 2.980 2,272 104.2 111.3 M59 High school 2,136 84.8 2=403 3.948 3.197 64-8 «Adapted from "Salaries and Salary Schedules of City-School Employees, 1948-49," National Education Association Research Bulletin, XVII, No. 2 (April, 1949), 47-52, Tables 2-7. I

i

4

THE

SCOPE

AND

STATUS

OF SOCIAL

WORK

io5

public must be kept informed; indeed, it needs to be brought abreast of the progress which social workers have already made in establishing a profession. Regardless of what social work leaders think about the importance of their role in preventing distress which arises from economic, health, psychological, or other causes, the public still thinks of social workers as concerned mainly with persons who have failed to make the adjustments which society expects of normal individuals. T h e fact that the scope and character of social work have been extended to include participation in high levels of social planning, in the making of public policy, and in devising and putting into effect comprehensive impersonal measures calculated to prevent social dislocations is not widely known to the general public. Salaries are not likely to increase appreciably until the profession dispels the caricatures in the public mind of the social worker as a "do-gooder," as a "cold and heartless" dispenser of other people's money, or as a "starry-eyed individual who has more sympathy than sense." T h e profession cannot have the high esteem it deserves until it is recognized more widely as having a more positive role than being "the stretcher-bearer of the social order." Working Conditions of Social Workers Along with salaries, working conditions provide a significant index of status and opportunity in a profession. T h e conditions of work which characterize the status of social work and the prestige of persons employed in it, to be satisfactory, should include the objective classification of jobs and an announced basis of selecting workers to fill them; the use of written contracts as the basis of employment; the use of explicit procedures for making known the major duties of positions, and for evaluating the quality of employee performance; and the use of announced policies and practices regarding promotions, salary increases, working schedules, "payment in cash versus in kind," provisions covering leave for illness, vacations, further study, retirement, and numerous other items which might be considered important aspects of working conditions. All these items should be made known to all employees in unequivocal terms. Comprehensive data on a nationwide basis, covering the status of social workers on items such as those enumerated, are not at

io6

THE

SCOPE

AND

STATUS

OF SOCIAL

WORK

present available, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics survey of salaries and working conditions will provide such information late in 1 9 5 1 . However, data which have value in this connection are available from some more limited studies. In July, 1947, Anne W. Shyne 1 5 secured data on working conditions in 44 private and 4 public member agencies of the Family Service Association of America which were selected for representativeness in geographical distribution and in staff size. Shyne reported that 15 agencies require a physical examination as a prerequisite to employment; that job descriptions were given to prospective members of the professional staff by 34 agencies; that only 2 agencies use a written contract of employment but most others confirm appointments in writing; that 17 of the private agencies require a probational period (usually 6 months for members of the professional staff); and that about two thirds of the agencies have an orientation program for new personnel. T h e report indicated that "practically all of the agencies have a salary range for each position," and that 30 agencies give "automatic" salary increases, presumably on the basis of acceptable performance. In regard to work schedules and vacations, Shyne reported that 36 agencies operated on a work week ranging from 36 to 40 hours, with only 6 agencies reporting no "evening hours." Overtime work was compensated for in some way by all but 2 agencies, usually by compensatory time off rather than by additional pay. Of the 44 private agencies, 35 granted annual vacations of 4 weeks, with only 2 agencies granting less than 4 weeks of vacation. Vacations were shorter in the public than in the private agencies. T h e annual sick leave allowance of the 44 private agencies varied from 1 1 to 30 working days. Maternity leave of 6 months to one year without pay was not uncommon after one year of service. All but 9 agencies grant leave for professional study, either with or without pay. Hospital insurance was generally available, provided the employee paid the full cost. Retirement insurance plans were reported by 39 out of 44 agencies in 1947, and in all but 4 reporting agencies, staff members were protected by Workmen's Compensation for disability incurred in line of duty. 1» Anne W. Shyne, Personnel Practices in 44 Private and 4 Public Member (New York: Family Service Association of America, 1948) (mimeographed).

Agencies

THE

SCOPE

AND

STATUS

OF SOCIAL

WORK

107

Periodic written evaluations of the performance of staff members were reported in all public agencies and in all but 3 private agencies. In most agencies the evaluation was made available to the employee. Agencies both give and expect notice of termination of employment, with the amount of time varying somewhat according to the position held, but usually being 30 or 60 days. In the case of dismissal, 23 agencies gave a written statement of the reasons involved. In 27 of the 44 private agencies there were review committees, usually composed of board and staff members, to consider grievances. In only 10 agencies were staff members required to retire at a specified age, usually 65 years. Limited information regarding conditions of work was included in the 1948 report on 1,986 social workers in Michigan. Four out of 5 government employees, compared with about 3 out of 8 workers in nongovernmental organizations, were on a 40-hour week. About 7 out of 10 workers reported overtime work, about half of whom received some compensatory time rather than additional pay. About half the workers in private agencies were granted an annual vacation of 4 weeks or more, as compared with about one in 14 of the government workers. However, one day per month was the most frequent amount of vacation granted to Michigan workers. This was also the most frequent amount of sick leave granted. About 6 out of 7 Michigan workers reported that they were covered by some type of retirement insurance, with government agencies providing retirement pensions somewhat more generally than other agencies. Michigan social workers were given an opportunity to express opinions regarding working conditions and other aspects of job satisfaction associated with their positions. Three fourths of the 1,986 employees expressed satisfaction with their jobs as a whole, with length of the work week and the amount of work expected of them, with sick and vacation leave provisions, with the opportunities for attending professional meetings and otherwise maintaining professional contacts, and with the attitude of the community toward the services they were offering. At the other extreme, nearly half of the social workers in Michigan in 1948 expressed dissatisfaction with their salaries, with provisions for salary increases, and with provisions for reimbursing workers for professional ex-

io8

THE

SCOPE

AND

STATUS

OF SOCIAL

WORK

penses incurred. Between one fourth and one third of the workers were dissatisfied with opportunities for promotion, with the adequacy of clerical services and physical facilities for work, with opportunities for participation in the determination of agency policies, and with agency provisions for the retirement of professional workers. Measured by the items listed in the first paragraph in this section, working conditions in the field of social work—as judged from limited data—leave considerable to be desired. But in comparison with working conditions that prevail in nursing, teaching, librarianship, and other professions with which it has been compared, social work makes a creditable showing. Professional Employee Turnover Stability of employment is often an important index to the status of a profession. In general, it usually may be noted that turnover is high in social work situations where educational qualifications are meager, where salaries are low, or where working conditions are unsatisfactory. Rapid turnover is also a normal characteristic of a rapidly expanding profession in which demand greatly exceeds the supply of professionally equipped workers. T h e Greater Boston Community Survey, mentioned earlier, included information on employee turnover in 150 public and voluntary social and health agencies. T h e report states that 1,120 professional employees left the service in 1947, and comments that the annual "turnover rate for professional workers was 47 percent," and that the annual turnover rate for social caseworkers in voluntary agencies was 24 percent. A "Study of Turnover of Professional Social Work Personnel in Greater Cleveland," which covered operations of 56 agencies from January 1, 1944, to October 3 1 , 1946, an abnormal war and postwar period, indicated that the turnover rate during the 34-month period was 85 workers leaving for every 100 employed at the beginning of the study. Approximately 50 percent of those employed in October, 1946, had been in their respective agencies for three years or more. Thus, the total turnover took place in about half of the staff positions. T h e studies mentioned in the foregoing paragraph make it apparent that for data on employee turnover to be significant, the

THE

SCOPE

AND

STATUS

OF SOCIAL

WORK

109

data should be so collected as to reflect breakdowns by sex, age, marital status, salary, education, experience, social work specialization, and reasons for leaving a job. W i t h o u t an analysis in terms of these factors, a high turnover rate might simply mean that individual workers are milling around within the professional group, with no particular advantage to themselves or to the profession. If poorly trained members are leaving and better qualified ones are taking their places, there is an obvious upgrading of personnel. However, when the turnover rate is highest among the most highly trained groups, as the Cleveland data indicated, turnover does not result in staff improvement unless it is accompanied by an increase in proportion of high-level positions. Comprehensive data based on the factors indicated will not be available until completion of the Bureau of Labor Statistics study of salaries and working conditions in social work.

DOES S O C I A L

WORK

MEET

ITS

PROFESSIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES?

H o w adequately does the social work profession meet its professional responsibilities? T h i s chapter has attempted to answer the question in terms of the scope of its undertakings and the status of its services and of its professional personnel. In concluding the chapter, readiness of the profession to assume in full its professional responsibilities is estimated in two ways: by criteria which indicate the extent to which the workers constitute a profession; and by an analysis which shows the character of the professional responsibilities undertaken. T h e general public is of course likely to estimate the adequacy of social work, as it would that of any profession, by an unanalyzed judgment of where it stands relative to the other professions. Professional leaders, educators, and civil service or merit system officials who wish to make a more accurate appraisal of social work as a profession may do so through applying the following criteria: 1. Does the profession have a well-defined function, the nature and scope of which can be identified? 2. Does the profession have a philosophy, code of ethics, and other means of self-regulation which assure that its practice transcends the bounds of political, sectarian, and economic self-interest?

Ilo

THE

SCOPE

AND

STATUS

OF SOCIAL

WORK

3. Does the profession have a unified pattern of organizations that can speak for it with one voice? 4. Does the compensation received by the professional practitioner indicate that the public is willing to pay him as a skilled and responsible professional worker? 5. Is the practice of the profession limited, or tending to be limited, to persons with approved general and professional preparation? 6. Is there, in fact, a recognized systematic body of knowledge, skills, and attitudes which can be identified and transmitted as a regimen of professional preparation? 7. Is the regimen of professional education recognized as of a quality appropriate f o r inclusion in the graduate and professional offerings of a university? By these criteria only the hard core of social work in the United States can be said to have attained a satisfactory professional status. Data in this and the preceding chapter, which foreshadows the status of the profession, indicate that the larger segment of social work is on the way to becoming a profession, but by these seven criteria it is not yet in all respects at this stage of development. T h e nature and scope of the functions of this larger segment are not well defined; it is not equal to the older professions in self-regulation; it does not have a pattern of organizations that can speak for it with authority; it frequently cannot secure salaries to which wellprepared professional workers are entitled; and it does not limit the practice of social work to persons who have completed an approved program of general and professional education. Social work makes its best showing as a profession in terms of the sixth and seventh criteria, even though it is estimated that less than one fifth of its practitioners have had one year or more of professional education. High ideals and the desire to be as mature as some other profession cannot alter the fact that social work is in its early adolescence. It is as natural for social work as for youth to be uncertain of capacity and direction, to have growing pains, and to exhibit emotional excesses. Boards of control, university presidents, and other university leaders ought to be aware of the fact that they are dealing with a young profession that is taking rapid if awkward strides toward

THE

SCOPE

AND

STATUS

OF SOCIAL

WORK

hi

a satisfactory professional status. It is normal for social work to be less sure than the older professions of what constitutes its justifiable boundaries, but it is no less sure than they of the body of knowledge and skill that constitute its essential core. Embarrassment at being unable to define social work or social worker should be alleviated by the fact that at its growing edges, medicine, historically speaking, has been uncertain as to whether public health and psychiatry were a part of the field, and has only partially and grudgingly accepted osteopathy, and still generally rejects chiropractic. At the periphery of law, the legal profession is equally hazy about where statute law ends and administrative law begins, or how much of international law is law and how much of it is political science and government. T h e readiness of a profession to assume and carry "full professional responsibility" may also be estimated by the degree to which it exercises competent self-direction in such areas as the following: 1. In the responsible use of data from disciplines on which the profession is based 2. In research and experimentation to test, refine, and add to the body of professional knowledge and method 3. In teaching the basic and specialized content in professional schools and in administrative situations as needed for the development of personnel 4. In securing a working understanding of individuals being helped, and a disciplined use of the self, to assure behavior that facilitates rather than interferes with professional service 5. In developing professional standards of social work education and practice, and in promoting social planning and legislative action pertaining to them 6. In developing and providing information about the profession to other professions, related disciplines, and the public 7. In relating professional activities to the welfare of the individual and of society rather than to the special interests of the professional individual or group 8. In relating professional responsibility in social work to that of other disciplines and professions and to fields of higher education. Social work, like other professions, exercises professional responsibility of a different extent and quality in each of the eight areas listed. It is, for example, doing a much better job in areas 4 and

ii2

THE

SCOPE

AND

STATUS

OF SOCIAL

WORK

7 than in 2 and 6. Chapter V I I I uses the accreditation situation to illustrate the uneven j o b that social work does in developing professional standards, and the inadequacy of its organization and effort for securing profession-wide and public acceptance of them. Public relations is also an area in which the social work profession has not yet assumed a continuous constructive responsibility for keeping all interested parties informed about its status and program. Chapter I V relates particularly to area 1 and, it is believed, demonstrates a need for the social work profession to take a more positive and vigorous interest in the character of undergraduate education on which professional school programs are based. Social work is more committed in principle than most professions to a coordinated approach (area 8) for providing services in the broad field of human welfare to " w h o l e " persons who function as members of families, work groups, churches, communities, and the like. T h e r e is little evidence, however, to show that social workers have done more than ministers, teachers, public health workers, or the members of most other professions in translating this ideal into practice. Fostering cooperative relationships among the professions will, of course, eventually create the objectivity, mutual respect, and professional responsibility for working together that is required to fulfill the professional teamwork concept. T h e level of professional responsibility at which the social work profession operates in the use of data from other disciplines, in developing a body of professional knowledge, and in teaching curriculum experiences (areas 1, 2, and 3) will be sketched in the main body of Chapters IV and V. These analyses show the current programs of education to be inadequate in character and extent for the tremendous task of preparing personnel for the social work profession, particularly if the profession undertakes the expanded role suggested in the succeeding chapter.

CHAPTER

III

M Sxpanded Hole for Social Work T

V ^ H E ROLE OF ANY PROFESSION in the society of which it is a part depends upon a combination of factors. T h e most evident of these are the character and extent of its body of knowledge, the services its members are equipped to render, the capacity of the community to utilize these particular services, and, finally, the degree of imaginativeness and adaptability of the profession itself in seizing the opportunities presented to it. T h e two chapters that precede this one have introduced evidence on the first three of these factors, and the two chapters that follow make proposals that test the ingenuity of the profession for seizing the opportunities now before it and for developing those envisioned as being on the horizon. This chapter explores new opportunities open to social workers and is not concerned with professional skills and services related to established practice.

Services That Social Work Can Render A necessary prerequisite to assessing the nature and extent of future demands for social work is a clear definition of the services which the profession is equipped to render. Chapter II makes it evident that the young and rapidly growing profession has not yet fully defined its scope and functions. Without a working agreement as to what constitutes social work and who is entitled to be called a social worker it is not possible to determine which developments in the nation's life will increase or decrease the demand for social work services. It is possible to define the services of the medical profession by relating them to the central focus of the profession, namely, the functioning of the human body. T h e attempt similarly to define

ii4

AN

EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

the central focus of social work service breaks down because any definition which the profession appears to approve has been either too general or too limited. T o say that the profession is concerned with helping people to make the most effective and satisfying use of themselves and of the society in which they live is either to make a social worker out of every person of good will, or to claim for the social worker a universality of technical knowledge, which he would be the first to disclaim. Attempts have been made from time to time to characterize the social work profession by reference to its philosophical beliefs. Yet a belief in democracy as a way of life and a conviction of the dignity and importance of the individual are not peculiar to social workers. As criteria of what society can expect to gain by employing the holders of these convictions they in no way distinguish social workers from many other professional groups, nor indeed from a large proportion of the citizenry at large. And yet there is a sense in which these broad claims give a clue to the essential contributions of professional social work. For although the social worker relies for his scientific validation very largely upon the findings of the social and biological sciences, each of which is concerned with specific aspects of individual or group life, his central preoccupation is with the impact of social institutions upon the individual, the family, and the community. His evaluation is based both on a scientific theory, the dynamics of human personality (how human beings grow and develop), and on a value judgment which stresses the importance of the individual. For the scientific basis, the social worker has hitherto drawn on the findings of other professions and scholarly disciplines. His own contributions to the body of knowledge about how human beings function has so far been relatively slight. T h e philosophical basis of social work, with its emphasis upon the value of the individual, still lacks rigorous analysis at the hands of the profession before it can serve as a useful criterion for social evaluation in a democratic society where a fine balance has continually to be struck between the rights of individuals and the interests of the larger group. More progress has been made in asserting rights than in defining their nature or in laying the foundation of a philosophical system which relates rights and responsibilities. T o say that social work is not as yet in a position to offer major

AN EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

115

help in advancing scientific knowledge of the theory of personality or in formulating a realistic philosophical system is not to say that such contributions are not to be expected in the future. O n the contrary, much of what is said throughout this report implies a hope and an expectation that more of the leading minds in the profession will turn their attention to such matters. But it is obviously impossible at this stage to forecast the scientific and philosophical role which social work will play in the future. Welfare areas that employ social workers.—In the past, social work has differed from other professions, such as law or medicine, in that the demand for its services has come primarily from organized public or private groups rather than from individual income receivers. Although employment by institutions and agencies is not uncommon in other professions, and at least in the case of the medical profession is probably increasing with the growing importance of the hospital and public health agencies, the fact remains that the primary source of demand has been the individual income receiver. T h e demand for their services has been affected by the extent to which the private spender has believed that his own personal well-being, or that of his family, is enhanced by what he has to pay to receive professional help. T h e private purchase of social work services, however, either through the use of social workers in individual practice or through a fee-charging agency, is a relatively recent and, as yet, statistically unimportant development. T h e major demand for the services the social work profession is competent to perform has been a group demand exercised by public or private agencies. It is therefore not surprising that this demand should have been most strongly expressed in instances where departures or deviations from what is regarded as a normally creative and satisfying life have become most sharply evident, and have assumed the character of a "social problem" which society as a whole could no longer disregard. Hence it is that in the past the great impetus to the employment of social workers has been felt in certain specific areas where this realization has impelled men and women to organize, sometimes in their own defense, to meet a major social challenge. Three problem areas in particular have in the past provided a great impetus to the employment of persons with social work skills.

116

AN

EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

T h e first of these has been in the operation of social agencies designed specifically to meet the problem of individual and family economic insecurity. This area of practice was given an added impetus by the social security programs that came into being through the Federal Emergency Relief Administration in 1933 and the passage of the Social Security Act in 1935. A second problem area which has created a demand for social work services is that of the social misfit whose activities endanger the lives or functioning of other members of the community. Social action to deal with delinquency and crime, with the insane and alcoholic, has led to the creation of special institutions and the development of programs whose operation has involved a considerable demand for the services which social work is equipped to render. It is significant that for the first forty years of its life the National Conference of Social Work was called the National Conference of Charities and Correction. A third stimulus to the demand for social work personnel stemmed from the public recognition of the vulnerable or disadvantaged position of certain specific groups. Children as a group fall into this category because of the failure of a primary institution, namely, the family, to carry out certain social functions traditionally assigned to it. T h e specific needs of the neglected or deserted child, of the orphan or the unmarried or widowed mother, of the child whose family is unable or unwilling to provide for it the prevailing socially acceptable minimum of physical, emotional, and economic well-being, have stimulated a vast array of special services for children and a greatly expanded demand for social workers to administer them. Society has also recognized the dependent aged, veterans and immigrants as groups needing special services, and thereby a new institutional demand for social workers has been created. More recently there has been a growing awareness of the fact that the need for help in solving problems of personal maladjustment is by no means confined to those who are in economic need, or are in such an acute stage of disturbance that they constitute a menace to society. In consequence, there has been a growing field of employment in agencies engaged in family counseling. In the same way, the services of social group workers have come to be valued for their own sake, and as meeting recognized needs of the average

AN EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

117

"normal" man, and are no longer envisaged solely as measures of social protection. Even so, an effective demand has been dependent upon a sufficiently widespread recognition of the value of the contribution of case and group workers to lead to the organization and financial support of agencies prepared to supply these services. FACTORS T H A T S H A P E T H E F U T U R E OF SOCIAL

WORK

Whether or not the role of social work in the future will continue to be the same as in the past and whether society will need a larger or smaller number of such professionally prepared persons will depend chiefly upon social, economic, and scientific developments, and on the capacity of the profession to keep pace in education and practice. Among the more important of the social factors are the following: demographic trends; the growing tendency to utilize the instrument of government to meet the welfare needs of all or of groups of the population; changing social patterns affecting the stability and functioning of the family system and of group and community living; an increasing awareness of the potentialities of science for the improvement of human welfare, and of the social gains to be reaped by "democratizing" the social services; the probable future level of the national income; and the growing influence of the United States in international affairs. T h e probable impact of each of these factors on the future role of social work will be discussed in this major section of the chapter. Demographic Trends Although demographers now speak with a less certain voice than was common ten years ago and although many would share the cautions expressed by one distinguished critic of their work, especially in regard to long-range forecasts,1 one fact appears to be clear as of 1950: the population of the United States increased more than 10 million in the last decade, and future increases promise to be greater than those predicted during the last two decades. Conservative authorities now speak in terms of a total population of between 175 and 193 millions by 1980. 1 Joseph S. Davis, The Population Upsurge in the United States, War-Peace Pamphlet No. 12 (Stanford, Calif.: Food Research Institute, Stanford University, 1949), p. 92 and passim.

ii8

AN EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

T h e sheer increase in numbers in the total population, other things being equal, may bring about a corresponding increase in the demand for social workers in all the areas in which they are currently employed. Even if more effective social and economic planning should reduce the severity and frequency of economic depressions, other causes of personal economic insecurity—advancing age and debility, premature death of the breadwinner, disabling illness, to name a few—will continue to impair the ability of substantial segments of the population to provide for their own needs through productive work. It is to be expected that more effective preventive methods, especially in the areas of physical rehabilitation or mental hygiene, will, in the long run, reduce the proportion of those requiring socially provided incomes or special social treatment. But the results of these constructive activities will probably be experienced slowly and for a time may well be obscured by the increase in new cases due to population growth. For the next twenty-five years, it seems safe to assume, rapidly accelerating social change will profoundly affect the development of programs designed to meet individual and family economic or emotional need or else social breakdown in these areas will form an important part of the nation's social welfare load. This probability is enhanced by two features of the nation's population in the foreseeable future. T o a greater extent than before, population will consist of the very old and the very young. T h e flood of births in the 1940's, which has precipitated a revision of population estimates, appears to be no mere short-lived postwar phenomenon but a real change in social habits—the average size of the family is increasing. At the same time, there will be a growth in the absolute numbers of those 65 years of age and over, due in large measure to the prolongation of life expectancy. It now seems probable that earlier estimates of a total 65-and-over population of 18 to 20 millions by 1980 will be revised upward by each later estimate. T h e population increase, as reflected in the absolute numbers of the very young and the very old, has a direct bearing upon the future demand for social workers. Both are groups with an especially pronounced need for the types of service that social workers are equipped to perform. Ewan Clague, United States Commissioner

AN

EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

n9

of Labor Statistics, in an address before the 1950 National Conference of Social Work, stated that the generation born in 1946-50 may become an overcrowded generation, "a group in the population who, as they go through life, will strain the capacity of social and economic facilities provided for smaller population cohorts. This may create or intensify frictions and give rise to personal maladjustments which call for the aid of social work agencies." 2 It is everywhere becoming recognized that the increasing numbers and proportions of the aged also present a challenge to social planning. T h e future probably will see an intensification of efforts both to facilitate and encourage the continuance of the aged in employment. T o provide for the special needs of groups who are characterized by enforced leisure or who suffer the physical, social, and psychological disabilities of advancing age is likely to entail a heavier demand for social workers. T h e task of providing adequate amenities and satisfactions for those who must make these adjustments in employment and for those not in employment will call to an even greater degree for the application of social work skills. T h e devising and servicing of appropriate recreational resources, the planning of housing facilities suited to the special needs of the aged, direct assistance to individuals and groups in adjusting to the realities of age and in integrating themselves with the community—all these are areas which offer a rich potential field of activity for those possessing the basic social work skills advocated in the two succeeding chapters. The Expanding Functions of Government T h e last fifty years have witnessed a growing tendency on the part of the American people to utilize the instrument of government to modify the distribution of the national income or to stimulate the production of certain types of goods and services whose supply might not be adequate if left to the free play of the market. T h e significance of this type of governmental activity in social and economic affairs, whether or not one likes it, will probably increase rather than decrease in the future. Many, but not all, of these de2 Ewan Clague, " T h e Economic Situation and Its Effects on Social Welfare Services," The Social Welfare Forum, 1950 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1950), P- 37-

120

AN EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

velopments will lead to an increased demand for the services of social workers. Hitherto, as was stated above, one of the statistically most important stimuli to the demand for social workers has been the growth of public action to assure income security. T h e expanding expenditure from tax sources for social security and other social welfare programs and the number of individuals served are given in some detail in the preceding chapter and will not be listed here. These developments, however, may not increase correspondingly the demand for social work services unless professional education in the future lays more stress than in the past upon training in administration and policy evaluation. It seems likely that social security changes will be in the direction of broadening the scope of the social insurances or, if not, of developing some type of pension system. T h e routine administration of social insurance or pension programs obviously has a minimum use for specific social work skills of the type that have been predominantly emphasized by professional education during the last twenty-five years. Eligibility determinations rest primarily on the ascertaining of recorded facts, and the amount of the benefit is determined by the application of a uniform formula to all eligible persons. There is apparently less need for the highly developed art of establishing a relationship with the claimant and, by intent, little opportunity for individualized treatment on a case-by-case basis. T h e r e are, however, many social and psychological components in this field that have not been analyzed and, therefore, offer a challenge to the social work profession for study as a potential field. Admittedly, not all the eligibility requirements in social insurance can be expressed in specific legal terms capable of objective determination. Administration of disability or unemployment insurance is far from automatic in regard to disqualifications, particularly those raising questions of the degree of disability or the refusal of suitable work and availability for work. Even so, the knowledge and skills required to determine whether, in the individual case, refused work was or was not suitable or that the disability is within established policy are not those characteristically possessed by the social worker. Involving as they do a knowledge of industrial practices, wage levels, typical employment conditions,

AN

and and the one

EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

121

medical social factors, they call for the knowledges and skills teamwork of the labor economist, the labor relations expert, lawyer, the social worker, and the doctor, rather than of any professional person.

In other areas too the scope left for administrative discretion or individual treatment in the process of determining eligibility in social insurance may call for skills other than those peculiar to the social worker. Survivors insurance programs often raise difficult problems in determining relationships to the deceased, rights to inherit, and similar matters which call for interpretation. Social work knowledge and skills, as now well developed in the helping process, have been recognized and a reciprocal arrangement between O l d A g e Survivors Insurance and public welfare departments involving the child welfare cases has been established. W h i l e the skills used at present are largely those of the lawyer, those of the social worker are also important in helping the individual accept constructively certain legal or administrative decisions that may require substantial emotional or social adjustments. W i t h i n a social insurance program there is considerable scope for the utilization of social work skills. T h e determination of eligibility in a health insurance program is obviously a function calling for skills of both the social work and the medical professions. Social workers are likely to find employment in such a program as part of the team, and the demand for their services may well expand as society comes to grips with the high cost of disability and turns to exploration of the possibilities of rehabilitation and prevention. A similar development may be expected in regard to the administration of unemployment insurance if there should come to be greater emphasis upon placement, vocational counseling and rehabilitation, and more scientific concern with the problem of the malingerer. These possibilities should not obscure the probability that the administration of the income security programs of the f u t u r e will involve only a small numerical demand for social workers w h o will need a quality and scope of skills and knowledge not commonly possessed by caseworkers. Other tax-supported social welfare programs, however, offer brighter prospects for the employment of large numbers of persons with the professional and technical skills now commonly associated

122

AN EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

with social workers. General community planning, social group work, health and medical programs, and the public child welfare services can be expected to expand in the future through the extension to all parts of the country of programs now typically found in certain areas only. T h e demand for social workers in the already accepted areas of activity, as documented in Chapter II, is far in excess of the supply. It is not only that existing agencies are unable to obtain all the qualified staff they need; perhaps even more important is the fact that according to the 1950 testimony of Katharine F. Lenroot before the Senate Committee on Finance, 3 many parts of the country still fall short of reaching existing and accepted social goals by failing to adopt some of the more common social welfare programs and to develop agencies to implement them. It is probable too that in the areas of foster care and provision of day nurseries, government will in the future play a larger role. T h e growing emphasis in child welfare programs upon the care of children in their own homes, as demonstrated in aid to dependent children, also opens new areas of activity. T o the extent that public resources, being greater than those of the private agencies, permit an expansion of these programs, a corresponding increase in the demand for social workers is to be expected. Although there is as yet no unanimity regarding the desirability of public support for individual and family counseling services or for group therapy, it seems probable that the years ahead will see this area of activity added to those now undertaken by the government. Bills to this effect (the Forand bill and others) have already been introduced into the Congress, and there seems reason to believe that a number of public welfare agencies throughout the country already offer their clients counseling and casework services beyond those which establish eligibility or are regarded as being necessary to assist persons to become self-supporting. Group work consultants have been added in a few state public welfare programs, and medical social workers are to be found in many state and local public agencies. If the trend toward providing a well-rounded program of public welfare services is extended to all sections of » United States Congress, Social Security Revision, Hearings on H.R. 6000, January, 1950 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1950), Part I, pp. 144-55.

AN EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

123

the country, a vast new area of employment will be available for professional social workers. Whether or not the entry of government into other areas, such as general community welfare planning, health insurance, and expanded public housing will involve an increased demand for social workers will depend upon the nature of the program itself and in particular upon whether or not the social work profession broadens the scope of its own skills. T h e mere expansion of public activity will not per se affect the demand for the services of the profession. A health insurance program, for example, will affect the demand for social workers only if the scope of the service embraces rehabilitation and preventive work and if a broad rather than a narrow view of health and of the nature and consequences of sickness pervades the program. Up to this point, the effect of the growth of public welfare and related programs upon the future role of social work has been discussed chiefly in terms of the social worker as an agency employee primarily concerned with carrying out the day-to-day administration of the program in direct services to individuals. There is, however, a broader sense in which the growing recourse to government, as an instrument for advancing the welfare of American families, opens an important area of activity for the social work profession. These measures are oriented specifically to meeting the observed needs of major segments of the population. Their development poses important problems toward whose solution social workers as a group might be expected to contribute, in view of their concern with the well-being of individuals and their claim to special knowledge of the influences affecting the development of a wellrounded personality. Social workers can reasonably be expected to be in the vanguard of those who discover the existence of new areas of unmet need and who suggest specific measures for remedying observed deficiencies. Equally, they can be expected continually to reassess the necessity for, or the appropriateness of, existing public welfare policies and programs in the light of changed economic and social conditions, and new developments in scientific knowledge. As noted in discussion of the social insurances, their special knowledge should enable them, more than any other group, to measure the extent to

I24

AN

EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

which the specific features of individual programs or policies tend to promote or hinder the healthy growth arid development of individuals. T h e y should be in a position to give informed advice to communities in establishing orders of priorities for social action when there is a conflict between total welfare needs and total resources available. T h e y should be able to assist the community to determine whether in any given instance the objective sought is more likely to be attained through public or through private social welfare. T h e y might well be expected to possess special information regarding the efficiencies of administration of welfare programs supported by tax money. In other words, the expanding function of government in the field of welfare offers the social work profession a great opportunity for the exercise of statesmanship and leadership. Whether or not the profession can accept this challenging role will depend on its willingness to broaden the scope and modify the functions of social work education. Changing Social Habits and Patterns T h e demand for the services of a profession concerned essentially with problems of adjustment is especially heavy in dealing with immigrants who necessarily experience many culture conflicts. Most important is the fact that the typical newcomer today other than the displaced person is a Mexican or Puerto Rican whose culture differs from the American more than that of West European immigrants. O n the other hand, America still has to grapple with unsolved culture conflicts within its existing population, and notably in regard to the American Indian and Negro. Great progress has been made in recent years in Negro-white relationships, but it is small in relation to the road yet to be traveled. T h e immediate future may indeed even see an intensification of the problem in many parts of the country as the movement of Negroes from the South and the rural areas increases their numbers in the North and West and in the cities. T h e report of the National Conference on Family Life indicates, for example, that between 1940 and 1947 there was an increase of almost 50 percent in the number of nonwhite households outside the South. 4 * The American Family, a Report of Inter-agency Committee on Background Materials, National Conference on Family Life (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1949).

AN EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

125

T h e need for help in solving personal problems is likely also to remain great for both atypical and typical segments of the population—for in America the gap between expectations and realization is likely to widen. In a country which emphasizes opportunity for the individual, especially where it is expected that each individual will achieve economic advancement—if not for himself at least for his children—failure to succeed is much harder upon the individual than it is in countries socially more sharply stratified, where economic and social expectations are not so great. Many believe that in the United States the very absence of rigid social rules and conventions governing individual behavior and the prevalence of the less authoritarian family may have thrown upon the individual a burden of responsibility for decision-making that is beyond the capacity of many. There are, however, indications of a more balanced view of the respective roles of freedom and authority in child rearing and education, but the very fluidity and rapidity of social change in this country may create new tensions and maladjustments. Many forces, for example, are conspiring to weaken the effectiveness of the small autonomous group and of the family, both as social instruments for forming behavior patterns likely to be used by the oncoming generation and as sources of emotional security for their members. In part, this has even been a consequence of the growth of scientific knowledge about personality development, which has caused parents themselves to doubt their own effectiveness and skill in providing the proper emotional environment for their offspring. T o an increasing degree in recent years, the family is ceding responsibility for child rearing to professional experts or is looking for assistance to outside bodies, such as day nurseries and child guidance clinics. T h e full effects upon the structure and security of the family of this increasing, though possibly scientifically justified, lack of self-confidence on the part of parents in their own capacity to perform their traditional functions have not as yet been fully explored. But for good or bad, it seems likely in the immediate future to increase the demand for the services of the social work profession. Other and more measurable social changes presented in the findings of the 1948 Conference on Family Life also may intensify the need for trained social welfare personnel in general, and social

126

AN EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

workers in particular, to take over functions which some of the nation's families no longer perform. T h e rising divorce rate may or may not result in more satisfactory adjustments for adults, but it certainly has created serious problems for children. T h e steady movement of women from the home to the labor market has also presented society with an as yet inadequately met challenge to provide in some alternative way for the care and affection which would normally be given to children by the mother in the home. Although in February, 1946, only 8.5 percent of all women, none of whose children were six years of age, were in the labor force, the proportion with children from six to seventeen years of age was 22.5 percent. T h e children affected numbered more than two million. Whether or not this trend will continue is of course problematic. T h e evidence seems to suggest that employment of mothers of young children is largely attributable to the desire to increase or maintain the family income. It may well be, therefore, that rising national incomes will see some decline in the employment of mothers, accompanied by a lesser necessity for special social services for their children. But against this must be set the probability that the standard of living which it is sought to reach or maintain may also rise. Nor, since economic pressure is not the only stimulus to working on the part of women, is it certain that the other influences which have propelled them into the labor force will not continue to operate in the future, perhaps with intensified force. Other social changes have removed old sources of satisfaction or have modified the way in which satisfactions must be secured. T h e growing urbanization of the country is one of the most important of these forces. It has profoundly changed relationships in the neighborhood and recreation patterns and opportunities, especially seriously in the case of children. Even where the absence of physical opportunities for healthy recreation has not contributed to a rise in juvenile delinquency, the facilities of many of our cities leave much to be desired. Furthermore, the relatively high rents in cities have led to a decline in the average size of dwellings and an increase in the number of persons per room per occupied dwelling which, if it has not always created an acute problem of overcrowding, has sharply limited the extent to which the home can serve as

AN EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

127

the focus of recreational activity. This has happened at a time when, thanks to a progressive reduction in hours of work, the absolute amount of leisure has been steadily increasing. Both within and without the family, therefore, urbanization has created needs for opportunities for association and recreational activity which must be met in new ways. T h i s is a fertile field for the social worker, especially in group work and community planning, if the profession will modify its educational program so as to prepare workers to perform the functions the community needs. T h e need is for social workers who are prepared to take constructive and preventive action and who are not concerned so exclusively with the atypical and the abnormal. Within the scope of this chapter, it is possible to indicate only a few of the more obvious social developments that may affect the future demand for the services of social work. Before passing on to the consideration of the next major factor, however, it is perhaps desirable to comment upon two other social developments whose effect upon the future role of social work appears to be uncertain. These are the growing power of organized labor and the disturbed international situation. It might have been expected that the rise in the power and influence of organized labor, undoubtedly one of the most significant social developments of our time, would have directly affected the demand for social workers, both because of the increasing frequency and severity of industrial disputes and because of the growth of union welfare funds. In fact, however, this has not as yet happened. Although it might have been anticipated that, as experts specializing in human relationships, social workers would have bulked large in the growing numbers of labor relations experts, arbitrators, conciliators, or personnel managers, this field has been almost wholly left to others. A second aspect of the growth of labor organization, namely, the tendency of powerful unions to secure special pension and welfare funds for their own members, has some promise of increasing the demand for social work personnel. T h e type of program for which labor strives is essentially of a social insurance character and as such is unlikely to need large numbers of persons with social work skills in its administration, but it would certainly require well-qualified social workers as part of the professional

is8

AN EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

team in policy and program development. Whether or not the unions will find, as a result of their experience with the operation of health plans, that it is desirable to pay more attention to preventive and rehabilitation work is as yet uncertain. They are increasingly providing counseling services for members, as is illustrated by the welfare work of the United Auto Workers and the Maritime Union. T h e latter is sketched in Bertha Reynalds' new book Social Work and Social Living. T h e effect of the uncertain and increasingly threatening international situation on the future role of social work is difficult to determine, apart from the financial effect, which will be dealt with later. It might have been supposed that fear of the imminence of another war would have operated to intensify existing stresses and strains and directly increase the numbers of those needing professional help. Yet at least one aspect of social life today points to an opposite conclusion. T h e birth rate statistics do not seem to suggest that the population at large is greatly disturbed about their chances of future survival. Moreover, studies of the effect on total populations of extreme physical danger and national stress suggest that mental stability is, if anything, greater rather than less at such times, as shown in R. Titmuss's brilliant study 5 of the social conditions of the British during the Second World War, and especially his comparison of the dire predictions of the psychiatrists with the actual facts of wartime behavior. The Scientific Approach to Welfare Problems Probably no single factor has contributed, or is likely to contribute, more to a growing demand for the services of social workers than the widespread character of the belief in the potentialities of science as applied to human problems. Over the last twenty years this growing confidence in the scientific approach has been especially evident in those aspects of life concerned with the growth and development of the individual and with human relationships. It has shown itself in a variety of ways. T h e simpler lessons of psychiatry and social psychology have permeated the mass of the population. Difficulties in handling marital or parent-child relationships 5 R . Titmuss, Problems

195°)-

of Social Policy (London: His Majesty's Stationery Office,

AN

EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

129

or frustrations in personal or professional life are less and less regarded as an inevitable part of the lot of mankind, and more and more individuals are today seeking professional help in resolving them. Government, business, and organized labor recognize this need as common to many of their members and undertake some responsibility for seeing that it is met, often by the direct sponsorship of professional service. A similar influence has been exerted more recently by a widespread awareness of the implications of psychosomatic medicine, though here the impact has increased the demand for professionally well-qualified social workers through an extended use of such personnel by medical institutions rather than through an increased demand from the population at large. Keener awareness of the complicated structure of human personality and of the interrelationships of its various elements, especially in regard to the effect of personal maladjustment on the individual's capacity to perform effectively in a variety of situations, has stimulated a demand for the services of social workers in new quarters. During the war the armed forces were increasingly compelled to recognize the importance of dealing with the emotionally insecure and unstable, and this experience has carried over into the postwar period. Today the Army has been added to the agencies which offer a professional career to psychiatric social workers, and the Veterans Administration has extended its medical-social and other such services since World War II. T h e new knowledge and point of view are also at work in the sphere of business enterprise. Thanks to the research of Elton Mayo and others there has been a growing acceptance by industry of the fact that effective performance and "good industrial relations" are not secured solely by concessions in the economic sphere, but are influenced also by emotional factors. Business too is beginning to recognize the value and to utilize the services of social workers. Curiously enough, however, the field of personnel relations and counseling service within industry has not as yet seemed to appeal to the social work profession nor has any serious effort been made to capture it, a matter which will be dealt with more fully in a later discussion of the choices before the profession. As the country has developed more adequate and comprehensive

JJO

AN

EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

measures for assuring the minimum needs of life to those who lack private income for a variety of reasons beyond their immediate control, the extent of such need has been brought forcibly to the attention of the nation in the form of rising money costs of the social security programs. T h e question of whether some of this dependency could not be prevented is already becoming insistent. T h e response is taking a variety of forms. It has led to public concern with measures to assure full employment, and pressure on governments to adopt fiscal and other policies directed toward this end. But it has also created a new interest in the possibilities of preventing people from falling into the category of those who need maintenance from public funds and of restoring dependent persons to selfsupport. In other countries it has led to the adoption of children's allowances as a device for preventing mere numbers of children from depressing the family standard of living below a subsistence level. T h e nation is also becoming uneasily aware of the widespread character of disabling illness and its effects on national productivity and on the welfare of the individuals concerned. Any extension of social security measures for meeting economic risks of disability will serve to high-light the actual money costs of ill health and disability, now largely concealed. Renewed efforts to rehabilitate the disabled are to be expected, particularly if society moves in the direction of achieving a socially positive health goal in line with the definition enunciated by the World Health Organization: "Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." At present, organized action has been stimulated primarily by the economic argument that it is cheaper to rehabilitate a worker than to continue to support him from public or private funds. T h e most important legislation dealing with physical rehabilitation, the Amendment of 1943 to the Federal Vocational Rehabilitation Act, is frankly based on this philosophy, for it makes available federal grants-in-aid to preserve, restore, or develop the ability of disabled persons to permit them to engage in gainful employment. As yet, this legislation has scarcely made a dent on the problem. As against an estimated 2 million persons who need these services in order to become self-supporting, only 335,000 were rehabilitated in

AN EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

iji

the seven years following the liberalization of the Act in 1943, and it has been estimated that the 60,000 persons a year being currently rehabilitated is less than one fourth of the number becoming disabled each year. 8 It seems safe to prophesy that the years ahead will witness a great expansion of the program. T h i s probability is strengthened by the fact that those who oppose the enactment of special income security programs for the disabled have recently become strong advocates of a more vigorous public rehabilitation program as a preferable alternative. It is to be expected too that disabled persons who are not necessarily employable will be brought within the scope of physical rehabilitation programs as the full potentialities of the progress of medical science and the remarkable development of mechanical and prosthetic appliances come to be fully realized. Physical rehabilitation calls for the skills of a variety of professional personnel, including social workers with knowledge and skills in working with individuals, groups, and communities. T h i s idea was elaborated in the deliberations of the National Health Assembly, a work conference called by the Federal Security Agency in 1948. Again and again the impressive reports of the technical committees which formed part of the Assembly emphasize the fact that preventive, and especially rehabilitative, health work calls for community planning, public interpretation, and intensive counseling work with the individuals concerned. T h e recommendations of almost every committee stress the need for more trained social workers to help in carrying out their constructive proposals. T h i s conference also high-lighted the growing awareness of the potentialities of prevention in the field of mental health, as a result of both the development of scientific knowledge and the mounting cost to the community of medical and custodial care. Of its four personnel recommendations, one requested universities and colleges to accept the responsibility of training teachers, counselors, social workers, and other nonmedical personnel. More recently, activity in this area has been intensified. New private organizations, of which the merged Peoples Committee for Mental Hygiene (1945) and the National Mental Health Foundation (1946) are perhaps the most 'Annual Report of the Federal Security Agency, Office of Vocational tion, 1950 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1951).

Rehabilita-

132

AN EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

important, have come into being to improve existing treatment and custodial provisions, and to promote more effective preventive activity. Here again, however, it should be noted that these developments affect the future role of social work in two ways. All of them will involve a demand for greater numbers of social workers possessing the technical skills on which major emphasis is laid today in professional education. In other words, many more caseworkers, group workers, and community organization workers will be needed to man these expanding programs. But the more scientific approach to human and social problems has wider implications for personnel. T h e search for causes and remedies of prevailing ills will be successful only through continuous research and evaluation, which society supports and in which members of all relevant scientific professions participate. T h e medical man, the sociologist, the economist, the biologist, the psychiatrist, the cultural anthropologist, to mention only a few of the more important specialists concerned with scientific research into human problems, already work together in teams, and their cooperation has demonstrated the fruitfulness of this interdisciplinary approach. T h e r e is every reason why social workers should participate more fully in this joint effort to extend the frontiers of knowledge. The Need for Citizen Participation in Welfare Programs It seems safe to forecast that the years ahead will witness a growing awareness of the need for more active citizen participation in the activities of governmental and private agencies. Not only will these activities affect more people, they will also impinge upon more aspects of the life of any given citizen. On the one hand, services and facilities originally developed for the destitute or underprivileged are being extended to, or demanded by, higher income groups. On the other hand, the traditional welfare fields are being expanded through assignment of responsibilities to government in new areas of social security, health, housing, education, and research. Many observers, even among those who welcome this tendency and reject the more pessimistic inferences drawn by those who fear the welfare state, recognize that this development brings with it new challenges to a democratic people. T h e typical unit of opera-

AN EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

i^

tion in government is too large and impersonal for it to be in the public interest to repose more and more responsibilities in the hands of the federal government and the states. Hence, the insistent questions arise: How can the administration be made flexible, adaptable to the differing needs and viewpoints of a highly diversified country, and responsive over a period of time to changing circumstances and social attitudes? And how can the average citizen be given a real sense of participation in undertakings of so vast a magnitude and encouraged to develop a sense of responsibility toward the use made of these services? This challenge exists not only in the public welfare field. In private welfare, too, the growth of community chests and councils and the trend toward federation, coupled with the pressure for more economical operation, has tended to increase the size of the unit of operation and policy formation. Simultaneously, the professionalization of social welfare has proceeded apace, with the consequent weakening of the opportunity for the private citizen to participate actively and personally in the rendering of service. T h e volunteer or the lay worker is more and more being restricted to the specialized function of supplying the necessary funds. T o the extent that this has happened, his position has become increasingly indistinguishable from that of the public as taxpayer. T h e growth of a bureaucracy is not the less dangerous to truly democratic administration merely because the bureaucrats may be professional persons. It seems safe to predict that public and private welfare, in the years ahead, will have to devote thought and ingenuity to ways and means of strengthening citizen participation and of increasing his sense of responsibility for holding the agencies accountable for service rendered. T h e devices which have hitherto been utilized for this purpose have included the use of lay boards (appointed or elected) in both public and private agencies, and advisory councils or committees. These bodies, which operate as an integral part of the administration to which they are attached, have been supplemented by independent, often spontaneous, groups of citizens concerned about specific social welfare programs. As yet, it cannot be said that this country has used these resources to the full. Much could be learned in this respect from Great Britain where the great expansion of pub-

ij4

AN

EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

lie programs has been paralleled by a mushrooming of active and interested citizen participation. These groups have not only served in an advisory capacity but also have been entrusted with certain administrative responsibilities, especially in cases where knowledge of local mores and living standards or of industrial practices and employment patterns were vital elements in policy decisions or in the application of existing policies to individual cases. T h e enlistment of citizen participation at every appropriate stage cannot be achieved painlessly. It makes considerable demands upon the forward-looking professional administrator who, in resisting the temptation to use his advisory board as a rubber stamp, is forced to keep in much closer touch with the viewpoint and values of the public, to develop a capacity to interpret technicalities into commonly understood language, and to gauge his pace to the speed at which the board or committee can move forward in discharging its responsibility. Boards and committees of citizens must, of course, come to understand and accept the fact that their function differs from that of administrators in discharging a common responsibility. All experience shows, too, that lay groups, whether consumers of the service, taxpayers, or philanthropic individuals, or groups of citizens concerned about the needs and resources of their communities, require professional and technical help if they are to function effectively. This help may run all the way from the more or less mechanical work involved in the calling of meetings, keeping minutes, and carrying out the instructions of the group, to the rendering of highly professional service in gathering and interpreting data, analyzing and drafting legislation, preparing technical briefs, advising on professional issues, and conducting large-scale public information campaigns. Social work has long developed community organization as one of its areas of competence. It seems safe to forecast that in this area alone there will be a vastly increased demand for social workers to provide professional service to groups of citizens who are concerned with the functioning of our social welfare institutions. But once again, the role of the social worker in connection with efforts to ensure a truly democratic operation of public and private programs need not be limited to the supplying of trained persons

AN

EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

to work with advisory councils, citizens, or consumers' groups. T h e profession as such has a great opportunity to furnish and interpret factual data, to test and evaluate their experiences, and to contribute toward the formulation of sound social policy. Lively and effective citizen participation in the operation and formulation of social measures depends in the last resort upon a knowledge of the relevant facts and a clarification of the issues. As the complexity of organization increases, and as public programs in particular become more technically intricate, there is a growing need for experienced personnel capable of analyzing and evaluating the totality of social agencies and programs, and of directing attention to the important policy issues involved. T o perform this service, however, the profession will have to broaden its own horizon, and, in particular, make appropriate provision in its educational programs for training personnel skilled in social research and in applying it to the formation of policy. The

International

Role

of Social

Work

All over the world, concern about social welfare and the study and development of welfare measures received a renewed impetus during and since World War II. Promises of a better world were made which culminated in the ringing assertions of the Atlantic Charter and, later, in the Declaration of Human Rights in the United Nations. Even before hostilities ended, many governments began to implement these promises to their own peoples by the passage of additional social legislation, notably in the area of social security. The unparalleled human and material devastation of the war itself and the tragic uprooting of peoples necessitated international action to speed the social and economic recovery of the nations which were most seriously affected. At the same time, a growing spirit of independence on the part of colonial dependencies and an increasingly mature recognition by the colonial powers of the implications of the right to self-government have brought about a changed attitude toward the mutual responsibilities of nations. The inevitability of low standards of living, of health, or of productivity is rejected alike by those who suffer from them and by those who do not. And what is more important, the more fortunate nations of the world, for altruistic or selfish reasons, appear to have

IJ6

AN

EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

accepted an obligation to help narrow the gap that separates them from the "have not" countries of the world. T h e creation of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration was the first concrete expression of this point of view. In J u n e , 1948, the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations established the Social Commission to advise it on welfare matters and to give immediate attention to social problems in countries seriously affected by the war. In addition, a variety of specialized agencies, such as the World Health Organization, the International Refugee Organization, and others, have come into being to develop and operate social welfare programs and give technical assistance on an international basis. More recently, President Harry S. Truman's Point Four Program for Technical Assistance to Underdeveloped Countries has given new impetus to international activity directed toward the raising of standards of living and promoting human welfare. World War II, which precipitated the United States into a de facto position of world leadership, inevitably had something of the same effect in the field of welfare. It was inevitable that the United States, as the only major country to escape physical impairment and as the wealthiest country in the world, should be looked to, in this field as in others, for help and leadership. In fact, she has furnished the lion's share of the funds for international welfare activity, and a substantial proportion of the trained personnel employed by some of the major international agencies, notably U N R R A . She has been the host to foreign welfare personnel who have been brought here by the United Nations and other agencies to study methods of welfare organization, techniques of service, and social welfare policies. She has sent consultants abroad to advise foreign governments in developing welfare programs or training schools. T h e social work profession has issued policy statements to guide the Administration on relief and rehabilitation measures, and has urged the government to take action in certain major problem areas. In the face of an admittedly great international demand for help and leadership from America, what is likely to be the role of the social work profession in the years ahead? A sober consideration of the facts suggests that here, too, this role will be less significant than would seem to be desirable and possible unless important

AN EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

itf

changes of emphasis are made in professional education. In the first place, the prevailing emphasis on imparting skills in casework, group work, and community organization in social work education in the last twenty-five years has reflected both America's wealth and a certain one-sided view of human need. Foreign observers comment upon the American preoccupation with individualized service and with psychiatric concepts, and our loss of touch with the broader social welfare concept of earlier times. T h e y note also a general lack of interest in, and specialized training for, the so-called "mass" measures concerned with assuring minimum standards of living to large numbers. T h e y question the economy of some of our methods and policies. 7 T h e y point out that before they can undertake what they regard as the "luxuries" of American professional social work, they must be able to help with the more elemental needs of their people for food, clothing, housing, and health. 8 Here, the United States has less to teach them than Great Britain, Australia, and the Scandinavian countries which have developed large-scale public programs in these areas. Nor do foreign visitors find any significant number of professional personnel trained in social work, who have specialized in the study of such measures. T h e implications for the revision of social work education programs in the United States and Canada are obvious. T h e activities of the United Nations, Point Four, and other programs for raising standards in underdeveloped countries involve an approach to which American social workers are as yet poorly equipped to contribute. Alva Myrdal, Director of Social Affairs, United Nations, has called on those engaged in social work "to protect the peoples in what we now call the underdeveloped countries against such rapid industrialization or lopsided economic development that they would only be turned into an a-cultured, proletarian fringe, losing most of their meaningful social values, disrupting their family structure, and destroying their inherent dignity." 9 T Eliiabeth Handasyde, City or Community (London: National Council of Social Service, 1949), passim. 8 For interesting comments see Elma H. Ashton, "As United Nations Fellows See Us," Social Work Journal, X X X (October, 1949), 155 ft-; and Anna W . Schneider and Mary S. Labaree, "Planning Observation Programs for Foreign Welfare Personnel," Social Security Bulletin, XII (May, 1949), 3-13. » A l v a Myrdal, " H u m a n Welfare and World Peace," Public Welfare, VIII (February, 1950), 27.

ij8

AN EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

More important, the guiding principles on technical assistance developed by the Economic and Social Council require social workers and other experts to be selected not only for their technical competence, but also for "their sympathetic understanding of the cultural backgrounds and specific needs of the countries to be assisted and for their capacity to adapt methods of work to local conditions, social and material." 10 How many professional social workers in the United States could meet these specifications? There is little in the curriculum of the typical school of social work in America that is calculated to produce personnel who can play a leadership role in the international effort to grapple with welfare problems conceived of in these terms and at this level. Ignorance of foreign languages is itself a barrier to some degree. It may well be that a sustained effort by the profession to grapple with the problems of training personnel for foreign service, and of training foreigners in American schools, would reduce the provincialism and the overemphasis of casework techniques which characterize so much of contemporary American social work and its system of education. National Income Conditions Future of Social Work At any given time the volume of goods and services which the members of a community can enjoy is limited by available resources. With a close approximation to full employment, labor and equipment devoted to one type of satisfaction are not available for others. Social work, like all other services, involves the utilization of scarce resources. Quite apart from the fact that every social worker employed means one person less for the production of other satisfactions, social workers receive a costly education which, in turn, means earmarking a certain proportion of available resources to this end. Hence, at any given time, the amount of social work that society is willing to pay for will depend upon the extent to which it values this type of service as compared with other goods and services that could be had for the same expenditure of money or equivalent resources. T h e absolute level of the national income is therefore a matter 10 Savilla M. Simons, "Point Four, a Global Attack on Poverty," Social Work nal, X X X I (January, 1950), 12.

Jour-

AN

EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

ijp

of considerable importance for the future role of social work. Individuals and societies appear to have hierarchies of needs. Unless the general level of incomes is such as to permit for all members an adequate m i n i m u m of food, shelter, and clothing, we would not expect a great demand for the services of specialists. A country that is in the midst of a war and forced to devote over half of its national income to military purposes is all too likely to economize on its social services. Such being the situation, the prospects for an expanded demand for the services that social work is equipped to perform will be greater, other things being equal, in a community that can look forward to a growing national income. In a situation in which social work service is competitive with all other satisfactions to be derived from a given income, whether individual or national, it is easier to compete for a share of an increased income than to persuade the possessor of an unchanged or falling income to give up some share of a standard of living he is already accustomed to in order to enjoy more of the services that social workers can provide. In this respect the outlook is favorable for an increased demand, as distinguished from an increased need, for social work services. All evidence suggests that, barring the most incredible national stupidity, the upward trend of national income, so pronounced a feature of our national life in the last 150 years, will continue into the future. One distinguished economist, Sumner H . Slichter, envisages "that by 1980 the output of goods and services of the American Economy, which was 246.7 billion dollars in 1948, will be at least 4 1 6 billion (in terms of present prices) and that it is more likely to be considerably larger—probably in excess of 550 billion dollars per year." 1 1 Other economists, while not committing themselves to specific figures or to quite so high a degree of optimism, anticipate at least a continuance of the 2 percent per year rate of increase of productivity that, with the exception of the war years, has characterized our economy for the past several decades. T h e over-all economic situation for the country appears to be such as to make possible utilization of more of the services that social work provides without unduly cutting into other sources of satisfaction whose production competes with social work. 11 Sumner H. Slichter, "How Big in 1980?" Atlantic Monthly, November, 1949, P- 39-

i4o

AN

EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

A t the same time, certain cautions must be observed. T h e pattern of national spending has been significantly changed in recent years by the allocation of a high priority to expenditures for national defense and related objects (international affairs, veterans services, and interest on the national debt), relatively little of which involves any direct expansion of demand for social work services. These expenditures account for 2.6 billion dollars, or less than 3.7 percent of the national income in 1939. Five years after the war, according to the Bureau of the Budget, they were running at 29.9 billion dollars, or 12.8 percent, and were expected to claim a greater proportion of the federal budget in 1952 and for the duration of the "cold war." While this priority demand on the consumer's income inevitably cuts into the freely disposable income of the average citizen, and makes him more resistant to expenditures which he, rightly or wrongly, may regard as marginal, the extent of this adverse influence should not be exaggerated. For, despite heavy increases in taxation, the total of freely disposable income, largely of course as a result of the upward trend in total national output, has in fact increased from 74.5 billion dollars in 1925 to 137.4 billion dollars in 1944. A second qualification to the view that the probable trend of national income is favorable to an expanded role for social work has less validity. It may be objected that the rising trend of incomes will substantially restrict the area of activity of social work because it will reduce the need for that type of social work which is concerned with the administration of programs dealing with economic need. T h i s seems doubtful. Quite apart from the fact that the gains from rising total output are not equally distributed and in particular do not proportionately benefit the lower income groups, 12 history seems to suggest that the margin of eligibility tends to rise with a rise in general standards of living. Also, the current failure of public assistance programs either to provide for all needy persons or to assure an acceptable standard of living and of service for those accepted as eligible suggests that a rising national income will probably facilitate more adequate performance of current commitments and thus cause little, if any, diminution in demand for social 12 See Eveline M. Burns, The American Social Security System (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1949), pp. 15-27.

AN

EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

141

workers. T h i s probability is strengthened when it is recalled that demographic trends suggest major increases in the relative numbers of two population groups, the very old and the very young, both of which in periods of normally high employment constitute major segments of those dependent on socially provided income.

SOME

CHOICES

BEFORE

THE

PROFESSION

T h i s brief survey of some of the probable social and economic trends suggests that conditions are favorable to a greatly expanded role for social work. There is the possibility, in other words, of a great increase in the demand for the kinds of service that social workers might reasonably be expected to perform. Nevertheless, whether or not these potentialities are realized will in considerable measure depend upon decisions made by the profession itself as to what social work is, who is entitled to be called a social worker, and what programs of education will be offered. In the first place, it will have been evident from the foregoing discussion of trends that the profession faces major decisions regarding the scope of its activities and the character of its competence. All indications point to an increasing demand for persons possessing the professional and technical skills, notably in casework, group work, and community organization, now commonly characterizing the programs of graduate schools of social work. But at every point it has been evident that a far wider sphere of influence and service is open if the profession decides to broaden its educational program to prepare persons who can provide leadership in such areas as social administration, public policy research, and evaluation. 13 Return

Social

Work

to a Broader

Scope

T h e nation's efforts to expand opportunities for satisfying and creative living have, in the aspects of life germane to social work, taken two major forms: the development of institutions specifically « A powerful plea for the broader concept of social work, among others, was m a d e by Herta Kraus in " T h e Future of Social W o r k , " the Compass, X X I X , No. 1 (January, 1948), 3 - 9 , and similar pleas have been made by Donald S. Howard, " N e w Horizons for Social Work," the Compass, X X V I I I , No. 7 (November, 1947), 9 - 1 3 , and by Eveline M. Burns in "Reconversion and Its Implications for the Schools of Social Work," Social Service Review, X I X (June, 1945), 194-200.

142

AN

EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

oriented to meeting recognized needs common to identifiable groups, and the rendering of services to individuals. T h e social work profession in the last quarter century has predominantly concerned itself with the second of these approaches and has, to an increasing degree, concentrated on the improvement of the quality of individualized service, in so far as this could be achieved by a refinement of the skills of the practitioner w h o deals directly with the individual or group. Proportionately less attention has been paid to the first approach to enriching and expanding social welfare programs. T h e profession has accepted too little of a unified responsibility for appraising and improving social welfare institutions. A continuation of the concern with improving the direct rendering of service to individuals and groups, to the neglect of a study of the causes of individual and social maladjustment and the possibilities of broader programs of prevention, will seriously limit the expanding role of social work. T h e future of the profession is also geared to a modernization of the institutional structures within which service is rendered, and to the creation of an organization that can speak with certainty for social work in matters of education, legislation, and other items of public policy. Already the field of social insurance, one of the major institutions directly concerned with enhancing the well-being of the nation's families, has been all but lost to social work. A l t h o u g h most of the routine administration of this program does not call for the use of highly trained social workers, problems of policy in this area raise questions of direct relevance to the central concerns of social work. Social workers surely cannot be indifferent to the good or bad functioning of an institution which touches the lives of so many millions of people. Yet it is a sobering thought that those who have been most influential in shaping policy and in evaluating the effects upon people of this important social instrument have been almost wholly persons whose background and training are in law or economics. In the areas of public assistance and child welfare, important fields of employment for social workers, there are major problems of policy which call for intensive study and clarification by teams of experts that should include social workers. A m o n g them are such problems as the meaning of the large number and upward trend

AN EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

143

of assistance recipients in a period of high national income; the astonishing differences between recipient rates in different states, even between states in similar economic circumstances; the determination of the appropriate level of the minimum family or individual budget; the potentialities and limits to the role of the institution of public assistance as an instrument for dealing with economic need; and the appropriate relationships between social insurance and public assistance. Most graduate schools of social work do very little to increase the capacity of students to cope with these truly basic social welfare issues. In a still broader area, there are unsolved problems affecting all social welfare programs which, because they ultimately affect the quality and quantity of social work service, might be expected to challenge a profession specifically concerned with human wellbeing. T h e development of harmonious and efficient administrative relationships between different levels of government involved in administering the same welfare programs, the creation of effective functional units of administration for the complex of welfare programs, and the costs and the efficiency of different administrative organizations and procedures are but a few of the many challenging and vital problems of policy facing the leaders of social services in the years ahead. So far, more prestige has been attached to therapeutically oriented social work services but, as Karl de Schweinitz suggested in People and Process in Social Security and reiterated at the Conference on the Future Role of Social Work arranged for this study, satisfactions in the administration of a social service can be developed and given professional status as the goals of the program are defined. It is also for the social work profession to decide whether it will extend its areas of competence to embrace a concern with the causes of maladjustment or economic dependency, particularly to those causes which are capable of eradication by large-scale, organized community action. Hitherto, the preventive work for which the profession has shown concern has occurred primarily in the use of casework to help the individual and in the therapeutic aspects of group work. A strengthening of the capacity of individuals to grow and to handle their own problems and the assisting of an individual to make the most effective use of existing environmental

i44

AN

EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

resources are undoubtedly constructive and preventive activities in the best sense of these words. Nevertheless, they offer a limited approach to the threats to the welfare and happiness of human beings and, moreover, they constitute a very expensive approach to the solution of such problems. As is true in all social questions, the analysis and solution of these problems call for the utilization of several biological and social sciences, by a team of professional workers. T h e function of each member of the team differs, but they have in common the fact that their success depends on the extensive and expensive research of persons engaged in the nonprofessional aspects of the sciences. Hitherto, social workers have contributed only slightly to such limited attempts as have been made to study and resolve these major problems. It is for the profession to decide whether or not to seize the opportunity of being the group that leads research and study in this vast range of problems which bear so directly both on the announced objectives of the profession and on the day-to-day tasks of its professional workers. T h e increasing attention devoted to "social action" in professional literature, the restiveness of some members of the profession, and the vigorous if not always happy identification of others with action groups are signs that a broader view of professional competence would meet with a very considerable measure of support. "Social action" is admittedly a term which is far too loosely used. It is variously understood to cover both a specific area of social work competence and, at the other extreme, participation in any and every movement or cause that is alleged to advance the welfare of groups or the entire population. In particular, there appears to be much confusion as to the nature of the professional component in social action and a tendency to identify it with support for legislation. 14 Schools of social work do not appear to be very effective in teaching the professional aspects of social action. Nevertheless, the in« See John Hill, "Social Action," in the Social Work Yearbook, 1951 (New York: American Association of Social Workers, Inc., 1950), pp. 455-60; also Eveline M. Burns, "Social Action and the Professional Social Worker," the Compass, XXVIII, No. 4 (May, 1947), 37-40; Benjamin Youngdahl, "Social Workers: Stand Up and Be Counted," the Compass, XXVIII, No. 3 (March, 1947), 21-24; a n < l Bertha Reynolds, Advance or Retreat for Private Family Service, a pamphlet of the United Office and Professional Workers of America (New York, 1948).

AN

EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

145

creasing professional character of the term implies a more extensive use than would be suggested by a perusal of the typical curriculum of the two-year school. Admittedly, a return to the older and broader concept of social work will present many challenging problems to the profession. As Helen Wright has so trenchantly pointed out in urging a broader approach, there are real difficulties of delimitation lest social work dissipate its energies and lose its distinctiveness as a profession. 15 Y e t to admit difficulty is not to concede impossibility, as Dean W r i g h t and her distinguished predecessors at the University of Chicago have demonstrated over the years. Challenging as are these implications, it is difficult not to believe that social work will accept them. It seems d o u b t f u l whether social workers will long rest content with a limitation of their professional task to what has sometimes been described as "picking up the pieces," or with a role which in essence is that of personnel auxiliary to other professions which have adopted a broader concept of their areas of competence and interest. Many years ago Mary R i c h m o n d said, "I have spent twenty-five years of my life in an attempt to get social casework accepted as a valid process in social work. N o w I shall spend the rest of my life trying to demonstrate to social caseworkers that there is more to social work than social casework." 14 In 1951, many social workers still face the choice implied in her words. Developing Direct Services to Individuals and Groups A second series of major choices faces the profession even within the area of service to individuals and groups on which it has so heavily concentrated in the recent past. Many of the influences and trends discussed above point to an increasing potential demand for casework services. Yet, whether the profession capitalizes this potential demand depends in considerable measure on the extent to which it accepts more responsibility for defining with greater precision the services it is equipped to render. Few would deny, social workers least of all, that the public at is Helen R. Wright, "Social Work Education—Some Questions," Social Service Review, X X I I I , No. 1 (March, 1950), 74-83. In suggesting a possible list of criteria. Dean Wright adds: " T h e point is that we as a group have not defined the characteristics; I am not even sure that every school has defined them for itself." 18 Cited in Bruno, Trends in Social Work, pp. 186-87.

146

AN EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

large has little conception of what casework is or has to offer. More disturbing is the difficulty that caseworkers themselves have in explaining precisely what it is they do, what results they can reasonably expect to achieve, or what criteria they apply in testing professional competence and in distinguishing between the functions of specializations. When the profession itself speaks with no certain voice, the potential consumer of its services can be forgiven for not understanding the difference between the areas of competence of the professional psychiatrist, the lay psychiatrist, the psychotherapist, the psychiatric social worker, and the professional caseworker. Indeed, the man in the street probably finds it difficult to assess the relative areas of competence of the professional caseworker as against the social service of the priest at the one extreme and Mr. Anthony or the personal advice columnist in the daily press at the other. A similar lack of general understanding is found in the area of social group work. T o the noninitiated social work is too commonly identified with a capacity to lead recreational groups in various pursuits, and as such only dubiously requires professional preparation. 17 T h e concept of social group work as an educational process aiming at the development and social adjustment of individuals through voluntary group association is imperfectly understood even within the profession. Here there seems to be a need for greater clarification of the distinction between group work as a therapeutic device closely related in objectives and criteria to casework, group work as a method of assisting people to work together and as such closely allied to community organization and administration, and group work as a process having some separate and wider objectives and techniques of its own. Nor does the relationship between group work and group dynamics appear to have been sharply defined, although efforts in that direction are now being made. T w o significant clarifying papers were presented on the subject at the 1950 National Conference of Social Work: " G r o u p Dynamics and the Practice of Social Group Work" by Grace Coyle, 18 and "Current Developments in Group Dynamics" by Leon Festinger. 1 " " Cf. Sallie E. Bright, "A Proposal to a Buffeted Profession," Social Work Journal, X X I X (July. .948), 93. 18 Social Work in the Current Scene, 1950 (New York: University Press, 1950), pp. «66-76. 1» Ibid., pp. 253-65.

AN

EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

14J

Other Choices before the Profession T h e r e are other major challenges to the profession that are closely related to the first two, a few of which will be sketched briefly. T h e special place of the volunteer and the lay person calls for careful study. It seems probable that in its emphasis upon the use of trained personnel, the profession has in recent years neglected the rich contributions to welfare service that have been and might continue to be made by the appropriate use of lay personnel. W h a t is again required is an identification of those day-to-day functions which could be performed by lay persons, with or without professional help and guidance, and a more imaginative approach to the potential contributions of lay persons in a largely professionalized service. Grace Browning says of the latter: "Social workers have been infinitely more successful in finding small and interesting tasks which volunteers can do in the social agencies than they have in finding a way to get concerted action of all persons with social consciences, with time, skill and energy to help with the larger problems of social progress." 10 M u c h of the tested and transmissible body of social work knowledge on the dynamics of personality and on methods and techniques of applying this knowledge to the conduct of human relationships, such as, for example, the art of interviewing, should be capable of application by other than social workers. It should, to list a few of the more obvious groups, enter into the normal professional equipment of educators at all levels, personnel counselors in industry, of lawyers, doctors, nurses, and employment service interviewers. T h e challenge to the profession is to devise ways and means of working through these other professional groups, and of reaching the public in general. T h i s has occurred particularly in medical and psychiatric social work and in public welfare. T h e movement is definitely away from casework alone to a broader social work focus and includes conscious efforts to h e l p other professional groups through educational, consultant, and teamwork relationships in national and state-wide program development, as well as in rendering direct services to individuals. Jo Grace Browning, "Social Work and the Public," Social Service Review, XXII, No. 2 (June, 1949), *i6.

148

AN

EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

As other professions have matured, they have been characterized by a sloughing off of certain skills which could be performed by less highly and expensively trained personnel and by a dissemination throughout the population at large of some of the more elementary scientific knowledge which at one time was possessed only by the professionally trained person. T h e development of semiprofessional personnel for the field of social work (see Chapter IV) has the social advantage of permitting society to enjoy certain services more cheaply. Fewer resources have to be devoted to the training of personnel for these specific functions, thereby freeing them for other purposes and enabling the expert to concentrate on those services for which a high degree of professional knowledge and skill is essential. But, as is made explicit in the next chapter, these desirable developments cannot take place without undue risks to society as a whole unless the profession accepts continuing responsibility for determining the nature of the training to be given. The Overemphasis on Setting T h e future role of social work also will be influenced by the extent to which the profession is prepared to adopt a more flexible attitude toward the setting in which its members practice. Social work as we know it today developed out of a private welfare setting, and this historical fact still exerts its influence. It is seen not only in the widely prevalent assumption that the fact of practice within an agency is an essential characteristic of the profession as such, but also in the less widely held, but still very general, belief on the part of professional graduates that employment in private agencies offers more professional satisfactions than does public employment, satisfactions which are not merely monetary but which include, particularly, the opportunity for development of skills and professional advancement. Both attitudes will call for reconsideration if social work in the future is to play the great role that would seem to be possible. T h e r e is indeed reason to believe that in recent years social work education has devoted excessive importance to the fact of "setting." Questions are being raised as to whether some of the "social work specializations" are in reality anything other than generic casework functioning in a specific setting (medical, psychiatric, or educa-

AN

EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

149

tional) and whether, to the extent this is so, the schools are not taking over a responsibility that properly belongs to the agency. More important is the fact that social work educators themselves are increasingly asking whether their purpose is not " t o equip each student with a way by which he can readily and soundly transfer and orient himself to any setting he may encounter." 21 T h e r e seems every reason to expect that as social work defines more precisely the nature of professional competence, and as the full implications of generic training are realized, there will be less preoccupation with "setting," and more and more practitioners will find useful paid employment outside the traditional welfare agencies. Certainly the need for their services is there. U n t i l very recently an attitude toward setting has served to restrict the role of social work in an area where it might have been expected to make an unusually vital contribution. T h e field of delinquency and crime, particularly in regard to probation and parole work and work with the courts, has not attracted social workers as practitioners or researchers to any significant degree. In part, the explanation appears to have been in a belief which some held that social work could not be practiced in an authoritarian setting. T h e r e are signs that this position is undergoing a change, and that social work will again come to play a large role in one of its traditional areas of activity. A review of assumptions about setting is also called for in regard to some of the newer opportunities for the exercise of social work skills. Both organized labor and private industry have, as already indicated, evidenced an increasing awareness of the value of casework services. T h e r e is some tendency within the profession to view this increasing interest with suspicion. Doubts are expressed as to the bona fides of business, accompanied by fears lest the sole impetus to this demand be a desire to increase production, while others have feared the growth of union-sponsored welfare services as the introduction of a new kind of sectarianism into a field already painfully beset by the problems of ideologically oriented agency sponsorships. T h e s e fears, however, must be measured against the central concern of the profession with the welfare of h u m a n beings. T h e fact that 21 Helen Harris Perlman, "Generic Aspects of Specific Case-Work Settings," Social Service Review, X X I I I , No. 3 (September, 1949), 295.

i5o

AN EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

a man whose personal adjustment problems no longer disturb him may in consequence be a better producer is surely no reason for withholding a counseling or helping service from him which he might use if it were available at his place of employment but refrain from using if available only through some public or private welfare agency. Moreover, operation within industry, and indeed as part of a union structure, will facilitate early detection of symptoms and early treatment, as demonstrated in social work programs in the United Auto Workers and the United Seamen's Service. Admittedly, the social worker in industry will from time to time need all his professional integrity to withstand pressure from his employer to stress production goals rather than the well-being of his client. However, the frequency of these occasions must not be exaggerated, for in large measure the two objectives, in so far as they effect the rendering of social work services, are parallel. And in any case, possession of this kind of integrity does not seem too great a demand to make of a professional person. It is certainly a requirement that social workers themselves make of doctors who are employed by industry or insurance companies. Social workers, like other professional groups, must look forward to a time when their status and professional security, like their present convictions, are so strong that they can stand prepared to render service wherever they will be expected to do so.

REQUIREMENTS

O F AN EXPANDED

ROLE

A survey of probable developments in the social and economic life and of the state of scientific knowledge in the United States during the next twenty-five years suggests a steadily increasing demand for the services of social workers. Demographic trends, involving both an increase in total population and a relative increase in the young and the old groups whose need for social work service is especially great, foreshadow an increased demand. T h e expanding functions of government in the field of welfare, together with certain clearly marked trends in social habits and ways of living which prevent the family from assuming all the responsibilities traditionally assigned to it, or which create a need for meeting old wants in new ways, all tend to increase the demand for social services.

AN EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

i5I

In addition, the increasing belief in the potentialities of science as applied to human problems and the necessity to democratize the machinery through which the nation is currently seeking to meet some of its more evident social needs are likely to result in an expanded field of employment for persons possessing the basic skills of a social worker, as well as for those who are specialists. Moreover, this report believes that a rise in the national income will probably provide the economic base to sustain this more comprehensive social work program. Analysis of all that is involved in this expansion of welfare services, whether under public or private auspices, revealed that the profession has an opportunity to render service that greatly transcends the function of carrying out certain skilled processes. T h e great range of organizational and administrative problems connected with the rendering of service; the major questions of policy and the appropriateness of existing social institutions and methods of meeting social needs; the vast field of prevention; the analysis of the nature and causes of social needs; the adaptation of American social knowledge and skill to the needs and circumstances of other countries—all of these present a challenging opportunity to social workers if they have the vision, the courage, and the preparation to grasp and grapple with them. If social work is to mature as a profession, in the view of this report it can scarcely fail to make the attempt. But to play the role which is indicated, the profession must make certain adjustments in its philosophy, its objectives, and its areas of competence. Above all, it needs to grasp the implications of the wider concept of its field of competence and its responsibilities. One word sums them up: leadership. An educational system oriented toward the production of leaders will place much greater emphasis on research and on the production of persons who can take a broad, statesmanlike view of their professional responsibilities, wherever they work and whatever their specialization. More attention needs to be paid to defining professional functions with greater precision, and to opportunities for passing along to less skilled persons functions that no longer justify the use of costly and highly trained personnel. More effort should be paid to disseminating social work knowl-

AN EXPANDED

ROLE

FOR

SOCIAL

WORK

edge among other professions and the public at large. Social workers should be prepared to render service wherever a professional contribution can be fruitfully made. They must increasingly work as equals on teams with other professional and scientific workers. These changes of emphasis will not be easily accomplished, but they must be made if social work is to initiate and develop rich and fruitful opportunities for service.

PART

TWO

Charting a Course for Social Work éducation

C H A P T E R

IV

Zhe Undergraduate College in Soeial Work Education

7

the criteria listed in Chapter II for appraising the extent to which a profession has achieved professional responsibility, he must conclude from the status data presented in the three chapters of Part I that social work is only in part a profession. At least another decade may elapse before all its major segments attain this status, and before a comprehensive educational program comes into being to prepare for it. A longer period of time is likely to elapse before a majority of the practitioners in the field acquire professional status. These conclusions should not be astounding to those acquainted with the unprecedented expansion of social welfare programs in the United States since 1935. It should, however, arouse college and university officials and the public as consumer to full awareness of the urgent educational needs of a new profession which, in addition to its historic voluntary role, now discharges one of the major functions of government. It also should cause the social work profession generally, and social work educators in particular, to redouble their efforts to increase the extent, quality, and distribution of general and professional education available to prospective social workers. T h e delineation and demarcation of the functions of the college, the professional school, the university, and the professional organization in social work education are the fundamental objectives of Part II of this report. Chapter IV is focused on the role of the undergraduate college, Chapter V on the functions of the school of social work, Chapter VI on the role of university administration, V F ONE A C C E P T S

J56

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

C h a p t e r V I I o n the educational responsibilities of professional organizations, and C h a p t e r V I I I o n the place of accreditation in social work education. T h e s e agencies, obviously, d o not operate in isolation one f r o m another to the degree which the necessities of logical discussion r e q u i r e for an analysis of their roles. T h e position of this report is that neither the college, the professional school, n o r the social work organization alone can o r should provide all the education and training a social worker needs, and that an attempt to d o so w o u l d distort and weaken the primary function of each agency. A t the same time, this report recognizes that the educational f u n c t i o n s proposed for each organization influence those of the others. It is important, therefore, in accepting or rejecting the role proposed for the undergraduate college, to d o so only after reference to the other chapters of Part II to see whether together they add u p to a comprehensive program for the preparation of social workers.

PERSPECTIVE AND

VIEWPOINTS

C h a p t e r I V discusses and recommends three separate b u t articulated f u n c t i o n s for the undergraduate college in what is commonly spoken of as social w o r k education: first, its responsibility for prov i d i n g a b r o a d integrated program of general education for prospective social workers, and for i d e n t i f y i n g and teaching the basic concepts of social w e l f a r e that b e l o n g in the c o m m o n cultural heritage of all college students; second, its responsibility for providing, u n d e r d i r e c t i o n f r o m the profession, semiprofessional preparation for social work technicians w h e n and if j o b analyses of the field of practice and the availability of qualified personnel make it feasible to f o r m u l a t e such programs of education and training; third, its responsibility for organizing and teaching a concentration, e q u i v a l e n t to a broad major, in the arts and sciences basic to graduate professional study in social work or to the m o r e immediate b e g i n n i n g of a professional career in the field. T h e elaboration of these proposals is preceded by a statement on the viewpoints which shaped the analyses, and is followed by proposals for cooperative study a n d action. T h e chapter concludes with some illustrative glimpses of the educational outcomes this report advocates as

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

desirable and feasible for all college students or for those who are looking toward careers in social work. Controversial issues.—Any discussion of the functions of the undergraduate college brings into focus some of the most controversial issues in American higher education. There is little of authority or consensus as to what constitutes a sound program of liberal education; there is even less agreement as to what constitutes general education or a desirable combination of liberal and vocational study for students who are looking toward careers in the professions. Analyses, appraisals, and judgments on these matters necessarily grow out of and reflect the insight, philosophy, predilection, and bias of the people closely associated with the study—especially those of the director. Moreover, these educational ideas have been embodied in a social framework calculated to foster the most cherished ideals of American democracy, but it is recognized that equally well-meaning persons of different social views may declare that these concepts promote ideas for the ultimate control of education that are tinged with statism, socialism, or some other doctrine they consider inimical to our way of life. Under these circumstances, as is stated in the Preface, the reader may feel justified in evaluating the positions taken and the proposals made in this and other chapters of the report by his own social, educational, and professional value judgments rather than by those implicit or explicit in the text. In the absence of established authority, he may wish to serve as his own mentor and to rely on "authorities" who support the viewpoints and convictions to which he subscribes. Accordingly, no special effort is made to "prove" the positions taken either by citing "authorities" or by introducing their statements as supporting evidence. Such a course probably would have unduly extended the chapter without clarifying underlying assumptions sufficiently to satisfy those who currently lack readiness to accept the material as it is presented. Nevertheless, the orienting statements which follow may serve a useful purpose. Education, a continuous process.—Despite the fact that general education, the professional education offered in the undergraduate concentration commonly spoken of as majors and minors, and graduate professional education each has its essential core of separate

158

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

purpose, this report holds that they have enough in common to make education in reality an indivisible entity. Accordingly, it finds unacceptable the view that professional education for a career in social work is something that begins in a separately organized graduate school which ordinarily maintains a two-year program of study. Instead, it maintains that the undergraduate study of the arts and sciences basic to a career in social work is as much a part of a comprehensive professional program in that field as are the two years of specialized undergraduate study of the basic medical sciences which constitute an organic part of the program of medical education. T h e essential similarity is not altered by the fact that the medical school offers its own foundation in the basic sciences while the social work profession permits the function to be discharged by separately organized undergraduate colleges. That the learner integrates new material in terms of his purpose and background is another principle emphasized at this point because separate discussions of the three phases of social work education, mentioned in the preceding paragraph, may appear to stress the idea that the nature of subject matter rather than readiness of the learner is the primary determiner of how courses should be organized for instructional purposes. T h e unalterable fact is that purposeful learning takes place in terms of the readiness of the learner. Genuine professional growth, for example, ordinarily does not follow placing a student in a field work situation before he has the background for it. This readiness is normally acquired through the organized study and application in field experiences relevant to undergraduate arts and sciences concepts. Another corollary of putting first things first is that if a student must use on-the-job learning in lieu of attending a graduate school of social work, he is in a more favorable long-range position to make progress if he has a sound liberal education which includes a working command of the basic concepts of social welfare that should be taught in an undergraduate concentration or broad major. What the graduate professional school of social work, or learning on the job, can do for a student depends on what the undergraduate college has done in the way of building a firm foundation for advanced social work education. T h e college, in turn, is of course dependent on what the school, the home, the church, and a variety of informal

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

159

educational agencies have done in establishing a still broader foundation for its program. Concepts, the unit for curriculum revision.—Another of the viewpoints which constitute the perspective of this chapter is the idea that effective curriculum revision in the field of social work education, as elsewhere, requires the identification of concepts of a manageable size and the selection of teaching materials and experiences through which students can acquire a common core of meaning for these generalizations. It is contended that curriculum revision is not very fruitful if it is limited to shifting about such imponderables as the conglomerate of concepts in total courses and segments of courses. It is even more futile to revise a curriculum through the addition or subtraction of quantitative items such as the number of credit hours to be offered in economics, political science, psychology, statistics, genetics, and the like. T h e concept idea of curriculum revision is generally approved "in principle," but with the expectation that other people will undertake the arduous and baffling job of identifying major concepts and of arranging them into hierarchies of generalizations for teaching purposes. It is here contended that this unglamorous task and that of selecting teaching materials are the joint responsibilities of the college teaching profession and of the social work and other interested professions. No one group working alone can do them well. Educators and social workers who acknowledge responsibility for the task just indicated have on occasion asked, what is the entity called a "concept"? Neither the general nor the specialized dictionaries give a very specific or satisfying answer. "Concept" is used in this report to indicate generalizations of varying size and complexity which include all that is or should be suggested to an individual by an object, symbol, or situation. It maintains that few useful purposes in curriculum revision will be served by going beyond the imponderables of course titles and outlines, if the identification of social welfare concepts stops with such high-level abstractions as the dignity and worth of the individual, the right to share in making important decisions, the requirements for professional teamwork, and what constitutes professional responsibility or professional ethics. Curriculum revision calls for the capacity and willingness to identify a vast array of subconcepts that fall under

i6o

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

and overlap the categories of large value judgments. And, what is equally important, the task requires the insight and diligence involved in locating and preparing substantive teaching materials which give meaning to the selected subconcepts and to the Gestalt or pattern they form. Administrative considerations.—The final items of perspective and viewpoint which shape what is advocated in this chapter relate to structural arrangements within the college and the professions for administering general and specialized education. It is the position of this report that the undergraduate college, individually and collectively, has the authority to be the final judge of what it will teach and of how the instructional program shall be organized. This authority does not, however, make the college immune from the influence of the professions or from the other social institutions of the American culture. Accordingly, this chapter will advocate an interprofessions commission and a series of related intraprofession organizations through which social work and the other professions can keep their vital stake in liberal education before the responsible faculties of the undergraduate college. T h e professions increasingly recognize the importance of general or liberal education that will help a practitioner to live a personally satisfying life as citizen and consumer. At the same time they are reviewing what is commonly spoken of as preprofessional requirements that are generally offered in the junior and senior years of undergraduate study. In addition, many professions—social work is an example—rely on the undergraduate college to teach the arts and sciences which constitute an inextricable part of their professional education structure. In all these matters it is advocated that the professions seek their ends through the influence of their ideas and not through an assertion of authority or prestige. This report maintains that the social work profession (and the same principles would hold for other professions) ought to let college faculties know what it considers a sound liberal or general education, but that it should leave to them the determination of how the concepts it recommends are to be organized for teaching purposes. If and when the profession undertakes a program of semiprofessional education, it would have greater responsibility for

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

161

identifying the concepts to be taught, but if the program is to be offered in an independent undergraduate college, that institution should participate as an equal in devising mutually satisfactory administrative arrangements. Finally, the social work profession has primary responsibility for identifying the concepts that ought to constitute both the undergraduate and the graduate programs of social work education, but in the former it should not specify the courses, departments, or years in which these concepts are to be taught, or whether they are to be offered as a departmental, divisional, or still broader undergraduate concentration. T h e college must be free to determine its own organizational and teaching procedures, and the professional school should accept its decisions. If a mutually satisfactory arrangement cannot be devised, a professional school should, of course, be free to withdraw cooperation and refuse to admit students who fail to meet its standards for admission.

SOCIAL

WELFARE

CONCEPTS

FOR

ALL

COLLEGE

STUDENTS

In the two decades preceding 1951, there was an increasing tendency in the United States for the final two years of high school and the first two years of college to be used for the general or cultural education one needs for a satisfying personal life, for membership in a family, and for citizenship in a local, national, and world community. While there is little agreement on the specific ends or means of this type of education, there is a substantial consensus that life needs should serve as the touchstone for selecting the concepts to be taught, and for the stage of development of the individual to determine the organization of these concepts for teaching purposes. It is by these characteristics, primarily, that general education is distinguished from specialized education for occupational purposes. In the view of this report, the field of social welfare and security has embedded in it many life-needs concepts not now being used in the liberal or general education which is provided for all college students. Social work and other professions should identify these concepts and call them to the attention of educators who have the primary responsibility for general or cultural education. T h e neglect of this basic educational responsibility by the social work pro-

I62

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

fession has been an important factor in the production of a generation of city and county officials, legislators, governors, educators, doctors, businessmen, lawyers, labor leaders, and citizens in hundreds of other occupations who do not have enough understanding of the purpose and operation of public and private welfare programs to give them the support commonly accorded health and education activities. T h e inadequacies of general education are also reflected in a generation of social workers who do not have an adequate working knowledge of arts and sciences concepts which are basic to the effective exercise of their responsibilities. It is surprising, for example, that so little is known by college graduates about the fifty years of federal and state legislation which has burgeoned into a substantial and growing system of social welfare and social security. Most college students follow a program ol study that fails to give them basic preparation for a layman's appraisal of the controversial issues in public assistance, health insurance, unemployment compensation, child welfare, old age and survivors insurance, and the other elements of a social security system which now constitutes one of the major functions of government. Somehow they study the populism of William Jennings Bryan, the "square deal" of Theodore Roosevelt, the "new freedom" of Woodrow Wilson, the "new deal" of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the "fair deal" of Harry S. Truman without seeing the slow, historical growth of the ideas which constitute the essence of the Social Security Act of 1935. This Act is a part of our history, not a political invention of the New Deal, and any college program that claims to liberate the minds of its students should present it as one of the landmarks of our national development. Although several aspects of a total program of social security have been important in national policy since 1935—as is witnessed by the fact that 45 million of the 63 million people in the labor force of 1950, and their survivors, are covered in the old age retirement provision of the Social Security Act—surprisingly few legislators and other leading citizens seem to understand the causal relationship between the extent, adequacy, and coverage under old age retirement provisions on the one hand, and the adequacy of payments or size of the load of public assistance for the aged on the other. Many of the concepts that constitute the philosophy of public assist-

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

16}

ance and social insurance run counter to the tenets of Protestantism and the private enterprise system. As a part of liberal or general education, all college students should have an opportunity to examine these concepts in order to decide, for example, whether a federal or state social insurance system is sound, or why one does or does not accept the dictum of the Social Security Act which establishes public assistance as the legal right of eligible individuals. As a citizen, prospective taxpayer, and member of a family, the college student—whatever his intended occupation—may well expect his program of liberal or cultural education to provide experiences for understanding the social welfare system comparable to those commonly provided for coming abreast of the functions of other social and cultural agencies. T h e needs of his daily life require an understanding of the purpose and operation of social welfare as a function of government and of philanthropy that is at least equal to his need for understanding national provisions for promoting education and health, for providing police and fire protection, or for providing for national defense and internal security. On its part, the social work profession should face squarely up to the fact that it cannot have a milieu favorable to the development of social work, comparable to that now enjoyed by the education and health professions, until each community and state has a substantial contingent of citizens who are informed and in sympathy with the purposes of social welfare programs. T h e creation of this favorable environment is also dependent on the replacement of untrained or otherwise incompetent social workers or board members who keep the profession in ill repute in the local community. T h e r e also is need to reinfuse education for social workers, which has become too specialized and technical, with the creative and stabilizing concepts which characterized viewpoints expressed by pioneer leaders in the field. Strengthening general or liberal education for these ends is of course only one means of improving the environment for social work activities, but it is recommended as a strategic and crucially needed movement. The What and How of General Education College teachers and social workers who believe that general education should be strengthened along the lines just advocated

164

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

have made considerable progress in curriculum revision during the last decade. They have, perhaps, made even more progress through selecting teachers of general education who are sensitive to the social ferment out of which social welfare policies have been brewed. These activities have, for example, included the substitution of income maintenance economics for some of the traditional content, and the replacement of instructors whose attitudes are typified by the teacher who introduced the section of his economics course on social insurances and public assistance with, "Now we will discuss how the Federal Government is taking care of the dead beats of the United States." In general, educators who are responsible for revisions of the general education curriculum and those who are designing specific courses appear to have an open mind on the concepts that social work and the other professions may want to suggest for their consideration. Quite naturally, they are unwilling to distort the purpose of general education through the inclusion of material that should be taught in arts and science courses designed for individuals who are looking toward careers in social work or other professions. They are even more strongly opposed to offering, as general education, entire courses of a technical and semiprofessional nature. But aside from these reservations, this study has found a readiness on the part of the leaders of general or liberal education to include basic concepts and related instructional materials faster than the ingenuity and time of social workers have produced them. It is not the responsibility of a broad study of social work education to develop a systematic and comprehensive list of social welfare concepts that should be included in general education for all students. Moreover, the staff does not have the varied talents required for identifying all the basic concepts of the humanities, of the natural and social sciences, and of the several professions which ought to be included in the general education of prospective social workers. T h e staff is especially unfavorably situated to distinguish between concepts that should be taught as general education and those that should be further elaborated or be initiated as foundation education for a profession, such as social work. These exacting tasks are left for the professions and the curriculum-makers. But in order to illustrate the kind of concepts which it recommends that

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

I65

social workers and teachers of general education should identify for use in general and specialized undergraduate education, a later section of the chapter, "Glimpses of Educational Outcomes Desired," describes and gives some examples of concepts from several of the major fields of learning. While leaders in social work and the other professions will, without doubt, have predilections as to how general education should be organized for teaching purposes, it is the position of this report that such matters should be left to officials who are responsible for the organization and administration of each college. If, for example, the college offers all its organized work in general education in a "lower division" during the freshman and sophomore years, there is little that an outside professional group can or should do about it. Neither can it do much about the college that insists on all four years being exclusively general or liberal education without preprofessional or similar accompaniments. At the course level, professional educators may without presumption attempt to justify the use of case, clinical, and other inductive organization and teaching procedures as being superior to the survey course or other deductive arrangements, but in doing so they are likely to learn that what works well for single-purpose professional education may not be suitable for the more extensive subject matter of multipurpose general education. During the course of the study, there was opportunity to meet with two regional and five state-wide groups of social work educators and college teachers who were exploring the "how" of improving general education for prospective social workers and other college students. Invariably, they were bewildered in the face of so massive an undertaking. T h e profession had not done the spadework that makes for the success of such a conference, and it is doubted that uncoordinated local groups are equipped for the task. Perhaps the initial planning and proposing should be done by a nationwide organization. A modest beginning along these lines was made in 1948 by an Inter-professions Conference on Education for Professional Responsibility, which brought together one hundred representatives of five professions for three days of deliberations. T h e concluding section of this chapter sketches an arrangement through which social work and the other professions might work

i66

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

cooperatively with the college. In brief, it proposes that the professions form an interprofessions commission and a series of related intraprofession organizations as their vehicles for developing concepts for the consideration of undergraduate college officials. Social work is used to illustrate the proposed intraprofession organization. These organizations would, of course, also be channels for the flow of ideas from the college to the professions, and for the exchange of viewpoints among the professions on humanistic and social education that is and ought to be increasingly included in professional curricula. Such an arrangement does not intend to imply that the professions should be the only major outside consultant on undergraduate education. It is assumed that the voice of the graduate school will continue to be heard, and that organized labor and business will strengthen their channels of communication with the college as well as with other schools of the university. T H E QUESTION

O F SEMI PROFESSIONAL F O R SOCIAL

PREPARATION

WORK

Most students enter college with the intention of completing four or more years of study, some of which may be characterized as liberal or general education and the remainder as a concentration in a major area of learning which qualifies for entrance to the graduate school, to one of a variety of professional schools, or to an occupation for which a bachelor's degree is customarily expected. Nevertheless, there is a growing tendency in the United States for high school graduates who for one reason or another do not intend to complete four or more years of college work to attend one of several kinds of postsecondary schools to prepare further for a career that requires not only specialized skills and technical knowledge, but also more general education than is commonly acquired in high school. These programs prepare personnel for the skilled trades or for the technical and partly professional positions usually designated as semiprofessional, subprofessional, or quasi-professional. Dentistry, engineering, and medicine are among the professions that have developed well-recognized semiprofessional technician

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

/¿7

occupations for which one can prepare in one, two, or three years of postsecondary school study. Many lay and professional leaders in the field of social work are of the opinion that the establishment of semiprofessional social work positions, comparable to those in the health professions, constitutes one of the urgent personnel needs of the field. Most of those closely associated with this report also believe that both economy and more effective use of professional talent would follow such a development, but it seems important to emphasize the need for evidence to substantiate or refute the supposition. No one knows whether social work has enough in common with the character of the health and engineering professions to justify the assumption that an analysis of practice would enable the profession to reorganize its jobs into clerical, technical or semiprofessional, and professional positions. Moreover, if a job analysis should provide positive evidence for establishing semiprofessional positions in the field of social work, there would remain to be resolved such problems as the stage of development in social work at which the profession might wisely initiate such a program. If it should, for example, pursue the unlikely course of producing semiprofessional workers in quantity without preparing enough professional personnel to fill the recognized professional level positions, the vacuum created thereby would likely have the untoward effect of drawing semiprofessional workers into positions for which they were not genuinely qualified. A recognition of this tendency coupled with careful planning should enable the two types of social work education programs to go forward simultaneously. The Differentiation of Social Work Practice T h e absence of adequate analyses of social work practice was noted in the two preceding chapters in connection with the evolving scope and definition of social work, and will be referred to again in this and the succeeding chapter in connection with proposals for revising professional social work curricula. T h e development of semiprofessional curricula in social work is even more dependent on an analysis and evaluation of practice. T h e social work profession has as yet made no systematic attempt to differentiate among professional, semiprofessional, and clerical responsibilities. Accordingly, this report recommends that the next major study the

i68

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

National Council on Social Work Education, or its successor, should be encouraged to undertake is an analysis and evaluation of a wide range of social work practice. Depending on the definition and scope of social work used, in 1950 there were between 70,000 and 100,000 social work positions in the public and private agencies of the United States which the Federal Census classified as of professional stature, but the profession is sure the criteria used were inadequate. Approximately 30 percent of these positions were filled by individuals presumed to be professionally qualified, and the remainder by persons whose social work preparation was either semiprofessional in character or nonexistent. Some students of social work are of the opinion that all these positions are of professional grade and that the field cannot become a profession until the vast majority of these practitioners acquire at least a year of graduate professional education in social work. T h e y believe that social work, like teaching, is a profession that works with the whole human being and therefore cannot make much use of semiprofessional personnel. Other equally informed students believe a comprehensive job analysis would show from one third to one half of the existing positions to be semiprofessional and clerical in character, and that differentiation of function is the road to true professional stature for the field of social work. No one knows the facts. An analysis of social work practice might identify from one to a dozen types of semiprofessional technician positions for which preparation could be given in colleges more effectively than through on-the-job training by social work agencies. Certainly many employers think so, but this report (see Chapter VII) does not regard such preparation as a substitute for either agency training through supervision or professional education in a school of social work. Not all the functions connected with public assistance administration, for example, call for a high degree of professional social work skill, as is made evident by Donald S. Howard. 1 But neither schools of social work nor state merit systems can serve this field until the types and levels of knowledge and skills required for income maintenance administration, for rehabilita1 Donald S. Howard, "Public Assistance Returns to Page One," Social Work X X I X (July, 1948), 114 and 120.

Journal,

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

169

tive and related services, and for taking preventive measures are identified and grouped into stable job classifications. The need for job analyses is also great in the social insurances, child welfare, and other social welfare fields. The field of social work is just beginning to formulate criteria and develop procedures for differentiating job functions. These analyses should be extended to the duties of executive and research positions as well as those of practitioners for, in the view of this report, they also are a part of the social work profession. T h e profession, nevertheless, is not in agreement as to whether the work of agency executives, for example, is or ought to be classified as professional. By comparison, medicine is much closer to a consensus that hospital administrators need not be physicians and that their work, whether or not performed by a physician, is professional but not a part of the profession of medicine. The teaching profession, on the other hand, long ago decided that administrators belong to the profession. Karl deSchweinitz has done some creative pioneering for the field of social work through analyzing jobs in the Social Security Administration to show which ones (especially in administration and research) are within the scope of professional social work and which ones belong to other professions and vocations. 1 Evolution

of Semiprofessional

Practice

The establishment of semiprofessional positions in social work depends on more than an identification of knowledges, skills, and attitudes that may be learned effectively in an abbreviated college program. Their establishment depends even more largely on the position that recognized professional practitioners take as to what concepts and duties shall be regarded as semiprofessional in character. The public is not in a position to establish criteria for identifying either the nature or the range of semiprofessional duties, and the preconceptions or vested interests of social work educators and practitioners may have hindered the profession in doing so. If the field of social work decides to continue the National Council on Social Work Education, or its equivalent, with the form and func2 Karl deSchweinitz, People and Process in Social Security American Council on Education, 1948).

(Washington, D.C.:

IJO

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

tions suggested in Chapter VII, it could explore and if need be devise a semiprofessional program likely to be acceptable both to social work employers and educators. A practitioner in new and relatively undifferentiated professions, such as social work, tends to do everything for himself. This gives a professional aura to all his duties and tends to convince him and the interested public that no one other than a professional can do even the most routine items of his work. In time, these semiprofessional skills and knowledges become a vested interest. T h e experience of almost any profession could be used to illustrate the point, but that of dentistry has been chosen for this purpose. It was a very long time after job analysis indicated that the skills and knowledges required of an oral hygienist, for example, could be acquired in a two-year post-high school course, before the profession was willing to recognize that anyone other than a dentist could engage in the prophylactic treatment of the teeth, gums, and related soft tissues. Indeed, in many communities dentists have not yet done so. Nevertheless, official recognition by the dental profession of the work of an oral hygienist, under the supervision of a dentist, has brought this service within the financial reach of thousands who could not have paid for it at rates necessarily charged by a dentist. At the same time, this differentiation of function has freed the time of dentists for more truly professional service to patients. T h e public sometimes indicates that it wants a profession to establish more semiprofessional services than the profession is inclined to provide. T h i s certainly is true of the social work profession. T h e experience of the dental profession also illustrates this point. T h e state of Massachusetts recently enacted legislation which permits oral hygienists to fill cavities in children's deciduous (temporary) teeth. T h e Forsyth School for Dental Hygienists in Boston has prepared individuals for this work and the Forsyth Clinic has employed them. T h e dental profession, locally and nationally, is now engaged in an effort to have the legal authorization for this type of work by semiprofessional persons rescinded. Regardless of the merits of this particular case, it should perhaps serve as a danger signal to all professions that feel inclined to be restrictive in definition of what is professional or unduly to protect their interests with-

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

171

out due regard for what objective evaluation would show to be in the public interest. T h e experience of other professions with semiprofessional education is worthy of study by the field of social work. T h e basic experience of the engineering profession is presented in Volume II, Part 2, of the 1931 report of a six-year study of engineering education which was published by the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education. This report provides a comprehensive review, job analysis, and recommendations for the improvement of semiprofessional education for the engineering profession. In the time that has since elapsed, the engineering profession has exerted a powerful and salutary influence on the independent technical institutes through stimulation and a form of accreditation. T h e annual reports of the Council on Medical Education and Hospitals of the American Medical Association from 1935 to date provide material from which insights may be gained as to how that profession assumed responsibility for, and gives direction to, the five fields of semiprofessional education which it recognizes. T h e essentials of an acceptable school for three of these fields were promulgated in 1935-36 and were developed for the other two fields during and since World War II. These occupations are X-ray technician, occupational therapist, physical therapist, medical record librarian, and medical technologist. Schools of occupational therapy generally operate under the auspices of universities and, for the most part, the other four schools are maintained by approved hospitals, most of which are not connected with universities. T h e programs vary in length from twelve months to forty-eight months, with the modal program being two years or less in length. Some of them require high school graduation for admission, and others require either two years of college work or the completion of an approved program in nursing education. A certificate or diploma is ordinarily awarded on the satisfactory completion of a program of study, but in the field of occupational therapy it is common practice for the certificate course to be given in connection with a degree-length program. T h e evolution of semiprofessional positions in the older professions suggest that there may be a causal relation between the

Z72

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

stage that professional development has reached, and the period at which they are willing to delegate some of their duties to semiprofessional technicians. This evolution also is probably related to technological developments in other occupations in our increasingly industrial and urban civilization. It is only within the fifteen years preceding 1950 that the field of medicine, for example, recognized and assumed responsibility for the preparation of semiprofessional technicians. T h e period between 1912 and 1935 had been used largely for developing and stabilizing professional education and practice. Apparently, the medical profession was unable or unwilling to come to grips with semiprofessional practice until it felt sure of itself in the area of professional education and practice. Moreover, the rate of development of semiprofessional specializations (e.g., X-ray technician) was conditioned by the rate of advance of scientific knowledge, of instruments, or of techniques in each area. By competent self-examination, the field of social work should be able to use the two factors mentioned in this paragraph in determining its readiness for semiprofessional education and practice. Schools for Semiprofessional Social Workers If the field of social work should decide that there is a need for semiprofessional social workers, the selection of educational auspices would be among the issues to be resolved. It might follow prevailing medical practice and offer such programs in approved social work agencies—if it is assumed that, in matters of training, an operating agency is to the social work profession what a hospital is to the medical profession. It might follow that portion of dental practice which leaves the preparation of dental mechanics to an apprenticeship form of education which is offered by commercial dental laboratories without essential control or direction by the dental profession. Or it might follow a practice equivalent to that used by the engineering profession, namely, outlining patterns of preparation and largely leaving their implementation to independent technical institutes or to institutes sponsored by the engineering school but not an integral part of it. T h e graduate professional school of social work might, of course, offer semiprofessional training to selected undergraduates in sepa-

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

173

rately organized programs at the university with which it is affiliated. This report does not assume that such a course of action is likely, inasmuch as the profession leaves the teaching of the arts and sciences basic to graduate professional social work to a variety of independent undergraduate colleges. It would be more in keeping with the traditions of the profession to follow a fourth alternative, if it undertakes a program of semiprofessional preparation, namely, to encourage junior colleges, community colleges, and the type of four-year college that customarily maintains semiprofessional programs to offer the instruction. Primary responsibility for outlining the essentials of acceptable semiprofessional programs and for maintaining an approved list of educational institutions to offer them should rest with the social work profession. Otherwise, the line demarcating professional from semiprofessional schools would become blurred if not obliterated.

UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION FOR A PROFESSIONAL

CAREER

IN SOCIAL WORK

Differences in the responsibilities that may safely be entrusted to semiprofessional and to professional social workers may be accounted for as largely by differences in the character and extent of their fundamental education as by differences in their technical knowledge and skills. Education that is inherently graduate or professional in nature easily sinks to a semiprofessional or trade training level if the candidate does not have a working command of the arts and sciences on which it is based and which it applies. Sound professional education, especially in fields like social work, is like an iceberg in that the part visible and commonly recognized as professional constitutes only a small fraction of the whole. Moreover, as with an iceberg, the visible part of professional education for social work differs in degree but not in kind from the submerged base that gives it stability. Heretofore, social work educators have centered their attention on the development of the two or more years of post-bachelor's degree study which is usually labeled "professional." They and other elements of the profession have tended to leave general or liberal education for social workers wholly to undergraduate college

ij4

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

faculties, but they have tried to cement the two segments througli a series of courses labeled "preprofessional." Similar courses of action have been generally followed by most of the professions. This report recommends to the social work profession that it review the assumptions which underlie its present professional education program to determine whether it is justified in recognizing appropriate undergraduate courses as belonging within a broadly defined program of professional study. Nature of Professional Education Educators generally, as well as those in the field of social work, usually have taken too narrow a view of what should be included in a program of professional education. This report advocates admitting without equivocation that if professional education were defined as broadly in the field of social work as it is in the field of medicine, for example, it would begin with the junior year of college and be four years in length for the first professional degree (Master of Social Work). Despite the fact that most candidates for admission to medical school are college graduates, education for the medical profession continues to be based on two or three years of undergraduate study, with the medical school devoting the first two years of its program largely to a mastery of the sciences basic to the study of clinical medicine. It is here contended that the social work profession should use a definition of professional education broad enough to include the arts and sciences subject matter it would recommend as the base for its present two-year graduate professional program, and that this undergraduate phase of its curriculum should continue to be offered, under professional direction, by the liberal arts college. T h e professions have tended to compensate for using a restricted definition of professional subject matter by encouraging colleges to add a category of curriculum experiences that are commonly designated as preprofessional in character. T h e concept does not stand up under close scrutiny. If preprofessional courses in the field of social work, for example, provide basic information, philosophy, and attitude about the profession that should characterize those who enter it, they are by nature a part of professional education and can be better taught by social work educators. If, on the other

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

175

hand, they deal with social welfare concepts so as to produce educational outcomes that ought to be part of the cultural heritage of all liberally educated persons, it is incorrect to label them "preprofessional." Dentistry, law, and medicine are among the professional fields that have recognized this fact and are relaxing and generalizing preprofessional requirements so as to incorporate items of a professional nature into professional courses, thereby leaving the undergraduate college more freedom to pursue its cultural and citizenship objectives. Architecture, business administration, engineering, nursing, and occupational therapy are among the professional education programs for which the first professional degree is at the undergraduate level and where nonprofessional course requirements are more in the nature of prerequisites than of preprofessional requirements. Historically speaking, social work, teaching, and librarianship are among the professional fields that have recently emerged from the category just mentioned. They tend for the most part to concentrate a strictly construed program of professional education into one or two years of study, and in current practice to base it on just about any undergraduate program for which an accredited liberal arts college awards the bachelor's degree. At the same time they— social work especially—have up to now worked assiduously to establish a pattern of preprofessional requirements similar to those currently being relaxed or abandoned by the older professions. In the view of this report, social work education will be in a sounder position when the profession officially recognizes that the area of undergraduate concentration (major and minor) offered prospective social workers is an organic part of professional education and should not be characterized by the nondescript term "preprofessional." Neither should it be regarded as a specialization in liberal education, for most such concentrations are vocational in character and orientation, regardless of whether employment is an immediate goal or whether there intervenes a period of graduate or professional study. A frank recognition of this situation should give social work educators a more direct and authoritative voice in shaping the objectives, content, methods, and organization of undergraduate concentrations for prospective social workers. At the same time it should leave the college more freedom to provide

IJ6

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

this group of students with appropriate general or liberal education during their junior and senior years. The situation that led such professions as social work, librarianship, and teaching to entrust a basic part of their professional preparation to independent liberal arts colleges, instead of following the pattern used by medicine and many other professions of giving their own foundation program, does not lessen their responsibility for giving it essential direction. It is generally recognized that the first two years of medical education, for example, are undergraduate in nature, are largely limited to a study of the basic medical sciences, and are in need of broadening to include more social and humanistic content. The objectives of this phase of medical education are not unlike those recommended for the two undergraduate years of social work education. The difference lies in the medical school having full and immediate responsibility for managing its basic professional education program. The social work profession has both the handicaps and the advantages of working with an independent college in developing the base of its professional program, but its responsibility is not thereby one whit less. The profession has been slow in recognizing the situation and sometimes inept both in acknowledging and in acting on these realities. Professional education for a career in social work must continue to recognize that a social worker deals with some of the most intimate and confidential aspects of the lives of individuals, and with some of the most sensitive areas of public life. The nature of these duties calls for a high level of all the qualities that constitute intellectual, social, and emotional maturity. T o be genuinely a helping person, a social worker must have a working knowledge of the biological and psychological forces which in part shape individual behavior; he also must have more than a layman's understanding of the economic, cultural, and political conditions and forces that shape individual and group behavior; and he must be able to interpret institutional, state, and national social welfare policies in terms of these forces. The fundamental knowledges, attitudes, and philosophies required for assuming such professional responsibilities obviously cannot be left to chance during the period of undergraduate education, and they cannot be acquired during the graduate period of study without seriously interfering with the acquisition of more

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

J77

specialized professional skills and viewpoints. Moreover, advanced professional students need an intellectual and emotional grasp of the fundamentals which govern the behavior of man and the operation of social institutions as a base for undertaking full-fledged professional learning-by-doing under field teaching and clinical conditions. Over-all

and Status

Considerations

Before social work educators can determine what curriculum experiences should be included in either undergraduate or graduate study, they must decide what is to be included in the entire program. Such a determination should begin with a definition of professional education that is broad enough to include those aspects of the arts and sciences that are as basic to social work as the medical sciences are to medicine. It should include a recognition that the modal time span of social work education would thus become four years (two undergraduate and two graduate) instead of two, and that the doctorate level would extend it to six years. Within such a framework the profession should be able to reappraise what is currently being taught at the bachelor's, the master's, and the doctor's level of instruction so as to reduce conflicts, overlapping, and lacunae. A substantial part of the dissension and difference in viewpoint between the American Association of Schools of Social Work and the National Association of Schools of Social Administration on what should be taught and on where and when it should be offered arises from inability on the part of each group to see professional education for social work as a whole instead of seeing it by segments that are of immediate interest. Once the larger and more realistic perspective is attained, it should be evident that field learning experiences, for example, cannot be absorbed as high-level professional behavior before the student has an elementary working knowledge of the content, methods, and techniques of the scholarly disciplines that underlie or apply, along with technical social work skills, in such situations. Otherwise, the student acquires empirical knowledge and technical skills which he uses as rule-of-thumb procedures or at best as semiprofessional or vocational education.

i?8

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

Status of Undergraduate Social Work Education in 1950 If the social work profession is to work with the undergraduate college in modifying its functions in the field of social work education, it may be helpful as a point of departure to summarize the current status of existing programs as revealed by an examination of college catalogues, by responses to a brief questionnaire sent to institutions that indicated a substantial interest in social work education, and by one-day conferences with representative groups of interested college officials in each of eight states: Alabama, California, Colorado, Louisiana, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington. Only 380 of the 1,300 degree-granting institutions in the United States indicated any interest in social work education. Perhaps, without bothering to mention it in their catalogues, another 100 colleges provide as much instruction in the field as the least interested one fourth of the 380 interested colleges. Only 13 colleges called attention to the value of their general education program as a sound base for professional education in social work. T h e vaguest and presumably least interested one fourth of the 380 colleges limited comment on social work education to the preprofessional values of an unrelated list of courses, such as criminology, problems of the family, eugenics, field of social work, housing problems, and race relations. T h e middle half of the 380 colleges showed some signs of making local adaptations of the preprofessional pronouncements of the American Association of Schools of Social Work. T h e most explicit one fourth of the interested institutions listed their social work courses in sequences of their own determining, which often included specialized casework courses. Only 28 colleges related the undergraduate sequence to graduate offerings in social work education, 9 of which had an organized graduate department or school of social work. Most of the colleges listed as members of the National Association of Schools of Social Administration and 8 of the institutions that have schools affiliated with the American Association of Schools of Social Work were among the undergraduate colleges most actively engaged in social work education. Altogether, the 380 colleges enrolled in the junior and senior

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

IJ9

years approximately 3,600 students in social work courses, a puny showing for meeting the immediate personnel needs of a profession that employs at least 70,000 social workers, 20 percent of whom are recruited annually. If one assumes instead that 40 percent of this enrollment graduated each year and entered graduate schools of social work—a highly improbable situation—there would be a pool of only 1,440 candidates for schools that in 1950 enrolled 5,000 full-time and 4,000 part-time students. If the undergraduate program in social work education suggested below is developed and promoted by a united profession, this report ventures the guess that within a decade or so it would be offered by 800 or more of the 1,300 degree-granting colleges of the country, and that together they would enroll 48,000 students in social work education concentrations. If 40 percent of the group graduated each year and one fourth, a conservative proportion, immediately entered graduate schools of social work, these institutions would have to double their present facilities and staff in order to accommodate them and would soon need to increase facilities further in order to provide for qualified students who sought admittance after a period of social work employment. A broad and rich undergraduate concentration of the type envisioned would, moreover, attract to most of its courses future leaders in other health, welfare, and education fields to the extent perhaps of another 40,000 students. Such an outcome would be a happy one for the 800 colleges, inasmuch as it would provide them with dependable educational and vocational outlets for their graduates, at present especially for women. Certainly civil service and merit systems would be delighted with so large a pool of prospective employees, and agencies need college graduates who are oriented toward, and basically educated for, service in the field of social work. Such workers could make effective use of educational leave or work-study plans for continuing professional study. If funds for expansion were freely available, staff could not be recruited or developed within a decade to educate more than the enrollment indicated. Indeed, since a new profession develops from a core of well-defined professional positions toward a periphery of semiprofessional and undifferentiated technical jobs, there is no assurance that the field of social work will establish types of

i8o

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

positions for which educational programs can be organized more rapidly than the suggested acceleration of training would fill. There certainly is little evidence (see Chapter II) to indicate that society is yet ready to pay salaries commensurate with two years of professional training based on a bachelor's degree for a majority of the jobs now classified as social service. Character of Proposed Undergraduate Concentration T h e proposed reorganization of social work education will not be easy and cannot be accomplished at one fell swoop. All the educationally more advanced professions have had and continue to meet resistance from within the profession in putting a scientific and scholarly base under what would otherwise continue as empirical if not esoteric professional practices. There are law schools, for example, that claim they prepare candidates for the bar as adequately in one or two years, or through a series of abbreviated night courses, as the most renowned law schools of the country do in four years of full-time study. Such law schools are not taken seriously in most legal circles, and neither will the social work profession hold in high esteem schools that insist on short-cutting a sound educational program. If a student must enter social work practice after completing the first two years of the four- to six-year program that has been suggested, he needs most a command of the fundamentals which would enable him to assimilate on-the-job learning. T h e scope and purpose of this report preclude making a systematic curriculum proposal for the two undergraduate years of what it considers an educationally indivisible, but administratively separable, program in social work education—just as the same considerations make it impossible for Chapter V to present a comprehensive curriculum proposal for the graduate years. Moreover, this report assumes that the identification of social work concepts and teaching materials, and their organization into courses or other curriculum sequences, is peculiarly the responsibility of social work educators and their curriculum consultants. Nevertheless, enough of an analysis is presented here to suggest the nature and extent of the concentration envisioned as being offered in the junior and senior years.

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

181

Ordinarily, an undergraduate concentration (major and minor) is entirely within one major area of learning, such as the social sciences; it is frequently restricted to one or two more narrowly defined fields, such as history and government. A concentration in social work should be broad enough to include concepts of the natural and social sciences and the humanities selected to produce a realistic understanding of the biological, economic, cultural, and political factors that fashion and condition social welfare programs in the United States. It is equally important for the undergraduate concentration to provide prospective social workers, and others who look toward related careers in the health and welfare fields, with some understanding of how these social forces affect the behavior of people who receive social welfare benefits as well as that of people who plan and administer such programs. T h e curriculum experiences included in the concentration should enrich, extend, and focus concepts about human nature and social institutions that were studied initially as general or liberal education, as well as introduce concepts important to the professional practice of social work which may not come to full fruition until the student engages in more advanced graduate professional study or experiences professional growth through on-the-job learning. Examples of such concepts from each of the major fields of learning are sketched in the concluding section of this chapter. Courses ordinarily open to juniors and seniors are not at all well organized for promoting the objectives suggested in the preceding paragraph. T h e concepts appropriate for inclusion in a social work education concentration are now embedded in courses offered by practically every department or field in the college and often are hedged about with prerequisites that require nondepartmental majors to take one or more elementary courses before being admitted to junior and senior courses that provide the curriculum experiences they need. Among others, the departments and fields that have courses that should be included in whole or in part in an undergraduate concentration in social work are anthropology, philosophy, biology, literature, statistics, psychology, genetics, sociology, ethics, home economics, religion, economics, and government. Since an undergraduate concentration usually does not include

I82

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

more than one fourth (25 to 35 semester hours) of the total credit hours required for graduation, it obviously is not possible to take even one three-credit hour course in each of the fields listed. T h e establishment of a suitable concentration would therefore require more than selecting a series of courses and arranging them into a meaningful sequence. In the field of economics, for example, the remedy seems to lie in the unglamorous and even painful task of identifying key concepts and selecting teaching materials for a composite course or courses developed in the manner suggested by illustrations in the concluding section of this chapter. Where basic biological and psychological concepts have been established earlier as a part of general education, the type of concentration envisioned might be promoted through offering courses, such as Human Growth and Change, that give professional focus to knowledge and attitudes in related areas of learning. T h e biosocial and psychosomatic learning outcomes that might normally be expected from a course labeled Human Growth and Change are, of course, as much a part of the professional equipment of prospective teachers, clinical psychologists, and health workers as of prospective social workers. Incidentally, such a course is now occasionally offered in the graduate schools of social work and of education because the undergraduate program has failed to provide this indispensable learning. From what has been said positively, and conveyed by illustrations given later in the chapter, about what an undergraduate concentration in social work should include, one may readily infer some of the items it should not contain. It should not include concepts and experiences that require the intellectual and social maturation associated with later stages of graduate professional development. For example, it should not include the teaching of professional skills or require students to engage in casework and other professional practice as a learning experience prior to their undergoing a series of graduated learning experiences that include both a knowledge and a feeling component. At the other extreme, an undergraduate concentration should not include learning of a technical and vocational nature that can be secured more quickly and effectively as on-the-job training in a social work agency or as outcomes of especially designed semiprofessional courses of a

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

183

terminal character for which credit toward college graduation ordinarily is not given. T h e most important questions about the content of an undergraduate concentration in social work education do not relate to the character or the aggregate of the concepts to be taught—as important as these matters are—but to the contexts and valuations which distort them or give them essential meaning. Ultimately, intellectual discernment, social philosophy, professional outlook, and creative insight on the part of college teachers who handle the concentration breathe the breath of life into a concept that is important in social work education—or the absence of these qualities gives a concept the kiss of death. Just any conventional professor of economics, philosophy, genetics, or some other field is not thereby qualified to offer courses in what the teaching profession (for want of a better term) calls "professionalized" subject matter. It is interesting to note that professors of the basic medical sciences and professors of physics, through a joint project of their professional associations, have recently tackled the problem of "professionalizing" the preprofessional course in physics so as better to relate it to the interests and needs of medical students. Those closely associated with the preparation of this report believe similar modifications could be made in the outlook of teachers of courses in a social work concentration without watering down the essential liberal nature of the concepts that are being taught. When teaching materials are selected to illuminate and foster contemporary civilization, American ideas of social welfare surely should not be omitted. What is needed are teachers who, in addition to having an intellectual command of their fields, know the contexts in which prospective social workers use the learning outcomes of their fields. Professionalizing arts and sciences concepts is a matter of giving the emotional tone or coloration and valuation associated with professional application without distorting their essential meaning—an achievement that is indeed one of the rarer accomplishments in the fine art of teaching. (Several illustrations of the principle are given in the final major section of this chapter, and to conserve space no further examples are given here.) Such teachers should not be hard to find or to develop for a concentration that is as arts-andsciences-centered as the one proposed for college students who are

184

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

looking toward careers in social work. But it should be recognized from the beginning that failure to secure professionally oriented teachers is likely to lead to the establishment, for example, of "social work economics" courses comparable to those in agricultural economics now given by colleges of agriculture, even though the institution has an academic department of economics. T h e same principle, of course, applies to other fields as forcefully as to economics. Organization and Administration of a Social Work Concentration There must be mutual respect and some clear-cut understandings between the social work profession and the cooperating colleges, if they are to work together amicably and effectively in providing an undergraduate concentration which in effect is equivalent to offering the first two years of a four- to six-year program in social work education. Perhaps the first step in devising a working agreement is for both parties to agree on the purpose of the two-year concentration. This will require a meeting of minds on the relation of the concentration to the general education which will be given simultaneously with it. This step also will require a substantial knowledge and acceptance by both parties of the relation the undergraduate concentration bears to graduate professional programs of which it is the base. Fortunately, the liberal, broad, and flexible nature of this base does not require a college to accept or reject a fixed and unchangeable group of courses as constituting the concentration. Perhaps the second step would call for a working agreement as to the extent and character of the material to be included in the concentration. Extent is usually fixed by college regulations that specify the number of credit hours permitted in a major-minor concentration. Primary responsibility rests with the social work profession, which presumably would operate through the National Council of Social Work Education or its equivalent, for proposals as to the nature of the curriculum experiences to be offered. This report assumes that such proposals would be in terms of manageable concepts, such as those used as illustrations in the concluding section of this chapter, which could be taught in courses of dissimilar organization at different colleges. It is also assumed that the profession would suggest teaching materials and procedures for

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

185

achieving the objectives of the concentration. These proposals and suggestions would be made for the consideration of college officials but not as a directive to them. However, if there were not a substantial meeting of minds following this exploration, it is assumed that the college would not offer the concentration in social work education. It is of course recognized that several years of work at both the national and local level will be required for developing the character of program to be offered. Primary responsibility belongs to the colleges individually for incorporating the agreed-upon concepts into courses, for arranging courses into meaningful sequences, and for making a workable arrangement by which the concentration is to be administered. It is not assumed that every student concentrating in social work education would be required to take an identical number or sequence of courses, but the curriculum experiences would need to be concentrated in a small enough number of courses to make it possible for a student to elect an approved sequence of courses which would achieve the objective of the concentration. These courses would likely be offered by each of several departments in the natural and social sciences and the humanities; the social sciences alone do not provide an adequate base for advanced professional education in the field. The person responsible for administering so comprehensive a concentration usually should work under the immediate direction of the dean of the college instead of under the direction of a department or even the whole division of the social sciences. Ordinarily, this person should also teach the social work orientation and information courses included in the concentration. For the latter purpose he would need to have a professional home in a selfcontained department or subdepartment of the college, preferably one affiliated in a social science or other divisional arrangement. But what is of more importance than either of these administrative arrangements is the personal and professional quality of the individual or individuals selected for giving direction to the concentration. Obviously, he must be more than an orthodox sociologist, anthropologist, economist, or political scientist; but in selecting a person who in addition has a background of social work education and experience, unusual care must be exercised to avoid employing

i86

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

some nondescript social worker who has neither fundamental scholarship nor a professional understanding of what the social work profession envisions as the objectives of the concentration. PROPOSALS

EOR

COOPERATIVE

ACTION

T h e three social work education roles (general, semiprofessional, and basic professional education) proposed in the foregoing sections should be undertaken by undergraduate colleges only after the rudiments of a mutually satisfactory plan for cooperative work have been devised and agreed to between the cooperating colleges and the social work profession at the national, state, and local levels of operation. Mutual understanding and respect for each other's authority, responsibilities, prerogatives, and problems are the foundation stones of such an arrangement. In addition, the social work profession is under the necessity of developing an intraprofessional organization for working with colleges collectively and individually, and of promoting an interprofessions organization to further the interest they have in common with other professions in the programs of undergraduate colleges. Policy Considerations T h e position of this report is that colleges collectively and individually should be the final judge, within their accrediting standards, of the character and extent of the programs they undertake. T h e social work profession should not coerce them on what is to be taught or interfere with their right to determine how a program is to be organized and administered. T h e profession, moreover, should recognize that college accreditation applies to undergraduate programs in social work education as well as to those in biology or English, and is not subject to review by it. A recognition of the authority and responsibility of the college does not, however, absolve the social work profession of its responsibility for determining the character and quality of the undergraduate concentration or the semiprofessional offerings in social work education. Colleges collectively and individually should accept the leadership of the social work profession in these matters just as the profession should accept theirs in matters of general education. Each should seek to

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

187

influence, not to control, the other in the area of its major responsibility. T h e social work profession, for example, should make it clear to the colleges that it has no authority in matters of general education and that it seeks none. But all parties concerned should recognize the right and obligation of the profession to seek modifications in general education through the influence of its ideas. In the same spirit, college officials should recognize that social work educators are best qualified to identify the concepts and teaching materials that are fundamental in an undergraduate concentration in social work or in a semiprofessional social work education program. Moreover, their ideas of organization, sequence, extent of offerings, and of the qualifications of teachers are vital, but final decisions in such matters rest with the colleges. In most matters, the social work profession proposes and the college teaching profession disposes, but if there is not a reasonable meeting of minds the graduate schools of social work should not be expected to admit candidates from questionable undergraduate concentrations. T h i s leverage gives the profession sufficient control over an undergraduate concentration without engaging in formal accreditation or in other forms of close supervision of college offerings in social work education. Social work and the other professions that decide to pursue the objectives suggested in this chapter should be careful to establish and maintain a two-way channel of communication with the colleges. It probably would be fatal to either of the three types of projects here envisioned for it to determine in isolation the changes it wants, and then use all the facilities at its command to secure an acceptance of these changes. T h e professions should initiate proposals and be willing to mature them in the give-and-take of conferences with a great variety of college officials who have a stake in the venture. There is no reason for assuming that professional educators and practitioners know with any certainty or specificity what concepts of general education are basic to a sound program of general education, or for assuming that they know surely what information about their profession belongs in general education and in the undergraduate concentration associated with it. Their knowledge of such matters frequently is only secondarily their own, but it has elements of reality and focus that are not common among educators

i88

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

who are one or more steps removed from situations where education manifests itself as behavior. T h e profession of college teachers and administrators, like that of social work, is not an easy group with which to communicate because it has so many and varied types of voluntary associations. Colleges as institutions, for example, hold membership in one or more state, regional, and national associations; they also belong to common interest groups such as land-grant colleges, Protestant church-related colleges, Catholic colleges, Negro colleges, urban colleges, and junior colleges. T h e social work profession must be prepared to communicate with college administrators and teachers through these associations before it can expect to be understood by an individual institution and its faculty. It also must be prepared to work with local, state, regional, and national groups of college teachers through their subject matter associations. In addition, the deans, registrars, admissions officers, and business officers have their own membership organizations that should be consulted about any social work education venture that requires their consent or participation. Intraprofessional Organization T h e social work profession needs to review and revise the organizational machinery it has for a cooperative work with such associations and agencies of higher education as the types listed in the foregoing paragraph. T h e concluding section of Chapter VII outlines in bold strokes the type of organization this report recommends, and in order to conserve space these recommendations will not be summarized at this point. Suffice it to say that a commission is recommended which operates under a national council on social work education and which is flexible enough to use the component organizations of the profession both at the state and local levels of action. An intra- or interprofessions organization would not be under the necessity of beginning cooperative work with the colleges de novo. Social work and other professions have a long history of working individually with undergraduate colleges on matters related to offerings in preprofessional and professional education. Considerable readiness for cooperative work has been engendered in under-

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

189

graduate colleges by a decade or two of systematic examination of the concepts and procedures believed to be desirable for inclusion in general or liberal education programs. T h i s movement has also been given a strong impetus by such demonstrations and experimentation as those reported in the four-volume study of general education conducted under the auspices of the American Council on Education, by such studies as the Harvard University report on General Education for a Free Society, and by the six-volume report of President Truman's Commission on Higher Education. T h e colleges probably have more readiness than the social work profession for cooperative study and action related to the problems of undergraduate social work education. An Interprofessions Proposal However effective the social work profession may be in organizing a national council on social work education which operates through a series of subordinate commissions, such as the one suggested in the foregoing section, it cannot fully achieve its objectives without the active cooperation of other professions that have similar interests in undergraduate education. All the professions have a common interest in improving the character and quality of the general education that their prospective practitioners need as citizens or as consumers, and many of them have a common interest in promoting a better understanding of professional concepts that are basic enough to underlie more than one profession. How should the professions go about organizing an interprofessions council? T o whom does the initiative belong? There obviously is more than one feasible way to organize, and the initiative belongs to the professions that take it. Perhaps the creation of a formal organization should be preceded by an informal meeting of a dozen or so creative individuals who have the social vision and educational statesmanship to propose a plan that is worthy of extended consideration by a larger exploratory conference. T h e United States Office of Education or the American Council on Education may well take the initiative in forming an ad hoc committee for this purpose, and in serving as the auspices for an exploratory conference to determine the need for an interprofessions commission and the form it should take if created. What might be achieved by such a com-

ipo

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

mission was foreshadowed by a single conference of this character held at Buck Hill Falls, Pennsylvania, in 1948 under the leadership of five professions and financed by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.® T h e comments which follow are for the purposes of stimulating the thinking of a planning committee and not with the thought that they constitute an outline for forming an interprofessions commission. T h e purpose of such an organization should be to focus the attention of all professions on their common concerns in undergraduate education, and to devise working arrangements calculated to protect college organizations from the duplication, conflicts, and excesses of professional zeal which otherwise they might experience at the hands of the professions if they worked separately with colleges. Perhaps its specific functions should be limited to providing a forum for expressing the views of general and professional educators on their common problems, to engaging in educational planning for the professions at an over-all statesmanship level, and to the coordination of arrangements that individual professions may wish to use in working with undergraduate college administrators and teachers. T h e proposed interprofessions commission should facilitate, not supplant, the individual professions in their work with undergraduate colleges. It should not, for example, supplant the social work or the medical profession in matters related to preprofessional or basic professional education, but in time an interprofessions commission might be expected to influence their activities significantly. A n interprofessions commission should be kept to manageable size; the membership perhaps should not exceed 100 persons, one third of whom should be educators from the nonprofessional divisions of colleges and universities and two thirds of whom should be professional educators and practitioners. Provision should be made for rotating the personnel of the commission, but an individual should not be encouraged to accept membership unless he is willing to work at the job for at least three years in succession. T h e commission should meet annually or semiannually and should conduct its business in the interim through its officers and an executive com» Elliott D. Smith, ed., Education for Professional Responsibility negie Institute of Technology Press, 1948).

(Pittsburgh: Car-

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

191

mittee. Each cooperating profession and college association should be responsible for underwriting the travel and subsistence expenses of its representatives on the commission. Funds for committee work, for a professional director, and for research or publication purposes might be sought initially from philanthropic foundations or from individuals and corporations whose interest in the project could be enlisted.

GLIMPSES OF

EDUCATIONAL

OUTCOMES

DESIRED

Whatever machinery the professions in general and the social work profession in particular may devise for working with the faculties of undergraduate colleges, they undoubtedly will experience many uncomfortable moments in discovering and agreeing upon the concepts and teaching procedures they wish to recommend for consideration. Coming to grips with the elements of multipurpose liberal education is sometimes a disturbing experience for persons accustomed to working with single-purpose professional education. T h e importance of surveying the body of knowledge, for example, is more critical in liberal than in professional education. It is more difficult to select liberal arts concepts that give reasonable coverage and that at the same time provide education focused on a mastery of content considered basic to further learningProfessional schools have learned from experience that producing the ability to acquire knowledge is more important than trying to teach the student all he needs to know. Accordingly, with varying degrees of success, they tend to limit curriculum and courses to fundamental concepts which permit the use of case, clinical, problem-solving, and other inductive methods of teaching. But many professional school leaders have not yet learned how much more difficult it is to identify an acceptable "fundamental" in general education, nor the even greater difficulty of organizing such concepts so that the gamut of liberal education can be taught through the effective but slow methods of inductive teaching. Liberal arts educators are making real progress in increasing power and zest for learning through using project and problem-solving methods as substitutes for lecture-discussion-quiz, but they un-

192

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

doubtedly would profit by the encouragement and understanding of professional school educators. A working knowledge of group relationships is of course important if educators are to avoid ineptness in helping each other in the area of curriculum and instruction. T h e concepts and content which this report uses to illustrate the function of the undergraduate college in social welfare education are grouped, as a matter of convenience, under four major headings: language and communication; the humanities; the natural sciences; and the social sciences. Each institution should, of course, be left relatively free to determine whether a given concept—the dignity and worth of the individual, for example—is to be stressed in courses designated as philosophy, religion, social psychology, fundamentals of democracy, or is to be taught as part of a comprehensive course that uses the case or problem method of organizing materials inductively for instructional purposes. It is important, however, for the profession to arrange for such concepts to be taught in one or more situations without undue overlapping. It is equally important that there be a gradation of curriculum experiences which assures, first, a level of understanding and acceptance that may be expected of all students; second, an enrichment and extension during the period of undergraduate concentration which assure concepts being incorporated into the emotional and philosophical behavior of the prospective social welfare worker; third, an assurance that there is much more to learn about a comprehensive concept in the graduate professional school and in social work practice. T h e illustrations which follow do not attempt to make these distinctions. That task is left to the profession of social work and to other professions that may become associated with it in an interprofessions commission. Role of Language and Communication There is no reason why social work should not join with other graduate professional schools and with employers from business, industry, and government in registering its dissatisfaction with the lack of proficiency of American college graduates in writing and speaking their mother tongue or in making effective use of the subsidiary means of communication. All agencies want essentially the same thing, namely, that the college graduates who come to them

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

19)

have the ability to listen and read with critical intelligence, the ability to speak and write clearly and with considerable effectiveness, and the ability to use the components of language for understanding its nature, its relation to the development of the race and of human thought. Most of them would settle, however, for an undergraduate program in communication that would assure a working knowledge of the basic terminology of language, a reasonable competence in handling oral and written expository discourse, and a substantial respect for standard usage in sentence structure, capitalization, spelling, and punctuation. N o t all the blame for the fact that a majority of professional practitioners are poor listeners, readers, writers, and speakers should be placed on the undergraduate college. Professional school educators generally fail to build on the primary contribution of language and other "tool" subjects that may have been made by liberal education. It is especially harmful to degrade a fundamental college course in reading, speaking, and writing by including concepts implied by such topics as "business correspondence," "case recording," "oral presentation to professional groups," "engineering English," and "writing for professional publication." Instead of such vocational course training, the professions should encourage the use of materials that will enable students to acquire skill in the understanding, use, and production of news stories, broadcasts, editorials, advertisements, sermons, lectures, and perhaps a hundred other types of written and spoken discourse. It is out of such experiences that principles are formed that will function as a part of professional behavior. As citizen or as prospective social welfare worker, the student gets a command of the fundamentals of communication through becoming adept at working with the form of words, the usage of words, and the meanings of words and phrases. H e should be encouraged to study and report on his own language and communication habits, and on those of the person who is his favorite and the one who is his "pet peeve" among columnists, editors, actors, teachers, social workers, ministers, politicians, associates, and others of his own choosing. Undergraduate colleges that are promoting this conception of developing the listening, reading, speaking, and writing potentials of students usually have a special library of printed

i94

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

materials for laboratory purposes. T h e social work profession might contribute significantly to such a collection by making available materials that will tend to get the objectives of the profession more generally known and that will make common currency of specialized meanings and usages social workers sometimes attach to ordinary words of the English language. Role of the Humanities T h e role of the humanities in improving general and specialized education for prospective social welfare and related professional workers depends primarily, as does that of other major areas of the cultural heritage, on the orientation of the college and the capacity of the teacher to enable students to see the world of reality and spirit through his medium. These factors largely determine intellectual climate and educational outcomes in the creative arts, literature, ethics, philosophy, religion, and other humanities. In such a climate the humanities can help students develop their native capacity for synthesis, insight, curiosity, human sympathy, and other characteristics on which success as a professional practitioner rests. Literature.—If the teacher knows how to use literature to mirror the wellsprings of human motive and action, the prospective social worker has much to gain from studying it. Such instruction is all the richer if, at the same time, it enables the student to understand something of the culture and mores of the society portrayed, and something of the economic and political conditions of the times. If these constants are sought, it does not matter vitally whether the materials used are the great books of the Greek and Roman periods and the Bible, or these supplemented by the best of the poetry and prose of the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and of moderns from Dostoyevsky, Emerson, Darwin, Dickens, Melville, Whitman, Stevenson, Zola, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Conrad, Kipling, Freud, Shaw, Mann, Steiner, to Hemingway and Faulkner. T h e function of literature as a humane discipline is to help prospective social workers and other undergraduates experience the quality and color of life. Without such perspective, a flesh-and-blood human being can become a case, a client, or a statistic on a chart. Philosophy.—In

social work, as elsewhere, whatever one does is

THE UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

influenced, albeit unconsciously, by certain beliefs and assumptions that for him underlie more specific concepts of the nature of man, of society, and of government. His philosophy constitutes a large part of the framework by which he evaluates the significance and relationship of facts and events that affect men in society. It largely determines the standards he uses to synthesize information into concepts and principles useful in making day-to-day decisions, and the directions of his growth in understanding and wisdom. T h e college student both as citizen and careerist, as well as the professional philosopher, faces the task of infusing facts with values, and of bringing values into coherent relationships with each other and with experience. He needs to come to an intellectual realization that fact and value are inseparable components of daily life. He must learn, as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes put it, that willingly "to act is to affirm the worth of an end, and to persist in affirming the worth of an end is to make an ideal." While it would help significantly, a student need not pursue systematic courses in metaphysics, epistemology, logic, ethics, and the history of philosophy before undertaking the study of cause and effect, valuation, and ethical synthesis. With at least an amateur's command of the tools of philosophy, students in an undergraduate concentration planned for social workers can do a remarkable job of personal orientation toward assumptions basic to a life of reason, the principle of an ordered and intelligible world, the idea of God and of faith, the value of the human individual, and the doctrine of equality or the brotherhood of man. T h e y can do much to come to some scholarly understanding of the conception of empirical laws, and the method of observation and experiment commonly spoken of as the scientific method. Such backgrounds should enable an undergraduate student to do substantial work in relating basic sociological studies * to their need for fundamental concepts with which to bring a semblance of order into the chaos of social information that comes to those who man social work and related professional agencies and organizations. T h e social ethics aspect of the suggested background can take the process further through examining the multiple role of valuation * William I. Thomas and Florian Znaniecki, The Polish Peasant in Europe America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1918).

and

I96

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

i n social science inquiries. G u n n a r Myrdal's study of race relations 8 is a superb d o c u m e n t for this purpose. H e accepts the A m e r i c a n creed as a basis for departure and analyzes its affirmations of value a n d their place in the A m e r i c a n conscience. H e then traces these affirmations to their roots in Christianity and in the Enlightenment, and shows their relation to o u r political ideals and practices. T h e orthodox philosopher and the religious teacher are sometimes professionally disturbed w h e n social, physical, a n d biological scientists establish for themselves the philosophical framework for interpreting their findings and actions. T h e natural and social sciences are gradually accepting the view that they must give their p h e n o m e n a valuation in terms of hypotheses w h i c h rest o n primal assumptions. In d e t e r m i n i n g values, purposes, and goals, the scientist usually is less b o u n d than the philosopher or the religionist by the supernatural and by the w e b of habits, customs, folkways, a n d beliefs we call the c u l t u r e of a people. As a consequence, it makes a lot of difference in the behavior pattern of an individual whether his value concepts are shaped primarily by philosophy, by religion, or by the sciences. T h i s generalization is made more explicit by such instances as h u m a n sterilization, birth control, abortion, divorce, and euthanasia. W i t h most of these illustrations it even makes a difference what branch of the Christian church or w h a t school of scientific thought does the teaching. B u t from the standpoint of preparation for a career in social work, what is important is that the student develop a viewpoint for himself and that he understand the assumptions and premises of people whose convictions differ from his own. The arts.—The necessity for conserving space precludes the listi n g of concepts to illustrate the high general education value to prospective professional workers of c u r r i c u l u m experiences in the fine and industrial arts, especially in d e v e l o p i n g emotional maturity, in promoting a worthy use of leisure, and in c o n t r i b u t i n g to the religious and aesthetic aspects of individual and c o m m u n i t y life. A social worker, moreover, often extends his insights and understandings of individuals, groups, and c o m m u n i t i e s through observing or participating in avocational activities such as vocal and instrumental music, plastic and graphic arts, the theater and mov6

Gunnar Myrdal, An American

Dilemma

(2 vols.; New York: Harper, 1944).

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

197

ing pictures, wood- and metalwork, photography, and the dance. Social workers—especially group workers—as well as occupational therapists and others concerned with the healing arts, often make a direct professional use of curriculum experiences commonly offered in the arts. Accordingly, the course offerings in the undergraduate concentration should be inclusive and flexible enough to permit some social welfare students to elect selected arts courses for professional purposes. Arts courses provide an excellent example of curriculum experiences one student may take for cultural purposes and that another student may take for career purposes. Role of the Natural Sciences Scientific research is directed at the whole of nature from the farthermost galaxies to the heart of man. The first lesson of science is that every man must be free to inquire into the cosmos in his own way, the second is that he should avoid a priori certainties, and a corollary is that few posteriori certitudes have been discovered. In short, science proceeds from truth and other values as they are derived from an established body of knowledge rather than from revealed Truth as that term is used by many philosophers and religious leaders. This approach to reality should be understood by the prospective social worker because he will work with people who accept that view of life as well as with those who believe Truth and reality are supernatural in origin. What the undergraduate needs to understand about the assumptions and values of the sciences is why they give an additional or a different meaning to truth, faith, love, natural law, progress, and other concepts than is customarily given by theology, the humanities, and other purveyors of our cultural heritage. Some students enter professional school with a philosophy which writes the first letter of these and similar words with a capital, while for other students they merely enrich our language as do words such as "bewitch," "beguile," and "enchant." Unfortunately, comparatively little serious attention is being given in science teaching to an examination of basic concepts, to the nature and limitations of the scientific enterprise, or to its relationships with other disciplines which are more immediately concerned with the day-to-day welfare of human beings. Social workers and other professional people

198

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

must work with individuals whose theories of value range all the way from the ideals of transcendentalism through agnosticism and atheism to an unadorned materialism, and their success as practitioners is as largely conditioned by understanding these underlying factors of life as it is by sheer professional skills—though of course no one would contend that one is a substitute for the other. Physical sciences.—The relative absence of emotional contexts makes physical science concepts useful in developing intellectual curiosity, openness of mind, respect for evidence, and convictions favorable to the free communication of ideas—qualities needed by social welfare workers. Mathematics and the physical sciences provide, for example, the clearest, simplest, and most rigorous approach to scientific analysis. They lend themselves to precise definition and measurement, to an analysis and control of elements, and to a certainty in the prediction of outcomes that is not possible in working with the more complex living material of the biological and social sciences. Another reason why prospective social workers and other college students should have some command of knowledge in the physical sciences is that the future of commerce, industry, and government, as well as of the professions, is dependent on developments in these fields. Developments in the field of medicine illustrate the generalization. As a science, medicine is almost entirely derivative. Its methods of investigation in the laboratory, its tools of diagnosis in the hospital, and implements and modes of treatment at the bedside largely come directly or indirectly from cognate physical sciences. Without chemistry, biochemistry, and other of the physical sciences, the development of new drugs would soon cease. Perhaps the most impressive of the recent shifts in the status of diseases is among those caused by microorganisms, a change that is revolutionary enough to be compared with the discoveries of Pasteur and Koch some eighty years ago. In the wake of the recent use of sulfa drugs, penicillin, and antibiotic agents many illnesses that were in the front rank of scourges have as completely lost their formidable position as did diabetes in the presence of insulin. Social workers and others, as a matter of general education, need to understand why there has been a striking redistribution in the practical significance of many diseases. T h e basic explanation lies

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

199

in what the physical sciences have done to man's environment. Since these sciences enable human beings to prolong life far beyond middle age, for example, there has been a steady rise in the incidence of degenerative diseases, such as cancer and the several types of heart ailments. Aging alone, however, is not the whole cause of the stresses and strains that kill off modern man. The most conspicuous effect of man's conflict with his modern environment is the marked rise in the incidence of psychiatric disorders ranging from simple neurotic complaints to full psychosis. The conflict between man and his physical medium is also breeding new problems in the realm of organic diseases associated with occupations: coronary thrombosis for the professional man, peptic ulcers for the stockbroker, lead poisoning for the painter, and so on through the gamut to "the bends" for the sand hog who builds our subways. Some people believe the release of nuclear energy by fission— regardless of whether it is used for atom bombs or harnessed for industrial purposes—may provide the ultimate test of whether man can survive in his science-made environment. In the face of such astounding forces, the professions, whether medicine, social work, teaching, or the ministry, ought to make sure that their practitioners keep abreast of the world in which they live. It follows that their views on specific physical science concepts should be made known to those who are responsible for planning general education and undergraduate concentrations for prospective professional workers. Biological sciences.—The fundamental fact so often lost sight of in this field is that human biology is the science of the whole man functioning in an infinitely complex and often conflicting environment. Undergraduate concentrations and general education for these ends usually are not achieved by the traditional emphasis on the fields of zoology, bateriology, botany, and entomology which lead to specialization in as many as twenty subdivisions of biology. For the purposes of social welfare workers, there is little reason for spending much time on nomenclature or on the classification of biological specimens into kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species—as important as these items are for specialists in the field. Instead, the limited time available might better be devoted to the development of concepts which promote understanding of the cell as the unit of life, which provide a quick review of

200

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

multicellular organisms that precede the mammals, and which explain the hereditary and environmental factors that determine normal and abnormal cell behavior. T h e broad stream of physiology and function provides the best entry to biology for prospective social welfare workers. T h e major portion of instruction in human biology might well be devoted to providing an understanding of the organic evolution of man, and to his reproduction, growth, nutrition, and heredity as these relate to adult behavior and to the factors of organic disintegration covered by the new science of geriatrics. In field work incident to the study being reported, the director, whose basic education is in the biological sciences, found that most students and practitioners had a woeful lack of usable perceptual or conceptual knowledge in the areas just named. T h e intra- and interprofessions organizations proposed earlier in this chapter will find a real need for their services in the area of human biology. It is particularly important to secure an allocation of concepts—about the principles of heredity, for example—between what is to be taught as general education and what is to be taught to students who elect human biology as part of their undergraduate social work concentration. T h e nature of health and disease, physical and mental, for example, is explained in considerable detail by scientific literature with which undergraduates should become acquainted. None has done it better than Walter B. Cannon, the eminent American physiologist, and, from a very different approach, Sigmund Freud, the Viennese physician and founder of psychoanalysis. Each concluded that health is that condition of the biological organism which enables it to adapt adequately to the usual stresses of life without experiencing undue pain, disability, or limitation of action. In Human Nature and Conduct, J o h n Dewey uses still another approach to the same end, namely, keeping the human organism reasonably well related to the often contrary pulls made on it by biological and by social forces. These basic studies can be understood without a systematic knowledge of the primal foundation of biochemistry, biophysics, and biostatistics which underlie them. T h e prospective social worker, teacher, minister, or other pro-

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

201

fessional worker who helps people learn how to manage their lives more productively should understand with some specificity the conflicting demands made on a human being by his biological nature and by the "cake of custom" which includes the mores, folkways, and less formal expectations of society. It should not be difficult to select and organize concepts for this purpose that could be taught as part of an undergraduate concentration in biology, sociology, or as a biology-social science combination. A l f r e d Charles Kinsey and associates have provided some new and reasonably valid source m a t e r i a l 8 for this purpose, but its use will require the wisdom to see sexual behavior in relation to social and biological tensions. In many situations the use of the Kinsey material would call for courage and skill in teaching controversial concepts, and for finesse in securing social acceptance of findings which run counter to the mores of approved sexual behavior expected of " n o r m a l " men. In order to get a working understanding of the biological basis of social behavior, the undergraduate must know much more than is revealed by the tissue needs of sex. From the cradle on, an individual has to learn how to manage the tensions of his bladder, intestines, stomach, and endocrine system in terms of the accepted codes of behavior of his culture. Securing an understanding of these concepts will require the student to examine materials from physiology, anthropology, and sociology in a context that may provide his first realistic glimpse of the fact that, for example, courage, perseverance, serenity, cheerfulness, chastity, and other approved forms of behavior result, in part, from the "correct" management of physiological tensions. If the undergraduate w h o is a prospective social worker expects to understand the behavior of an individual in a social situation, he should, in addition, have some knowledge of the functioning of the lymphatics, and the various branches of the nervous system and the blood stream. Agency case records reveal a need for more emphasis on positive concepts of human physiology that are commonly taught as liberal education. T h e s e records often betray an ignorance of human biology, and a tendency to " e x p l a i n " the case in oversimplified terms. • Alfred Charles Kinsey, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (Philadelphia: Saunders, 1948).

202

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

The Role of the Social Sciences From the foregoing it should be evident that this study does not subscribe to the idea, which has wide acceptance in social work education circles, that the social sciences include practically all the essential learning experiences that should constitute an undergraduate concentration for prospective social workers. Those who expect to work professionally with human beings cannot afford to neglect the biological and spiritual components of the problems with which they are concerned. Advocacy of including concepts from religion, the humanities, and the natural sciences is based on the fact that they are embedded in social science contexts. This was demonstrated, for instance, in the preceding illustrations for concepts from philosophy and the biological sciences. If space permitted, other examples of the moral, ethical, and esthetic problems and issues in the social insurances, public assistance, housing, nutrition, unemployment, and delinquency would be developed. Since it is not feasible within the space allotted the social sciences to give examples of concepts from anthropology, sociology, economics, government, and the other individual fields, illustrations have been chosen in terms of social welfare functions. Prediction and control of behavior.—The proposed interprofessions commission for improving the undergraduate base of professional education might make a significant contribution in the area of the social sciences through encouraging the development of concepts calculated to help the undergraduate understand the use and abuse of techniques for predicting or controlling human behavior and community action. Human behavior is more predictable and more amenable to control than is customarily made evident to undergraduates. Teachers of the cut-and-dried scientifically established facts of the physical and the biological sciences, in their zeal to impress undergraduates with the fact that their data follow laws and principles which enable them to predict outcomes, have been known to belittle the social sciences as lacking these scientific qualities. This feeling of certainty of outcome in the natural sciences is not shared, of course, by the research man who labors to discover and develop an idea or to document a generalization. Often

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

20)

it is only in retrospect that the steps of the scientific method are evident. While it is true that the social scientist cannot predict or control the behavior of human beings with the exactness that the physical scientist can predict and control the outcome of mixing sodium chloride and sulphuric acid, or even with the exactness of the biological scientist in experimenting with guinea pigs, nevertheless the average citizens who apply social principles, often unconsciously, do so well enough to run a gamut of agencies that range from restaurants, insurance companies, schools, churches, and parole systems to social work organizations. A successful restaurant manager, for example, lives not only by predicting how many customers he will have for each meal but by "knowing" in the main what they will order. And it is common knowledge that success in the insurance business rests on the use of mathematics to predict the behavior of sectors of the population whose characteristics have been identified. If the alert undergraduate is exposed to material out of which he can develop an understanding of the basic concepts and principles of public opinion polls, he will not marvel at social variables being more predictable than meteorological variables; indeed, the pollster often can predict future social events with greater certainty than the weatherman can predict outcomes in his medium. T h e American Institute of Public Opinion, for example, reports that it has predicted correctly the outcome of 50 out of 62 separate election contests, and that its error in 243 election forecasts averaged 3.9 percent. The anthropologist and the archaeologist also usually surpass the weatherman in these respects, but that does not make meteorology any less a physical science of great social usefulness. Many students need to get over a feeling of inferiority induced by the reiterated assertion that the social sciences do not rest on a substantial base of established facts. At the same time, they need to understand that the "facts" of the natural sciences as well as those of the social sciences rest ultimately on unproved assumptions and theories. Principle of teamwork.—During the period of undergraduate concentration, students looking toward careers in the professions should have an opportunity to become acquainted with the theory

204

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

and practice of teamwork as it is being used increasingly by business, professional, and research groups. The typical social worker, public health or hospital worker, teacher, or the research worker for the Atomic Energy Commission, Bell Telephone Laboratories, or the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, is not a "lone wolf" but a member of a professional team who must discipline himself to work effectively with others and to see and interpret the contribution his specialty makes toward the solution of the problem under consideration. In emphasizing the importance of this idea to undergraduate college officials, inter- and intraprofessional groups incur the further obligation of naming some specific teamwork concepts which they think should be taught, and of suggesting curriculum materials and experiences that might be used for achieving the objectives envisioned. Among the sources to which they might turn is Alexander H. Leighton's The Governing of Men,'' which recounts the experience of a composite professional group in handling a strike at a Japanese war relocation camp. It provides a good example of concrete curriculum materials and of the conceptual generalizations important for teaching the principles of teamwork, but it of course does not touch upon all aspects of the teamwork concept. T h e point is that there is little use in a professional group making representations to college faculties, unless it is prepared to break teamwork and other imponderable concepts into manageable subconcepts for which it can suggest suitable teaching materials. This viewpoint applies to all large value concepts, such as the dignity and worth of the individual, mentioned earlier in the chapter. Some social scientists believe that all social concepts can be subsumed under eight high-level categories of value concepts. These include such ideas as the right of each individual to share in making important decisions; to share fairly in the control of goods and services; to receive respect and considerate treatment; to have access to information needed for rational personal and public behavior; to develop his native capacity and talent; to enjoy health and other items of well-being; to experience the satisfactions of affection, companionship, and other virtues associated with family T Alexander H. Leighton, The Governing versity Press, 1945).

of Men (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Uni-

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

205

and community life; and to enjoy rectitude and morality as these flow from the standards of society. In the view of this report, what undergraduate faculties need is help in identifying specific social science concepts and curriculum experiences under each of the eight categories which they can include in an existing program or course. A public assistance concept.—The idea that a recipient of public assistance under the Social Security Act of 1935 receives the money as a right and not as a gratuity, and that he is entitled to use his payment with the same freedom as do persons who receive their income from other sources, is, for example, a principle or concept easily subsumed under one or more of the eight foregoing categories of high-level value concepts. But what the college teacher of the social sciences needs of the social work, profession is not counsel on the relative position of this concept in the hierarchy of social science generalizations; rather he needs help in breaking this new doctrine into smaller concepts that can be supported or refuted by the facts and values which an individual or a group holds or can be led to accept. The official statement of this far-reaching and somewhat revolutionary concept, which is not yet widely or deeply accepted by the general public, presents an emotionally charged challenge to most students. After citing the provisions of the Act which establish benefits to eligibles as "a right," the principle of the unhindered use of money payments is interpreted as follows: Assistance in the form of a money payment provides the recipient with a sum of money to be spent as he, not the agency, determines will best meet his need. It is made in recognition of the fact that a recipient of assistance does not, by reason of financial dependence, lose his capacity to select how, when, and whether each of his requirements is to be met. It insures his right to use his payment with the same freedom as do persons who receive their income from other sources and to carry on his business through the normal channels of exchange.8 These ideas run counter to some of the most deeply ingrained traditional economic and welfare concepts of Western civilization. Many tenets of Christendom support the private enterprise system in the belief that economic aid provided by other than one's own s "Money Payments to Recipients of Old Age Assistance, Aid to Dependent Children, and Aid to Blind," Circular N'o. 17, B u r e a u of Public Assistance and B u r e a u of Accounts and Audits, Federal Security Agency (Washington, D.C., 1944), p. 6.

206 THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

endeavor or that of his family is by nature a gratuity that should be classified as charity rather than as a right. T h i s culturally "inh e r i t e d " conviction results in the belief that the use of the tax p o w e r for this purpose makes the g o v e r n m e n t a benefactor and thereby gives those w h o administer such f u n d s the duty of regulati n g a n d sitting in j u d g m e n t on the behavior of legally qualified recipients of funds not individually earned. People w h o hold these convictions tacitly assume or overtly say that those w h o administer p u b l i c assistance o u g h t to supervise the use to which the money is p u t , especially to see that n o n e of it is spent on items covered by the phrase " w i n e , w o m e n , and song." It is even contended that p u b l i c assistance recipients should not be allowed to live in a manner that endangers their health lest they become a still greater expense to the public, and that procreation should be restricted for the same reason. N o such limitation is put u p o n other citizens. T h o s e students w h o take an opposite view contend that a state or a nation cannot b u y or coerce behavior t h r o u g h public assistance payments and still pretend to b e a democracy. T h e provision of assistance under such conditions, they argue, secures o u t w a r d conf o r m i t y and internal rebellion, and violates its use as an instrument to bolster the freedom of action and the f e e l i n g of independence of an individual. T h e hypotheses that underlie this side of the issue are succinctly stated by A . Delafield Smith, Assistant G e n e r a l Counsel of the Federal Security A g e n c y : T h e translation of an ethic of benevolence into a statutorily affirmed and constitutionally guaranteed legal right is of the very essence of the security problem. It is not good either for the individual or for society that its members should obtain assistance by begging for it. It is of the very essence of democracy that the ethic on which we rely shall be embodied in our laws. Social security, to fortify the hearts and minds of men must be established on a basis of legal and financial certainty, for merely seeing to it that human beings do not lack the requirements of decent living is by no means the end objective. In order to restore the basic confidence of the individual in modern society and give him the proper sense of his own security, the system must be conceived as a part of his normal legal environment and not as a smug social prescription wherein to drug the sense of human inadequacy and personal failure. W e must regard the quality of legal rights quite as highly as the quantity of economic rights. Mental and emotional security can only be assured

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

207

by the fact that we live in an environment responsive to us by the very laws that govern its behavior.9 T h e concept of public assistance as a right has been used to illustrate the fundamental character of social work education which this report recommends for inclusion in an undergraduate concentration. Its use does not imply, and it should not be inferred, that the authors are taking sides on the issues involved. Income maintenance.—Another of the major concepts essential for inclusion in the undergraduate concentration of most persons looking toward careers in the health and welfare professions may be designated as income maintenance. T h e primary ideas in income maintenance are appropriate as general education for all college students, but they must be broken into problems and issues as a prelude to the selection of appropriate curriculum materials. A n understanding of income maintenance appropriate for an undergraduate concentration requires a knowledge of selected concepts from the social insurances, pensions, public assistance, medical care, and other means commonly used to prevent the interruption or permanent discontinuance of the income of an individual. T h e development of the philosophical and feeling component of income maintenance concepts would, in turn, require the presentation of selected facts and viewpoints about the incidence and social effects of such major risks of life as birth, sickness, accident, disability, unemployment, old age, and death. T h e issues involved are of profound importance to the individual, the local community, and to the nation as a whole. In such study, the undergraduate student may get his first real understanding of whether the individual can have both freedom and security, whether individual initiative is increased or decreased by assurance of basic income, and whether a means test should be the primary device for determining when an individual or a family has fallen below a m i n i m u m standard of economic security. Indeed, such considerations may well lead to an examination of how this standard is determined and maintained. T h e principles inherent in such concepts and issues as those just s A . Delafield Smith, "Charity, Behavior, and Social Security," Journal Education, XXI (January, 1950), 23-24.

of

Higher

208

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

enumerated might well become guidelines for the use of the next generation of professional health and welfare workers. It is also of the utmost importance for our economy and our cultural life that those who direct it have a working knowledge of these as yet strange but powerful social forces that, historically speaking, have so recently been set in motion in the United States. It is not of crucial importance whether they get these understandings from curriculum materials organized around the income maintenance concept or through such traditional organizations of social science subject matter as economics, sociology, psychology, anthropology, political science, history, and geography. If a functional organization of curriculum experiences were used, it would be doubly important for students to have or to secure a reasonable command of the four primary tools of the social sciences, namely, the relevant aspects of mathematics, the essentials of statistics and graphics, logic as an instrument of inquiry, and the elements of practical semantics. T h e space allotted to the social sciences does not permit the presentation of other illustrations of concepts for improving liberal education for all students or for improving the proposed field of concentration for students who are looking toward careers in the health and welfare professions. T h e social work profession undoubtedly would want to give consideration to recommending essential concepts in such areas as residential housing, delinquency, child welfare, racial and related prejudices, caste and class structure in the United States, public education, public health, labormanagement relations, government-business relations, federal-state relations, and the mobilization of public opinion in relation to public policy. Social work, among other professions, makes an extensive use of Freudian psychological concepts which are not taught systematically in its graduate professional schools. T h e interested professions may wish to advocate offerings in general and social psychology which would provide a base of meaningful concepts for use in advanced professional study in such fields as social work, mental hygiene, psychiatry, and the health professions. Social Work Courses Earlier in the chapter, it was indicated that the proposed undergraduate concentration should include one or more courses of a

THE

UNDERGRADUATE

COLLEGE

209

specific social work character, inasmuch as it constitutes what this report considers to be part of the indispensable foundation for more advanced social work education. T h e curriculum experiences provided in such courses, presumably, would be directed by a qualified social work educator, and therefore it is not considered necessary to illustrate the concepts to be included. Nevertheless, several of the concepts illustrated or listed for inclusion in the social sciences might with equal justification be given in separately organized social work courses. Moreover, examples of concepts and curriculum experiences abound in the syllabi of such courses as " T h e Field of Social Welfare," "History and Status of Social Welfare in the United States," and "Introduction to Social Work." How many courses carry social work titles is not important, but it is important for the courses that constitute the undergraduate concentration to include the informational, philosophical, and attitudinal components of the concepts that are important to further professional growth in social work. T h e y should provide a maximum of opportunity, compatible with sound scholarship, for each student to develop and express his ideas, feelings, predilections, and prejudices about social welfare and social work. Study of the basic aspects of social work theory and practice should rest on an examination of social welfare objectives and processes, rather than on acquiring skill in social work methods and techniques, and should include the use of firsthand field observation, audio-visual aids, speakers from the profession, membership in campus social service clubs, and other devices for furthering professional attitude and outlook. An undergraduate college obviously cannot provide a program of this character with a teacher who is without practical experience in social work, or with a practitioner-teacher who can do little beyond imparting the "practical tricks of the trade" which are often designated as methods and techniques. What is needed is broad but professionally oriented scholarship.

CHAPTER

V

Qraduate Professional Education for Social Work T

V H I S CHAPTER CARRIES FORWARD the analysis and appraisal of professional education for social work that were introduced in the preceding chapter. The intent of the present discussion is to create a broad framework within which the profession can develop specific proposals for modifying objectives, curricula, methods, and related factors that shape social work education as it is offered in separately organized graduate professional schools. T h e chapter also comments on the faculty and student body as human factors in the professional education equation, but in the interest of logical organization it leaves to the succeeding chapter a related appraisal of university organization, administration, finance, degrees, and faculty personnel policies as they affect the operation of a school of social work.

An Approach to Program Revision The realities of the situation require those who would rechart a course for social work education to begin with an appraisal of educator-practitioner readiness for change, and with an understanding of the status of graduate schools of social work in the United States. Readiness of the profession for change.—In appraising readiness, the social work profession should consider the expectations and demands of three groups, each of which has in it practitioners and professors. At one extreme are the "idealists" who, like their colleagues in other fields, believe that schools of social work with a united front could build the profession in the image of their own philosophy and ideals—if only they had the courage to do so. They like to point out that Abraham Flexner and a few medical reformers

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

211

remade medical education—and thereby the profession—in a matter of two decades. It is true, as Flexner said, that the average medical school of 1910 was "a casual association of local physicians lecturing and occasionally demonstrating to a nondescript body of medical students," and that by 1930 medical schools were reasonably well-disciplined university enterprises, but the passing years have blurred the fact that it required a united profession to bring the venture to fruition. T i m e has also obliterated the fact that philanthropic foundations 1 of the nation poured $154,000,000 into the venture and that the taxpayers and philanthropists who support universities provided an even larger sum. T h e role envisioned in Chapter I I I for social work during the next two or three decades strongly reinforces the current need for a richer and more extensive graduate professional program, but, like medical education, its development will require professional unity, considerable money, and the cooperation of college and university administrators and trustees. At the other extreme is a group of social work educators and practitioners who consider themselves "realists." T h e y also believe that without vision a people or a profession perish, but they consider as "visionary" in the worst sense of the word proposals for raising professional standards when salary schedules for professional social workers usually do not exceed those of public school teachers, occupational therapists, nurses, and other professional occupations for which most states require no more than four years of post-high school preparation. By word and deed these social work educators say the responsibility of schools should be limited to preparing the level of social workers the field of practice is ready to pay for now, even if in some states the level is limited to home visitors for public assistance agencies or casework aides for private welfare agencies. They contend that graduate social work education has divorced itself from the needs of the profession and has gone "high-brow." In the view of this report, a substantial working plurality, perhaps a majority, of the profession is ready to modify social work education along lines somewhere between the above two extremes. A 1 For a summary on philanthropic contributions to professional education, see Emest V. Hollis, Philanthropic Foundations and Higher Education (New York: Columbia University Press, 1938), pp. 208-37.

212

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

program for the future can be constructed or reconstructed, as has already been intimated, in terms of philosophical and sociological concepts of what a profession ought to be, but to be realistic it must take into consideration what job analyses show the profession is today. Taken separately and too literally, the first procedure leads to a theoretical and impractical regimen of study, and the second one to a curriculum that is apt to preserve the status quo. An eclectic approach that uses the best elements of the two methods is likely to be more fruitful. It is necessary to begin with the profession where it is and proceed by orderly steps in moving it to where consensus indicates it ought to be. But it does not follow that all professional workers advance as rapidly as professional requirements that apply to new practitioners. Faculty readiness.—Even if the "middle way" segment of the social work profession musters the leadership required for a thoroughgoing redirection of the professional program in social work, the effort could not come to full fruition without the leadership of social work faculties and the continuous encouragement and support of college and university administrators. Significant modifications in objectives and curriculum usually call for improvements in staff and student body, and these imply changes in university organization, administration, and finance. A review of the relevant materials from Chapter VI on the role of boards of control and university administrators in reshaping social work education is important for developing a realistic perspective on the total job of redirecting professional education in graduate schools of social work. As the agent of the profession and the university, faculties of schools of social work, jointly and severally, are immediately responsible for the nature and quality of professional education that is offered in the field. Accordingly, it is important in projecting a program for modifying curricula to take stock of their readiness and capacity for change. Sometimes their jobs or their well-established ways of doing things may be the price they pay for changes in a curriculum. A thoughtful reading of Chapters I and II should convince the unbiased that the faculty and the educational program of today do not mirror social work of the broad scope described in Chapter III

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

2/5

and envisioned earlier by Sophonisba Breckinridge, the Abbotts, Mary Richmond, Porter Lee, and the other founders of professional education for social work. For them, it was the study of social work and not merely the study of the practice of social work. Casework was important to them, but their concern was with preparing social workers and not group workers or caseworkers or specialists in community organization or public welfare administration. Their educational goals included research and the promotion of social legislation at the level of statesmanship, as well as skills in ministering to the needs of individuals. But because schools of social work have tended to be local institutions associated with voluntary casework agencies, and because the initial body of professional knowledge developed from casework, faculties have tended to be drawn primarily from this predominant area of practice. Quite naturally, they have tended to perpetuate the emphasis on therapeutically oriented services to individuals, which was the major area of distinctive social work practice until the middle thirties and which continues to be a chief source of job opportunities. Faculty preoccupation with social work education shaped to the needs of private social welfare agencies has also hindered adoption into the curriculum of new ideas and philosophies of social welfare that were set in motion on a national scale by emergency relief legislation of the 1930's and by the Social Security Act of 1935. Even though farseeing social work educators helped to spearhead the fight for the enactment of these laws, and have supported the decade and a half of struggle to make them a professional reality in American life, it is questionable whether the rank and file of faculty members in schools of social work across the nation have either generally understood or genuinely accepted the revolution in social work practice and education that is embodied in these public welfare developments. This conclusion is not surprising if one remembers that, except as they were influenced by pioneer thinkers in the field, most fulltime faculty members of today have been taught by social work educators who subscribed to the private agency concept of social work, who spoke of "casework" and "social work" as synonymous terms, and who encouraged field work largely in voluntary casework agencies. In an effort to bring social work education nearer

a 14

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

the growing edge of practice, some leaders have committed their schools to public welfare programs only to find a lack of readiness in the field and to discover that a majority of their faculty lacked the zeal, conviction, and broad understanding required to produce practitioners for an area which now employs two thirds of all workers in social service positions. Nevertheless, it should be noted that teachers of social work generally are less "set in their ways" than the average graduate or professional faculty member. T h e r e is real ground for optimism in this fact. Leaders of social work education, like their colleagues in other professions, long ago recognized that a professional faculty is strengthened by being affiliated with other university faculties. But, as is set forth in Chapter V I , for one reason or another social work educators have tended to find themselves in the university but not always of it. T h i s has been due in part to two primary causes that no longer constitute compelling reasons for standing aloof: an unspoken fear of losing professional identity through being swallowed u p by the social sciences, and a sense of not being received as professional equals by other faculties of the university, especially by the graduate school faculty. It is crucially important for social work faculties to become much better integrated into the university tradition of scholarship and teaching as well as to relate themselves to the totality of social work as practiced today. T h e y have much to contribute to a body of scholars and even more to gain from them. T h e section of Chapter V I which deals with faculty personnel administration shows some of the reasons why the average social work faculty is not always prepared to work as equals with other faculties of the university. T h e section suggests some practical steps the university and the profession can take to improve the scholarly qualifications of persons appointed to social work faculties. T a k i n g these steps would of course require social work to give up some of its cultist notions, and the university to forego some of its preconceived ideas of what constitutes scholarly service. T h e embodiment of these recommendations, moreover, would require considerable funds for preparing an adequate supply of social work educators and for inducing those already prepared to accept university appointments.

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

215

Educationally sound curriculum proposals can, of course, be developed without regard for the professional readiness of the human beings concerned. Indeed, history shows this to have been a cardinal error in the strategy of those w h o heretofore have developed social work curricula. T h e mistake should not be repeated. Valid curricula may be developed for "the best of all possible worlds," but they should be introduced with a d u e regard for faculty and student limitations. Participation in program development is a sure way to increase professional readiness. Scope and character of the undertaking.—Many university officials and some social work practitioners are not sufficiently acquainted with the universe that would be involved in a comprehensive redirection of graduate social work education. Altogether in 1950 there were 57 graduate schools which held membership in two national associations; they were unevenly distributed throughout the United States, most of them being in urban centers. T w o year or longer programs were maintained by 43 schools, and oneyear programs by 14 schools. T h e cumulative annual full-time graduate enrollment of the 57 schools approximated 5,200, the parttime enrollment 3,900, and 1,200 persons from other fields were enrolled for occasional courses appropriate to their varied professional interests. O n l y 17 schools enrolled 100 or more full-time students, and they account for approximately 60 percent of all full-time students. T h e remaining 40 schools enrolled 40 percent, an average for each of one percent of the total full-time enrollment. Slightly more than one fifth of the two-year schools enrolled 30 or fewer full-time students, and one fifth of the one-year schools enrolled 4 or fewer full-time students. Some of the marginal or fringe schools of social work appear in 1950 to be as much in need of major "surgery" as were the medical schools of 1910 which Flexner characterized as "a casual association of local physicians lecturing and occasionally demonstrating to a nondescript body of medical students." T h e uneven character of professional programs in the 57 schools constitutes as significant a challenge to curriculum reforms as do their uneven size and distribution. Instruction in casework usually is well developed and constitutes the backbone of curricula in all schools. Curriculum materials in group work tend to be more

216

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

nebulous, the quality of instruction more uneven, and a substantial number of schools do not offer systematic programs in the field. Advanced course offerings in community organization, administration, research, and teaching vary greatly among the schools, and only selected institutions are authorized to offer medical, psychiatric, and other social work specializations. Several two-year schools have four or fewer full-time faculty members, and some of this group have four times as many "casual practitioners" who serve as part-time teachers, while the better developed schools have thirty or more full-time faculty members whose combined competence covers the entire range of social work. T h e part-time teachers in the latter group of schools tend to be chosen for their specialized knowledge, to be relatively permanent members of the faculty, and to bear a one-to-one ratio to full-time teachers. Boards of trustees and presidents who are considering adding a school of social work to the university often are deterred from doing so by the unfavorable word-of-mouth reports of their colleagues who have less than satisfactory social work education units on their campuses. Accordingly, in the view of this report, those who assume responsibility for developing and accrediting curricula cannot ignore the profession-wide problems created by the school that has "dried on the vine" without coming to educational maturity due to an inhospitable environment or to the lack of university and social work leadership. Curriculum requirements that would close these unfruitful schools are likely to encourage the establishment of new schools that have better prospects of facilities, funds, and intellectual support from substantial universities and from the larger community of social welfare workers. T h e eagerness of leaders in social work education to get on with the job of modifying curricula is demonstrated by the fact that the profession accepted the principles and essential recommendations of this report (see Chapter VII) for establishing a single professionwide organization to deal with the development and accreditation of programs, even before they appeared in print. But in the last analysis, no matter how brilliant its leadership, this organization cannot move any faster in getting social work education modified in actual school programs than readiness for these changes is produced in the human beings concerned. Neither can it be done any

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

2/7

faster than officials of universities are impelled to devote an adequate share of their budgets to preparing social work personnel for a field that recently has become one of the major functions of government and to which private donors annually contribute 4 billion dollars.

PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES

IN PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

T h e establishment of a frame of reference which social work educators may use in appraising professional programs may well begin with criteria for judging the adequacy of social work to meet its professional responsibilities. By the first two and final two of the seven criteria listed in the concluding section of Chapter II, the status of the profession would be appraised in terms of the objectives and curricula of its educational program. In that connection it was more specifically stated that the readiness of social work to assume professional responsibility may be estimated, in part, by the degree to which its practitioners are qualified to exercise competent self-direction in such educational matters as (1) the use of pertinent data from fields which underlie or are collateral to social work and the use of knowledge and skills commonly acquired in a professional curriculum; (2) conducting research and experimentation to extend the body of professional knowledge; (3) a disciplined use of the self to assure behavior that facilitates rather than interferes with professional service; and (4) the capacity to relate professional activities to the welfare of the individual and of society rather than to the special interests of the professional person or group. More specific criteria are required as touchstones for setting the goals or objectives of professional social work education, and for determining what parts of it come within the purview of the undergraduate college, the graduate professional school, and the social work organizations that formulate and enforce professional standards. T h e profession still has ahead of it the task of stating the philosophical, social, and educational assumptions and principles which it will use for these purposes. It also has not yet undertaken a comprehensive and systematic study of social work practice that can be used in fixing the substantive character of educational objectives. As a matter of fact, it has few policies and no plan for mak-

2I8

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

ing such an analysis, but in time one may be expected to evolve from several limited studies of social work practice that are now under way. These include, for example, studies of educational status, salary, and working conditions of practitioners that will be valuable in relating general objectives to course objectives and procedures, and for estimating the readiness of a school to revise its curricula to bring them in line with national patterns. Guiding Assumptions and Principles A recapitulation of the assumptions and principles that have guided the analysis and appraisal of education for careers in social work reported in this study may stimulate the profession to state its own basic assumptions and to use them in developing general, program, and course objectives. A summation of these valuation statements should at least clarify the framework used in this and the preceding chapter. T h e y are: 1. Education for professional responsibility is a continuous process which begins in the undergraduate college, is followed by study in a graduate professional school, and is continued after graduation through organized professional association with colleagues. 2. Distinctive and interrelated social work education functions are carried by the undergraduate college, by the graduate professional school, and by the field of social work practice. Neither agency can or should undertake the whole job—total responsibility belongs to the whole profession. 3. Social work education should be an integral part of a college or university not only by placement in the structure and through financial support, but functionally as it draws upon, and contributes to, educational policy, instructional resources, and research. 4. T h e purpose of social work education is to develop an individual's zeal for learning and his capacity to generalize from particulars that may be acquired in classroom, field experiences, and research. Education is not a matter of cramming him with the technical knowledge and skills of the profession. It does, however, include what the profession calls "the disciplined use of self" in professional relationships. 5. Graduation in learning is essential to achieve the goals of professional study and, as elsewhere, intellectual, emotional, and skill

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

219

levels of learning should move from perceptual learning (specifics) to conceptual learning (abstractions and generalizations), each of which is normally expressed as behavior (application). 6. Curriculum revision should be undertaken in terms of agreedupon objectives and should consist in identifying and organizing appropriate concepts and curriculum experiences. Revision by large items such as courses is educationally unsound. 7. Arbitrary decisions are required for classifying concepts which overlap the lines commonly used to designate education as "general" and "specialized" education; it is not always feasible to categorize concepts as belonging to one type of education. 8. T h e purpose of the learner quite as often as the nature of the subject matter determines whether a given concept is integrated as general or as professional education. 9. General education is a purposeful organization of concepts from the cultural heritage for enriching capacity for personal living, family life, and democratic citizenship, and may be taught in the undergraduate, graduate, or professional segments of the curriculum. 10. L i f e needs should be the touchstone for selecting concepts of general education, just as professional responsibility should be in selecting concepts for professional curricula. 1 1 . Controversial concepts (birth control and "welfare state" are examples) should be taught so as to present all the relevant facts and viewpoints. 12. T h e most important questions about content often do not relate to what concepts are to be taught but to the character and valuation of knowledge used to give concepts essential meaning. 13. T h e purpose of basic professional education (undergraduate and graduate) is to lay the foundation for later specialized study and to provide the prospective practitioner with the indispensable learning outcomes. 14. T h e basic professional curriculum should be organized into comprehensive and related teaching units in which there is articulation of classroom study, field teaching, student advising, and research. 15. Basic professional knowledge is too comprehensive for all of it to be taught economically by case, clinical, or other inductive

22o

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

methods—important as these are in the learning process. Inductive methods may be used almost exclusively in advanced professional study. 16. Control of curriculum and direction of the educational use of facilities should rest with the professional school, in both the university and the cooperating social work agency. Status of Analyses of Practice While the social work profession has no announced policy or plan for making a comprehensive and systematic analysis of practice, the results of which are so badly needed as one of the ingredients for developing a statement of general and intermediate objectives, interest in such analyses is evidenced by sporadic studies of this general nature that have been made recently or are now under way. T h e results of what is believed to be the first research for measuring "success" in social casework provide a significant illustration. 2 These studies, including a field test of a movement scale under the sponsorship of the Community Service Society of New York, are significant because they provide a new and standardized measure for determining the effectiveness of the helping process and for validating empirical conclusions of professionals about the effectiveness of social casework. Until similar data from other areas of social work are available, social work educators cannot proceed with assurance in developing curricula that prepare for the exercise of broad professional responsibility. At the present stage of the profession's development, curricula in many schools are still organized as sequences of courses calculated to enhance competence for service in defined areas of casework and group work associated with specified settings. Competencies Expected of Social Workers Until functions and objectives can be derived from a comprehensive philosophical and sociological synthesis of actual practice, social work educators must rely 011 syntheses of their own empirical 2 J . McVickers Hunt and others, Measuring Results in Social Casework and Testing Results in Social Case Work (New York: Family Service Association of America,

'95°)-

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

221

statements as to what constitutes the basic competencies they expect in social workers. T h e development of general and intermediate objectives will require a more comprehensive and more detailed analysis of the professional responsibility concept than it has been possible to make in this study. And what is perhaps more important, the development of these objectives will require insight in using the resulting philosophical postulates and principles for transmuting the findings of job analyses into substantive objectives. T h e profession has only begun to make systematic studies of the actual tasks performed by social workers in the principal types of jobs so as to show the content, complexity, and degrees of responsibility of each major duty. Illustrative are the functional studies carried on by the American Association of Medical Social Workers cited as footnote 9 in Chapter I, a Bureau of Public Assistance study of the activities of training supervisors in state public assistance agencies (cited and more fully discussed on page 332 of Chapter VII), and an as yet unreported study of school social work conducted in 1950 jointly by the National Association of School Social Workers and the American Association of Social Workers. Samples of published and less formal statements by professional membership organizations, governmental and voluntary employing agencies, schools of social work, and leading social work educators and practitioners were examined to determine the nature of competencies the profession considered essential for social work practice as of 1950. T h e materials included, among other things, sample job specifications and examination announcements for public and private agencies; criteria for admission to schools of social work; statements on functions, areas of practice, curriculum content, and personnel and training needs; recruiting leaflets; and memoranda and summaries of discussions prepared especially for use in this report. T h e analysis selected only competencies considered broadly applicable (1) in all areas of social work practice (administration, casework, community organization and social planning, group work, and research); (2) in responsibilities in a wide range of social work positions (practitioner, supervisor, administrator, consultant, and teacher); (3) in a majority of welfare programs and social agencies settings (for example, child and family welfare, social work in the

222

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

schools, Girl Scout work, public assistance, public health service, and medical and psychiatric social work). Variations existed, of course, in the competencies expected in a particular person, depending upon the function of the agency and the nature of his responsibility in a particular job. For example, in an executive position the administrator would carry more over-all responsibility for personnel administration than the practitioner in casework or group work, but the latter also would participate in this aspect of administration through contributing to the formulation of personnel policy, through helping to develop standards of job performance, and often through helping with training activities for staff, volunteers, or students. T h e practitioner, therefore, needs among his basic competencies a knowledge of principles and methods of personnel administration. Competencies expected of social workers, for the purpose of this analysis, were grouped into three categories: (1) perceptual and conceptual knowledge; (2) skills, methods, processes, and procedures; (3) personal professional qualities. Attitudes permeated all three. T h e first two of these categories have been referred to graphically as "must know" and "must do" items. Perhaps the third should be designated as the "must be and must feel" category. T h e composite statement follows: Perceptual and conceptual knowledge.—Grounding in selected social science subject matter, for example: the structure and philosophy of government, the nature and dynamics of social change, the significance for the individual and community of different customs and experiences in various cultural groups as these affect individual and group opportunities, and the principles of social security. Historical perspective in social welfare developments and experiments, up-to-date information about major contemporary political, economic, religious, and social movements. Understanding of the significance of individual behavior in interaction with the social environment. Understanding of group behavior and the nature and role of groups in the community. Knowledge of the most common physical, social, and emotional deviations that occur in the life span of individuals and of the social and psychological implications of these deviations. Knowledge of legal basis for major social welfare services. Knowledge of adequate standards in social welfare.

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

22)

Knowledge of principles, objectives, and methods of social work administration. Knowledge of community structure, dynamics, and resources. Knowledge of the principles, objectives, and processes used in social casework, social group work, intergroup relations, social planning and community organization, supervision, public administration, public relations, and research. Skills.—Skill in establishing and maintaining purposeful and constructive relationships with individuals, groups, and communities—this skill to be applicable whether the person or groups are applicants for, or recipients of, services, colleagues in the same agency or in other social work organizations, members of related professional groups, board members, legislators, or the general public. Skill in the helping process directed toward enabling an individual, group, or community to identify and clarify needs or problems and to move toward achieving self-determined goals within a socially desirable framework that meets individual, group, or community needs, rather than those of the social worker. Using the self in professional relationships that require self-understanding, control of personal feelings and needs, warmth of response; and establishing and maintaining responsible and appropriate relationships with each person or unit involved in a situation. Skills in social planning and action. Skills in administrative methods, processes, and procedures. Skill in the use of scientific methods basic to social work research and practice. Skill in the multidisciplined approach; in teamwork; in statesmanship; in negotiation; in consultation; in liaison relationships w i t h citizens' groups; in the conference method; in recognition and use of the contributions of other specialists in resolving a problem or in social planning; ability to communicate what the social worker has to contribute. T e a c h i n g skill in development of agency staff; in training of volunteers; in student field work and classroom teaching in schools of social work; in teaching students in related fields, such as medical, theological, or nursing students. Skill in communication. Personal arid professional qualities.—Qualities considered important to successful practice of social work inherent in the social worker's personality endowment or developed by education and experience: Genuine warmth, sensitivity to, and liking for, people, and a capacity to identify with a variety of persons. A professional philosophy. Emotional, mental, and physical health and stability. A degree of maturity and self-security which enables a professional

224

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

person to give beyond his own needs in relationship with others and to feel comfortable with authority. Imagination, resourcefulness, and flexibility combined with personal integrity, courage, and a conviction about the value to society of the things for which social work stands. Capacity to think conceptually. Open-mindedness, clarity of purpose, accuracy, and ability to share. Courtesy in all professional relationships expressed through conversation and written communications. A belief in the broad base of citizen participation and a conviction about the right of the person, group, and community to choose alternatives and to achieve their own destiny within the framework of a stable and democratic society. Obviously, some of the competencies would be developed in undergraduate education, although a number of items would appear again in graduate professional study. Some competencies would be acquired only through both study and experience. Others would be achieved primarily through practice, but all of them seem to be generic to many areas of social work practice—if "generic" is used in the sense of having wide application in the field, rather than erroneously as elementary. T h e composite statement of what many individuals and groups in the profession consider basic areas of competence to be expected of social workers has been presented both with its omissions and its breadth to show the status of thinking on social work objectives, rather than with any expectation that social work educators could use it directly in making curriculum modifications. It would be of little use in curriculum development unless complete and until the standard of competence expected in each item is determined. Even then it would be of little use until responsibility for developing competencies is allocated to, and accepted by, appropriate educational agencies, and is recognized as a continuing responsibility by employing agencies. Perhaps the first step in relating an acceptable list of competencies to educational experiences likely to produce them in working quantities is to identify and set apart those to which education does not contribute significantly. Some of the most basic competencies expected of social workers are characteristics one does or does not have as a matter of biological inheritance, or that one may have lost forever through accident or other hazards of living. Acceptable

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

225

standards of competence in these matters must be agreed upon by the profession as a whole and be enforced by competent authority at the time an individual is admitted to a school of social work or to a professional position. A later section of this chapter which deals with the recruitment and selection of students illustrates and suggests some practical steps that schools of social work may take to assure the profession of personnel that has the requisite amount of these relatively immutable qualities.

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

CURRICULA

OVER-ALL

CONSIDERATIONS

If this were a scientific study of curricula instead of a broad analysis and empirical appraisal of social work education generally, the present chapter would end here until philosophical and educational assumptions are clarified and until analyses of practice become less nebulous. T h e nature of the study and the fact that social work education must continue to improve by patchwork procedures until an educationally sound formulation of objectives is developed, nevertheless, combine to make additional comments on curricula imperative. Aside from the fact that the profession has not yet adequately defined or verified its educational objectives and consequently cannot show satisfactorily what part of the end results it seeks can be attributed to its service and what part to causes that would have operated anyway, the second most important handicap to improving social work curricula inheres in a source of the profession's greatest strength, namely, social casework. Casework has been the matrix out of which most social work principles, content, and processes have emerged. It still constitutes the core of education for social work because it has within it psychiatric content, principles, and processes in working with individuals, social work philosophy and ethics, and conscious attention to professional growth in the student. In planning a whole curriculum, these should be examined as basic elements needed by all students. But as important, historically, as this contribution is, the domi nance of casework has had undesirable effects of three sorts. In the first place, it has produced an imbalance in the curriculum through isolating students from study in the broad fields of public welfare,

226

GRADUA

TE PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

community organization, administration, research, and the disciplines on which they rest. In the second place, the emphasis on casework has tended to stress casework skills to the detriment of skills and other learning outcomes which social workers need and which a basic curriculum would provide in the broad fields just named. Finally, students not concentrating in the casework sequence have often failed to secure much needed understanding of psychiatric and other content needed for working with individuals. Fortunately, there is a liberal, informed, and courageous leadership among social work educators and practitioners around which all segments of the profession can rally in working to secure balance in social work curricula. It has been at work for some time and has made substantial progress, but if curriculum revision is to go forward effectively, ways must be found to extend to other parts of the curriculum that content which is now confined to casework sequences, and to broaden the influence of the orthodox casework teachers who in little more than a generation transformed apprenticeship training into a recognized level of professional education. In itself this is a difficult undertaking. T h e Women's Bureau, Department of Labor, reports that approximately 45 percent of all full-time faculty members in schools of social work are listed as generic or specialized teachers of social casework. 3 Inertia is a third major hindrance to curriculum reform. If casework surrendered its present controlling interest in social work curricula and if all segments of the profession joined in adopting a sound basic curriculum and a series of specialized advanced curricula, the struggle for curriculum reform would be far from won. Deans and directors of field work in schools of social work know, for example, that normally a decade may elapse before the majority of a faculty really abandons the old and takes on the new. A n even longer period usually is required for most cooperating social work agencies to overcome their tendency to do business as heretofore. A n d it is common knowledge in university administrative circles that significant changes in program often run afoul of the inertias inherent in university regulations. These inertias are of course not ' Marguerite W . Zapoleon, The Outlook for Women in Social Work Administration, Research, and Teaching, Bulletin S35, Social Work Series, Women's Bureau, United States Department of Labor (Washington, D.C., 1 9 5 1 ) .

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

227

peculiar to graduate schools of social work, but they nevertheless must be taken into account by national and local groups of social workers who expect to move curriculum recommendations from the paper proposal stage to educational practice. Proposed Character 0/ Curriculum Expansion Unless one believes that the study of individual behavior and casework principles and processes is synonymous with social work education, he is likely to conclude that most curricula are not comprehensive enough to provide professional staff for so diverse a profession as social work. This report holds that, without curtailing a suitable program for social workers who serve individuals directly, schools should, as local conditions permit, seek staff and funds to offer (with the cooperation of other divisions of the university) programs for the preparation of more professional personnel (1) for group work agencies that serve children, youth, and adults; (2) for research and the teaching of social work; (3) for administering and supervising a wide scope of social welfare programs; (4) for community organization situations; and (5) to develop broad social welfare policy and plans. Moreover, as the section on basic curriculum will make evident and as leading schools have long emphasized, it is suggested that the most fundamental need of the profession is for professional personnel that has had basic education in undifferentiated social work. This preparation should also be the minimum of general professional education required for unqualified entrance to the profession or for beginning study in a social work specialization. T o achieve these ends as completely as is desired, the concept of social work, and therefore of social work education, should be broadened and deepened, in the manner outlined in Chapter III, so as to encourage schools to prepare social workers needed not only for traditional functions, but for broadened social work functions in the social insurances, vocational rehabilitation, public schools, public health, international organizations, recreational agencies, labor unions, business corporations, and correctional agencies. The enrichment advocated is not for the purpose of extending instruction to still other "settings." Rather, it is a broadening and deepening that will better relate study in both basic and specialized cur-

228

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

ricula to the social welfare functions of these and other agencies that are currently considered to be at the periphery of the social work orbit. T h e assumption is that a social worker employs or should employ similar professional skills u n d e r defined circumstances regardless of whether he is engaged in a private group work or casework agency, or is employed by the courts, an industrial corporation, a labor u n i o n , a federal agency, or a county welfare department. But to be an effective m e m b e r of a team devoted to the service of individuals or groups, the social worker must be cognizant of the nature, philosophy, and structure of the type of organization with which he is connected. H e also needs to understand the general and the social welfare functions of his agency and how his role is related to that of other professional and nonprofessional workers with whom he is associated. A large share of the specifics of learning about a particular setting should take place on the job, as is elaborated in Chapter VII, b u t the f u n d a m e n t a l characteristics of schools, hospitals, courts, business, and other social institutions, or rural, u r b a n , industrial, and international situations, are properly a part of professional education. O n e can learn in a sound basic professional curriculum, for example, the variation in the services to individuals, groups, or communities one would perform in a public school, a prison or correctional institution, a child guidance clinic, a g r o u p work program, a personnel department, a childplacing agency, a public assistance program, a family counseling service, a housing program, or in an old age and survivors insurance field office. T h e social work curriculum, like that of most other professions, is handicapped by too m u c h isolation f r o m the m a i n stream of university instruction a n d research. If social work educators develop curricula along lines suggested in the preceding paragraphs, they will be u n d e r the necessity of closer cooperation with other instructional divisions of the university. A school of social work should not expect to develop and offer all the courses implied by so wide a variety of social work services. T h e university cannot afford, for example, the extra costs usually involved when several divisions offer their own lists of courses in statistics, social science

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

229

research, community organization, human growth and change, social legislation, social ethics, and other fields. Moreover, a common course given in one graduate or professional department offers a practical and creative way for developing the multidiscipline approach so essential to later professional practice in social work, medicine, nursing, teaching, the ministry, and other professions concerned directly with human welfare. T h i s idea of teamwork has been put into practice by many private and governmental bodies in the United States, and by those responsible for orientation of specialists who will later work as teammates to provide technical assistance in economically underdeveloped areas of the world under the Foreign Economic Cooperation Act of 1950, popularly known as the Point Four Program. T h e reason most commonly given for the duplication of courses in universities is the fact that other departments are unable or unwilling to give the professional emphases required. It is generally true that courses which are open to other departments or professional schools were designed as part of a sequence for students specializing in the division which is offering them and, therefore, are not well suited to others. Nevertheless, there is no real reason why the graduate and professional faculties of a university may not by cooperation modify such courses or create new ones that are genuinely and broadly oriented, and that are offered in the faculty best staffed to give them. Moreover, it would be instructionally wholesome for an interchange of faculty members to accompany the planning and offering of such courses. T h e procedure being recommended is of course already under way between social work and other faculties of many universities, but might well go forward in a more systematic fashion and at an accelerated rate. For example, in 1948-49, of the 12,233 students enrolled in the graduate professional curricula of 44 schools of social work, 1,661, or 13.6 percent, were not specializing in social work but were using portions of its curriculum. This is high testimony to the value that other disciplines attach to certain social work courses. T h e r e are no comparable figures available to show the extent to which social work educators and students have made a corresponding use of other university curricula, but it is general practice in most schools

2)0

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

to enroll advanced students with other departments, for example, for selected courses in public administration, medicine, law, or the social sciences. Another of the over-all considerations that should be taken into account in developing a plan for curriculum revision is the administrative relationship of the school of social work to the other divisions of the university, which is discussed at some length in Chapter VI. T h e analyses and recommendations of the first major section of that chapter concerning the too dependent or the too independent school of social work in its relation to the graduate school and the university structure will not be repeated at this point, but it is important to note the life-giving influence of broad university policies on professional curricula and courses. It is equally important to avoid the untoward influence that may be exerted on professional curricula and courses by an orthodox graduate school council. If it acts for the university in approving courses and curricula and uses traditional arts and sciences criteria instead of those of university-wide significance that are appropriate for professional study, great harm may be done to a field like social work education. On the other hand, it is not good for any faculty to be left entirely to its own devices in curriculum-making; it should be willing to have its proposals reviewed by competent university and professional authority, but a professional school should be recognized as competent to apply the principles laid down by the university. Dichotomy of the Curriculum T h e dichotomy that continues to exist between the classroom and the field work portions of the curriculum, despite a considerable effort to resolve it, constitutes another over-all factor that must be taken into consideration in developing a comprehensive plan for curriculum revision. T h e specific handicaps involved in this lack of integration are pointed up later in the chapter in connection with discussions of the basic curriculum and of specialized curricula, but it is important as an over-all consideration to understand something of the cause and the deep-lying nature of the dichotomy. Historically speaking, the two types of program evolved from very different educational traditions. Field instruction has its roots

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

2)i

in an apprenticeship type of education, while classroom instruction has its roots in the traditions of American higher education. Initially, classroom instruction in social work education was incidental and for the purpose of rounding out and giving some generalization to agency-directed learning by doing. Field study has been the nucleus of social work education during most of the fifty years of its history in the United States, and today occupies from 40 to 50 percent of the scheduled time of students. T h e transition of field instruction from apprenticeship ideals to those of a professional character is proceeding apace but sporadically, and is badly in need of coordination by a nation-wide body of the profession. At its best, field instruction provides the student with an opportunity to apply a wide range of theory under the careful guidance of qualified supervisors, and to develop his own ways of relating himself to people and their problems as they are served by the social agency which he represents. Some social work educators do not agree that a dichotomy exists between classroom and field teaching, pointing out that they have the common purpose of helping a student become a self-directing, professional person. Nevertheless, it is the position of this report that an objective examination of the immediate goals, content, and methods of classroom and of field programs (as stated in school catalogues and field work manuals) shows a deep-lying difference in purpose and philosophy. T h e curriculum experiences of classroom courses usually center on concepts that constitute the body of social work knowledge, and they tend to be taught so as to establish principles and other forms of generalization that are useful in giving order and meaning to the particulars of social work experience. Curriculum experiences in field study, on the other hand, while incorporating some of the same concepts, tend to center too largely on specific knowledges and skills related to the practice of social work. T h e primary problem of the curriculum-maker in these matters is to preserve the indispensable features of learning "to do" and "to be" associated with field teaching while bringing it in line with the requirements of sound graduate professional education. T h e recommendations of this report for resolving the dichotomy in the basic curriculum appear in a later section of the chapter. T h e Curriculum Planning Committee of the American Associa-

232

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

tion of Schools of Social Work recognized the need that still exists for such a course of action by declaring: Field work has often escaped the rigorous scrutiny given other courses due to the dependence of schools on social agencies for the provision of field work units and instructors or supervisors, and to the difficulties involved in distinguishing between practice in an agency or learning on-the-job and field work planned for the benefit of the student in the light of educational principles. In addition, field work teaching has suffered from what Virginia Robinson terms "its confusing entanglements with the casework process," and the individual character of the instruction has not been free of difficulties both for the educational institution and for the social agency.4 Many social work education leaders have indicated their belief that the profession is under the necessity of documenting its conviction that so large a proportion of the total time of the first year of study should be devoted to field work. Study and experimentation are particularly important in this area of the curriculum if social work is to continue its significant contributions to development of professional competence through the supervisory process. Such research would require controlled experiments geared to show the relative educational and financial advantages of selected amounts and kinds of field work instruction. Such an attack on the problem is to be commended. T h e preliminary and tentative figures on the cost of field work, for example (see final section of Chapter VI), indicate that it is 43 percent of the total cost of instruction, and, although most of the sum is represented by hidden costs, it is none the less real and should be justified on educational grounds and modified upward or downward in keeping with the findings of objective studies. T h e educational issues that require analysis are succintly stated in the quotation at the beginning of this paragraph. Practical evidence of the dichotomy is also apparent in matters of faculty, scheduling, and credit toward graduation. Field teaching is still largely done by agency supervisors who have only a nominal connection with a school of social work and whose primary function is to provide services to clients rather than to educate another generation of social workers. Most schools of social work are moving in the direction of using more regular members of the faculty for * American Association of Schools of Social Work, single-page mimeographed release No. 403 of 1941.

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

233

field teaching, but it is not yet majority practice and a number of practical hurdles in school-agency relations (see Chapter V I I ) must be cleared before it may feasibly become so. Despite the great reliance the profession places on field study, as is evidenced by nearly half of the student's scheduled time being devoted to it (usually in whole- or half-day blocks), the course is credited toward graduation at an average rate of one credit hour for each six clock hours of work per week during a semester or quarter—an action which places a lower academic value on it than is given for similar study by any other discipline or profession. It is common university practice for laboratory courses to carry one hour of credit for each two clock hours of work engaged in for each week of the semester or quarter; in fields such as music and physical education, where laboratory periods are devoted primarily to the perfection of skills and require no outside preparation, the customary ratio of credit hours to clock hours is one to three. In the view of this report, both the credits situation and the limited use of regular faculty resources indicate the need for a reappraisal of academic and professional policy with a view to giving field study whatever substantive recognition it deserves. It is sometimes contended (see Chapter V I I ) that if social work educators had the same control of field or clinical facilities that medical educators have, they could resolve the curriculum issues involved in field teaching. While this is doubtful because such facilities might become atypical of social work practice, perhaps what all schools of social work really need for effective curriculum revision is educational control of the independent field facilities they use. T h e necessary educational control has been largely achieved in some instances, and where it does not exist it is usually due to (1) shortage of qualified field faculty or inability to pay for qualified agency field teachers; (2) difference of opinion as to whether agency supervisors or faculty members are better situated to do field teaching; (3) need for more explicit agency-school agreement on the criteria essential for judging the adequacy of field teaching situations; and (4) the limited number of social work agencies, particularly in public welfare, that accept field teaching as a function to which it should devote attention and a share of the annual budget. T h e operation of these and other factors in determining school-

234

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

agency relations in field teaching is discussed more fully in Chapter VII; it is noted here for its bearing on over-all curriculum revision policies. Perhaps the most feasible way to strengthen and extend field teaching facilities is for university and agency boards of control to make budget arrangements (see Chapter VI) which will enable schools of social work to employ field work teachers at comparable ranks and by the same procedures used for other members of the faculty. But if adequate field teaching faculty, funds, and facilities were readily available, schools of social work still would have much to do to integrate field and classroom teaching. There is a serious and urgent need for research and experimentation further to clarify the purpose, objectives, content, and method of field work instruction. Until substantial progress is made in these matters, there is little point to discussions or innovations on the length of time to be devoted to field work, or on when it should begin and end, or on whether it should be concurrent with classroom instruction or be given in full-time blocks between intensive periods of classroom instruction. As the faculty of one school put it, "Little will be achieved in remedying details until we decide whether field work is primarily motivating, maturing, interest-sustaining, attitudeinfluencing, illustrating, implementing, skill-generating, or some blend of these and other objectives."

THE BASIC PROFESSIONAL CURRICULUM

In an address delivered at the National Conference of Social Work in 1928, Edith Abbott outlined and advocated a basic curriculum which in its essentials might still be recommended to the profession. 5 (The profession now uses the term generic, instead of basic and sometimes as if it were synonymous with elementary or general.) She declared that graduates in general were not being prepared as social workers, as intended by the founders of social work education, but as narrow practitioners who have "become so concerned about casework methods and such phenomena as the ego libido and various psychiatric diagnoses, and such exigencies * Edith Abbott, Social Welfare and Professional Education (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1931), Chapter III.

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

235

as community chest financial campaigns, that they have lost their sense of responsibility for public welfare." T h e profession, despite its diligence, has not yet brought to fruition the vision of this pioneer educator who more than twenty years ago advocated a modern conception of a field and classroom program which required an integrated body of . knowledge covering (1) social treatment or the principles of dealing with families and individuals (casework); (2) public welfare administration; (3) social research; (4) law and government; (5) social economics and politics, including the social insurances; and (6) the history of social experimentation. Evolution of Basic Curriculum In 1928 there was no minimum curriculum of any kind that was generally followed by schools of social work. Schools exchanged views, but each went its own way in curriculum matters until a minimum recommended curriculum was adopted by the American Association of Schools of Social Work in 1932. Another twelve years elapsed between the recommendation of 1932, which applied to the whole curriculum, and the 1944 amendment to it which recommended that the generic program be revised to include instruction in eight basic areas of social work content: community organization; medical information; psychiatric information; public welfare; social administration; social casework; social group work; and social research. Along with these areas of study, the curriculum was expected to include "an approved program of field work under the educational direction of the school." What with the upheavals of World War I I and the dislocations that have followed in its wake, most schools of social work have made only limited and sporadic progress in developing a basic curriculum. In many schools there is not yet so much as one year of basic social work education being offered. Students still enter from any "sound" bachelor's degree course and devote a substantial part of the first year and most of the second one to preparation for practice in a selected area of social work. T h e content and methods of classroom and field teaching have tended to follow the narrower focus instead of that implied by the basic eight areas of social work education. An examination of school catalogues leaves little doubt

236

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

that the basic curriculum used to buttress social work specializations is usually broken into too many atomistic two-credit hour courses that lack sequence or pattern for integration. T o o often instruction in these courses has neglected a systematic examination of the considerable body of knowledge that exists in the eight areas of social work education in favor of a catch-as-catch-can examination of items of immediate interest. A substantial group of schools, nevertheless, has made considerable progress in establishing a two-year basic curriculum which is related both to the undergraduate program on which it should rest and to the specialized curricula which flow from it. A notable instance is the program of the School of Social Service Administration of the University of Chicago. T h e New York School of Social Work of Columbia University began in 1950 a curriculum revision project which also has great promise of producing a genuinely basic social work curriculum. Quite simply, the New York School study is seeking the basic items that all social workers need to know, to do, and to be—and is trying to discover and organize curriculum experiences to reach the ends that the analysis indicates as desirable. T h e experience of a single faculty in a great metropolitan center, no matter how full of insight, is obviously too limited a base from which to derive the principles and concepts of a curriculum fundamental enough to be used throughout the United States. But as other able faculties across the country who are now engaged in similar studies pool their findings, it is likely that the profession will in time have "the makings" for a two-year basic curriculum. Committee and workshop reports of the American Association of Schools of Social Work and of the associations of social work specializations indicate that social work educators are actively engaged nationally in working at this task, although in some of the newer areas of content there is still much to be done. For example, the 1949 report of the American Association's committee on teaching public welfare as one of the eight basic areas of content says: " T h e r e was very little similarity among the schools' offerings [in public welfare]. T h e experience, interest, and capacity of individual teachers have largely determined what is offered." T h e report indicated in addition that content usually was not organized around concepts and principles but consisted too largely of empirical

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

237

knowledge and descriptive material about particular public welfare programs. Some other areas of the basic curriculum are better developed. T h e Association concerned with medical social work, for example, has given considerable attention to basic curriculum development, as well as to keeping the specialized curriculum responsive to changing needs that are brought about by the emerging role of the medical social worker in administration, community organization, public welfare, and public health programs. But if the basic curriculum is to become really generic, medical social work and all other specializations must take more positive steps to include more of their fundamental concepts and curriculum materials, and some of them must delay specialized study per se until the beginning of the second year or later. In the face of professional pressures to continue present patterns of specialization and of economic pressures against extending the period of social work education further, social work specializations must exercise a high order of self-discipline for the common good in order to bring into being the kind of basic curriculum that the profession has endorsed in principle. Basic Curriculum Proposals In making the transition from what exists of a basic or generic curriculum to what this report maintains ought to exist, it is suggested that social work educators continue to think and plan in terms of a two-year basic graduate curriculum. Until this goal is reached, it is recommended that work be concentrated on making the first year genuinely and wholly basic or generic in character, and to this end that courses or concepts identified with social work specializations or aimed at specialization in method be shifted to the second year or later. T h e program of the first year should at the same time be closely integrated with the undergraduate concentration in social work proposed in the preceding chapter. Under normal conditions, education for the specializations should be completely eliminated before 1955 from the first year of graduate study in all schools, and the work of the first year should by then be organized and taught as a body of principles, policies, processes, and concepts of social work. Perhaps within a decade, learning in the field of social work education can be further synthe-

2J8

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

sized to produce a two-year basic curriculum and, in addition, oneor two-year curricula for the specializations for which the doctorate in social work could be awarded. Some schools have the faculty and curriculum readiness to make the proposed shift within a year or two, and a few are already involved in the process, but most of them will find it necessary to move more slowly and will need encouragement and assistance that might be given by a commission of a national council on social work education. Character and organization of curriculum.—While social work educators have decided empirically that eight areas of social work ought to be included in the knowing, doing, and being aspects of a basic curriculum, it must be reiterated that the profession has not devised criteria for identifying the concepts it considers fundamental enough to be required of all social work students. In the view of this report, such a determination is the first step in developing an educationally sound plan of curriculum revision. T h e second step requires these basic concepts to be divided for teaching purposes between the undergraduate concentration proposed in Chapter IV and the basic graduate year or years proposed in the preceding paragraphs. A third step in basic curriculum revision would require social work educators to come to grips with the issues and problems inherent in organizing agreed-upon concepts into manageable teaching units and courses, and in selecting curriculum experiences to give flesh-and-blood reality and the breath of life to what would otherwise be an intellectual valley of dry bones. T h e current basic curriculum has been criticized as having what is believed to be an unsound dichotomy between classroom and field instruction, for fragmenting the classroom portion of the curriculum into too many unrelated one- and two-credit hour courses, and for devoting from 40 to 50 percent of the scheduled time of beginning graduate professional students to a field or clinical type of instruction for which they usually do not have either ideational or psychological readiness. This report maintains that a basic professional curriculum should bridge the gap between the full-fledged clinical or field instruction which the succeeding section recommends for advanced social work education and the customary type of undergraduate education program.

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

239

As a step toward achieving these ends it is recommended that first-year basic curriculum concepts and materials be organized into four or five comprehensive and articulated areas of study, each of which includes a series of inclusive and integrated teaching units. What social work educators now designate as field work would be incorporated in these areas or courses. Both field teaching and classroom teaching (which includes research and counseling) would be used as needed in presenting the knowing, doing, and being aspects of an instructional unit. T o illustrate rather than to propose, these units might vary in length from a few days to several weeks and might be grouped into four comprehensive, year-long courses: 1. A comprehensive course consisting of selected instructional units calculated to broaden and deepen understanding and capacity to cope with social process and social institutions in relation to social welfare in the United States 2. A comprehensive course which combines biopsychosocial material into teaching units focused on developing professional social work knowledge, skill, and attitude for face-to-face work with individuals, groups, and communities 3. A comprehensive course composed of teaching units which present either in historical perspective, or current sociological crosssection, the theory and practice of social work as a profession, its philosophy and ethics, and its relation to other professions and to society in general 4. A comprehensive course composed of teaching units focused on providing beginners with a working knowledge of the profession as reflected in public and private social work organization, administration, finance, personnel; and in public information, research, and community organization Each of these composite courses should be an academic year in length and, depending on the content assigned, should carry from three to five semester hours or equivalent credit each semester. Despite their comprehensive character, these courses should not be offered as surveys of the areas with which they deal. Instead, they should be restricted to articulated essential concepts and should be conducted by standards similar to those which govern other forward-looking university graduate and professional courses, such

24o

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

as the requirements for independent scholarly study, for critical examination of literature and field experience, and for a comprehensive examination to demonstrate mastery and integration. It is of course recognized that the four broad areas or courses may be broken into somewhat smaller course units without violating the purpose inherent in the illustrations. Experience in teaching comprehensive courses in other fields has shown that effective instruction usually requires general direction by one teacher and the instructional service of a panel of four or five specialists. This arrangement is especially important during the period in which the units of a course are being developed. Usually the size of the panel can be reduced as its members acquire capacity to teach social work concepts that heretofore belonged only to specialists. A teacher may serve on as many panels and for as long a period on each as he has special competence to make contributions. T h e director of a course should have, in addition to coordinating skill, a broad and deep teaching command of the area and a responsibility for field teaching comparable to that exercised in the classroom. T h e person or persons on the panel who have immediate responsibility for field teaching should have a comprehensive knowledge of the area similar to that expected of the director. It is not within the purview of this report to name the instructional units or to outline the content of the four basic areas of social work education that have been used for the purposes of illustration, but a few comments on the character of the curriculum in each area may have clarification and orientation values. T h e purpose of instruction in the first area should be to enable professional social workers to rise above the level of skilled technicians through acquiring a working knowledge of the several social institutions that have immediate responsibility for private and public welfare services, and through acquiring a realistic understanding of the social processes of American democracy in the economic, political, and cultural aspects of our life. Most that is customarily taught in the first year of a graduate social work course to produce social work skills might be distilled and offered as the second of the four areas of basic curriculum. In addition to content aimed at giving the student an understand-

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

241

ing of the history, philosophy, ethics, and other aspects of social work theory, the third area of the basic curriculum could emphasize the sociology of the profession. Social workers, like other professional groups, tend to come from the relatively privileged economic and cultural strata of the population. Consequently, they need to acquire a realistic understanding of social psychology and of the mores of the people they serve, as well as a working knowledge of the mores of the profession they are entering. In the fourth illustration of a basic curriculum area, social work educators would be under the necessity of developing instructional units from the ground up. T h e organization and focus of existing knowledge is almost wholly on the needs of specialists. In research, for instance, most schools of social work set course and thesis requirements (in imitation of the graduate school or by its requirements) as if all students had elected to become research workers. W h a t is needed is capacity to read, interpret, and use research findings. T h e basic knowledge and skill required for this purpose should govern the selection of instructional concepts and materials, and should determine the character and technical standards of the thesis research of more advanced students. Schools of social work across the country are at different stages of readiness to offer comprehensive courses in the areas suggested. Indeed, the readiness of an individual school to offer courses in each of the four areas might vary greatly. For example, offering a course in the second area might call for little more than the consolidation and articulation of basic concepts in existing fragmented courses, for a reintegration of classroom and field teaching, and for a competent panel of teachers imbued with the ideals of a basic curriculum. But the same school might lack one or more of these ingredients for offering a course in other of the four areas. T h e current unevenness of development in the four areas of basic curriculum should not, however, deter the profession or school from beginning work in each area. Field teaching in basic curriculum.—The dichotomy of classroom and field teaching epitomizes the difficulties of inaugurating the proposed basic curriculum. In current practice, first year field work is customarily carried on by a student w h o works two days per week for an academic year in a single social work agency on

a42

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

assignments graduated somewhat to his ability and readiness. He usually works alone under the direction of an agency or school supervisor who is not present while he engages in learning-by-doing but who guides the process by remote control through conducting individual or group conferences at stated intervals. These conferences, with many notable exceptions, too largely are focused on stimulating self-understanding or in counseling on how to improve service to clients. T h e y lack the breadth and character of graduate seminars that relate field experience to the principles and concepts studied in the classroom portion of the curriculum. From the beginning, a student usually has full responsibility for assigned cases or groups and is expected to supply the services they require from whatever professional background he may have at the time. While a one-to-one correlation should not be expected between the content of field and classroom instruction, in current practice the correlation is generally low except in the parallel methods course, such as casework or group work. In the view of this report, the instructional procedure described in the preceding paragraph is not educationally sound or administratively economical for use with beginning professional students. In lieu of such an arrangement, it is proposed that school and agency field teachers be regular members of one or more panels and that it be recognized that their competence for field teaching is no broader than their competence for classroom instruction. T h e objectives of field teaching should be identical with those of classroom work and should be as carefully organized into teaching units. Otherwise, there is no way to test ability to apply theory; without directed practice, learning might not pass beyond the stage of verbalization. It is more important for the field teacher to be thoroughly conversant with ideas being taught in the course than that he have responsibility for directing the entire field study program of a student. Methods should be suited to the content so that during the basic year a student may have more than one field teacher and may have studied in more than one type of social work agency. If the principle of integrating classroom and field teaching is observed, fragmentation will not follow the use of more than one field work teacher or social work situation. T h e field teacher and his student together may, as a practical ad-

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

24)

ministrative matter, assume full responsibility for professional service to the cases and groups selected for instructional purposes, but the persons served during the educational process should not be left primarily in the hands of beginning students. T h e professional dictum concerning the confidential nature of relations between social worker and client may thus be raised from the individual to the group level, as is now common between a client and a firm of lawyers or a group of doctors who engage in group practice. In this way the field teacher can be present during certain learning experiences, which often may be of such a nature that a group of students can engage in it simultaneously without destroying its essence or the dynamics involved. Such an arrangement has the advantages that flow from group learning to compensate for the inevitable losses of a one-student and one-teacher tutorial situation and is justifiable, additionally, on the grounds of economical and effective use of faculty and agency resources. Experimentation, curriculum study, and refocusing within the curriculum may even lead to redistribution of content among classroom, research, field teaching, and the student advisory function. In basic field learning, sequences should be developed so that a student would see the case or group situation steadily and whole without undergoing the demanding and sometimes devastating experience of trying to cope with a constellation of problems before he has the professional competence to do so. Field study thus arranged would enable him to progress normally from observation and group participation to individual responsibility for carefully graded experiences which he carries out under the immediate direction of a field teacher. By the close of the first basic year of study, a student should be able to assume full responsibility for working with a case or group or other social work situation of normal complexity without the instructor's being present; indeed, having done so might well be made a requirement for beginning the second year of study. Specifics aside, the paramount principle to be observed in revising the field teaching aspects of the basic curriculum is to have the same broad content of social work taught in the classroom and in the field and to relate the field assignments given students to their background of knowledge and experience. For a decade or more the

244

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

basic curriculum will continue to attract a substantial number of experienced social workers, for w h o m this principle is especially applicable. Basic curriculum methodology.—In making provisions to keep the knowledge component of social work education infused with the feeling, doing, and being aspects of professional growth, it should not be assumed that firsthand field experience is the only or always the best way to achieve these ends. Intellectual, emotional, and skills learning takes place simultaneously in most educational situations. A student does not acquire professional knowledge as a separate entity in a classroom, nor professional skill in applying knowledge in a field work situation, nor professional attitude as an undefined, residual outcome of the total educative process. Effective teaching and learning in any aspect of the basic curriculum require the use of teaching methods and instructional devices that appeal to as many as possible of the five senses, but especially to the visual and auditory senses under conditions that permit the student to react verbally and emotionally through some form of identification or overt behavior. A n object or a more complex situation does not have meaning for the individual until it is perceived and interpreted by the senses and related to his current background and framework of conceptual learning. T h i s report is not a treatise on methodology, but it may be noted that the instructional units of the proposed comprehensive basic courses might be taught deductively as a series of sequential propositions after the fashion commonly used in teaching plane geometry, or they might be taught inductively as a series of loosely related cases, problems, or projects. A mixed plan suiting method to content and somewhere between these extremes seems desirable. T h e nature of the instructional unit and the ingenuity of the teacher usually are the primarly determiners of instructional methods and devices. In the view of this report, less experienced social work educators sometimes use a haphazard discussion method in both casework and group work in the belief that they are using an inductive case or clinical method of organizing and teaching a curriculum unit. T h e inductive methods of presenting curriculum experiences, while effective, are time-consuming and require resourceful and skilled teachers. Inductive teaching tends to limit the amount of

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

243

content that can be studied and may interfere with the logical sequence commonly associated with systematic deductive teaching arrangements. In order to provide continuity, progression, and integration within and between units, it is usually necessary to use both the inductive and deductive approaches. What is important is to select a curriculum arrangement and methodology appropriate to the objectives of the unit and of the course of which it is a part. Accordingly, realistic curriculum planners cannot avoid giving consideration to instructional methods and devices. Some schools are now introducing the use of films, platter and wire recordings, one-way vision screens, telecasts, and other forms of audio-visual devices for facilitating instruction. These are modern technological means of providing rich, concrete experiences for students at the right moment psychologically. T h e y are more economical of student time than field trips, and may be used with most teaching methods. Audio-visual aids make it possible to observe a wider range of social work practice than is feasible through field work—not only of community resources, but of certain characteristic methods, such as the interviewing or group process, which usually would not be possible at firsthand without infringing on the confidential and dynamic nature of the professional relationship involved. Psychiatry in Action, a British film, and First as a Child, sponsored by ¡lie Virginia Maternal and Child Health Division, for example, present interviews between the social worker and the patient or his family that clarify the social worker's role and the teamwork of a group of specialists who contribute to the individual's recovery. Social work educators in schools and agencies are currently evaluating the available films and the few recordings on child development, agency programs, mental hygiene, psychiatry, supervision, education, and other related subjects for potential teaching values in social work. A film on interviewing as a casework process, which the Veterans Administration produced in 1 9 5 1 , and a few films in the medical field which demonstrate the team approach give promise of great usefulness as teaching material. A few experiments with recordings of group process for teaching purposes were also under way in 1 9 5 1 , as, for example, those conducted by Grace Coyle at Western Reserve University.

246 GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

Implications of the illustrations.—It should be recognized that acceptance of the recommendation for integrating first-year field experience with the content taught in four or five comprehensive basic or generic courses could have a profound and far-reaching influence on the character and cost of the basic social work education program. There would be fewer courses, larger classes, and more group instruction. T h e curriculum would be broader, more intellectual in character, better integrated internally, and better articulated externally with both the undergraduate concentration and the curricula for specializations. T h e present dichotomy between classroom and field study would disappear, and the knowing, doing, and feeling aspects of a basic concept would be taught in the situation most appropriate for furthering the learning process. Acting on these proposals would, of course, create as many immediate problems as they solve concerning the use of staff and the cooperation of social work agencies, but it is believed that in the long run they will enable the profession to resolve some of its most fundamental educational issues. While the proposed changes in the basic curriculum have been made because they are believed to be educationally more defensible than present practice, there is considerable immediate justification for doing so in the fact that they might, especially in field work instruction, enable most schools to admit more first-year students. T h e field work facilities, as customarily used, would thus be increased for the use of second- and third-year students and might easily permit an increase in enrollment in curricula for the social work specializations. These increased enrollments would soon make a significant contribution to the critical shortage of qualified professional personnel. And withal, the annual per capita cost of educating a social worker probably would be reduced while the quality of his education would be enriched. Feasibility and next steps.—The basic curriculum proposals of this report are not foreign to research and innovations already under way in schools of social work, as the following illustrations indicate. T h e University of Chicago has from its beginning stood for the basic curriculum viewpoint (not the proposal) advocated in this report. Mention has already been made of the comprehensive basic curriculum study conducted by the New York School of Social

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

Work. T h e program now in embryo at the University of California at Los Angeles has embedded in it many of the ideas of this report, but the staff is finding that a professional school cannot go forward without the understanding and cooperation of field teaching agencies. T h e University of Illinois is still farther along with a basic educational program that has many ideas and principles in common with the proposals of this report. Smith College, Simmons College, Washington University, and Tulane University—each in its own way—have made contributions toward resolving the dichotomy between classroom and field teaching. Western Reserve University and the University of Pittsburgh have made major contributions toward the formulation of group work concepts that are of enough importance to be required of all social work students. T h e University of Pittsburgh has made an outstanding contribution to the creation of a basic curriculum through developing the comprehensive course mentioned earlier, "Human Growth and Change," to replace a more narrowly oriented course in "Psychiatric Information" and to present new basic material on growth and change from the fields of biology, psychology, and sociology. T h e new course at Pittsburgh is not so comprehensive as is recommended by this report, but it is a powerful and salutary move in that direction. At the national level of professional effort to produce a basic curriculum, faculty members from schools of social work throughout the country have made significant individual contributions through their professional associations and publications.

CURRICULA FOR SOCIAL WORK

SPECIALIZATIONS

In view of its youth, its rapid growth in response to social responsibilities, and the absence of adequate self-regulation or external controls, the uneven growth of social work education should not be surprising. Like most other social institutions, social work has responded to the tacit requirements of our highly technological and otherwise complex civilization. Over-all management responsibility in such a society requires the capacities of the generalist, but its day-to-day operation in almost any field requires knowledge and skill from each of several vocations and professions which no one human being can encompass fully or use competently. In other

248

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

words, the character of American society has produced and is likely to continue the demand for an increasing number and variety of specialists. Therefore, it is incumbent on social work—and this applies equally to other professions—to undertake continuous and systematic planning to reduce the lacunae, overlaps, and conflicts among existing specializations, and to provide for their orderly development from a common basic curriculum. It also must plan for the development of other specializations to meet social needs as these arise and are recognized. Evolution of Professional Specializations Lest the inference be drawn that social work is the only profession in which specializations have grown up without plan, it should be noted that this phenomenon appears to be a characteristic of all professions and that many of them have not yet attacked the problem systematically or vigorously. Medicine has done more than most professions in this respect, but it was not until 1920 that it established committees on the specializations, even though it had recognized opthalmology (apparently as a fait accompli) as a specialty in 1 9 1 7 . Standards for use in recognizing a medical specialization were developed and adopted by the profession in 1923. However, only four specializations were authorized by 1933. As of 1950, curricula had been authorized for nineteen medical specialties, the most recent being preventive medicine and public health. T h e experience of medicine is recalled for the purpose of emphasizing the idea that bringing order into social work specializations, while continuing to meet social needs with some flexibility, is likely to be a long and arduous undertaking. A closer reading of the experience of the medical profession indicates that the process has also been painful to a variety of vested interests. It also shows that except for specializations well under way at the time the process was initiated, the establishment and modification of curricula for specializations in medicine did not precede their authorization. Considerable of the content of newly authorized specializations had of necessity developed in one or more of the older specializations. T h e experience of the medical profession in bringing a semblance of order among its specializations and in providing curricula for

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

249

them should be helpful to those who may be responsible for this phase of social work education—as would be the experience of dentistry, engineering, law, teaching, and other professions, if there were space to record them. Forty years ago both doctors and social workers were predominantly general practitioners who worked in all the now recognized specializations of their professions; indeed, each group also practiced in what are now recognized as other professions. In time the needs of society and the special interests and experiences of practitioners led to the development of a new knowledge and skill which came to be regarded as a specialization informally long before it was formally so designated by the profession. T h u s surgery developed in the field of medicine and casework in the field of social work. Each of these had in common a reliance on special methods and skills which at first were thought sufficient in surgery for all organs of the body and in casework for all persons in the society. These parallel patterns later proliferated into a surgical specialization for each major part of the body, and into social work specializations by fields, age groups, and by settings, such as medical and psychiatric social work. A t cross purposes with the above pattern of specialization, each of these professions has divided its field in still another way, that is, by specializations which serve designated groups of the population. For example, medicine has its pediatrics and social work its child welfare specialization—and to confound the confusion, each has its family practitioner. A t the same time, each of these professions cuts the cloth of specialization still other ways; for example, medicine has its dermatology and radiology, and social work has its social group work and community organization. T w o other aspects of the evolving pattern of specialization in medicine may have some cues for the field of social work specialization. First, it may be significant for the social work profession to note that the medical profession authorized orthopedic surgery as a specialization before recognizing general surgery as such, and that only recently surgical specializations—thoracic surgery, for instance—have begun to be listed as subdivisions of general surgery instead of as independent specializations. In the second place, it should be noted that until quite recently surgery certified proctologists, but proctology is now recognized as a separate specializa-

250 GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

tion; specialists in allergy continue to be certified both by internal medicine and pediatrics. Any way you look at the two professions, their specializations do not fall into neat logical patterns. Moreover, neither social work nor medicine is likely to undo its professional history as it develops plans for improving relationships among specializations, and between them and the basic curriculum. The Nature of Specialization Social usefulness, in the last analysis, determines what professional specializations a society will sanction and support, but the organized profession of social work can and should shape the character and scope of such specializations and the program of education required as preparation for them. T h e specializations of this young and vigorous profession have already demonstrated their leadership and their willingness to make modifications in the interest of social usefulness and the orderly development of social work as a whole. In order to capitalize on this attitude and leadership, this report recommends that a committee of the proposed council on social work education be empowered to study the nature of specialization and to formulate criteria for their authorization and curricula. T h e comments that follow are intended to help such a committee get its work under way. Perhaps the first question the committee will need to answer is: What are the characteristics by which a social work specialization can or should be recognized? This report makes no pretense of knowing the answer, but it is of the opinion that Gordon Hamilton suggested a sound approach when she said: "If we can agree that the older 'specializations' by agency setting are breaking down in the face of a broader base for social work, we shall be more prepared for the newer specializations of advanced practice, administration, supervision, teaching, and research." • If one accepts the kind of a basic curriculum proposed in this report, a specialization by agency setting alone indeed becomes incongruous. In implying that social work specializations should be characterized by functions instead of by agency settings, Hamilton exhibits a sound understanding of the realities of social work practice and keen insight • Gordon R. Hamilton. " T h e Interaction of School and Agency," Social Work Journal, X X X (April, 1949), 77.

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

251

concerning the essential nature of advanced professional education. It is, nevertheless, one thing to recognize the broad difference between basic and specialized social work education or the general difference between specialization based on major functions and on agency settings, and quite another to establish these distinctions as bench marks to guide concrete curriculum proposals. T h e proposed committee on social work specializations would have to begin by devising criteria for separating the basic from the specialized in social work practice and education, and, if it accepts the idea that specialization should be based on major functions instead of setting, the committee certainly would have to establish criteria by which functions, when translated into educational objectives, would be learned so as to operate in a variety of related settings instead of in a single setting. Comments in the next subsection on specializations for advanced social work practice illustrate the difficulty of discussing performance by functions without dropping to the level of performance in a particular setting. T h i s report also rejects the idea widely held by social workers that casework, group work, and community organization are social work specializations. In reality, they are m a j o r areas of curriculum which, by analogy, bear a relation to the whole social work curricul u m similar to that which the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences as groups bear to the whole undergraduate or graduate curriculum in arts and sciences. Even a cursory examination of the professional functions which social work specialists perform, leads to the conclusion that all of them need to drink deeply at these three springs of professional learning. A competent medical social worker, for example, often needs more than the advanced knowledges and skills of casework learned in a medical setting. For adequate functioning, these specialists frequently require ability to work with groups of individuals and with community organizations—and they regularly require a working understanding of administrative mechanism, principles, policy, and process in order to function as one of a team of specialists. T h e situation does not differ in essentials for other social work specializations, such as psychiatric social work and school social work. If the major functions performed by a specialist were the touchstone for selecting concepts and teaching materials, the curricula of social work specializations

2ß2

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

would be broader and of a different character from curriculum specializations that are primarily upward extensions of casework, group work, or some other segment of social work education studied in a particular setting. Specialization for Advanced Practice Fixing the bounds of broader specializations for direct service to individuals and groups is likely to be a trying experience for the profession. In areas where specializations do not exist, it will be difficult to establish and validate the functions that ought to be performed, and in areas already preempted by specializations based largely on settings or population groups, vested interest factors and the fear of change are likely to complicate the task. This report makes no pretense of knowing what the bounds of a specialization for advanced practice ought to be, but in its view the present situation is educationally undesirable. This judgment is not intended as a condemnation of the valiant efforts of pioneer specialists and the leaders of today who have developed the peaks of specialized theory and practice which the profession has at present. Instead, it flows from the optimistic premise that the profession is ready to consolidate and articulate its specialized assets into more comprehensive and flexible patterns for advanced practice or other professional responsibility that can be related to the type of social work for which the proposed basic curriculum would prepare. T h e gaps, overlapping, overspecialization, and lack of specialization in what is now designated as advanced practice in family welfare, child welfare, school social work, group work, correction and probationary work, psychiatric and medical social work, and other areas, can be remedied if not resolved if the profession decides to devote sufficient time and talent to the undertaking. But it is not a job to be done for specialists or by specialists alone. It requires the combined talents of generalists who see the field of social work steadily and whole, and the competencies of forward-looking specialists who have developed and promoted the standards of advanced practice and education now in use. T h e medical and the psychiatric social work specializations provide pertinent illustrations of the shortcomings mentioned above. Perhaps the first step in enlarging and articulating the bounds of

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

255

these specializations is to make analyses of practice similar to the study that the American Association of Psychiatric Social Workers had under way in 1950, and similar to an earlier study which established the fact that a medical social worker has a different function than a doctor or a nurse. There is need to show clearly that a psychiatric social worker is not a junior psychiatrist or a clinical psychologist. Stated positively, both specializations need to identify further their functions as separate from, but related to, other welfare workers such as doctor, nurse, hospital superintendent or other administrative officer, public health official, occupational and physical therapist, clergyman, and other professional personnel concerned with the welfare of the individual or group for whom service is being provided. Performance of the agreed-upon functions would of course vary in details in different settings—as would those of the other professional groups named—but their essential character should be the same for persons who expect to work in hospitals, clinics, public health units, health and disability insurance plans, social service agencies, or other welfare organizations that require the specialized knowledge and skill of a medical or psychiatric social worker. These specializations and the profession as a whole need to discard the fallacious notion that essential functions change with a change of setting. A doctor is a doctor regardless of where he practices his profession, and the same should be true of a social worker. Otherwise, the inference is justified that identifiable functions do not exist for which a program of education and training should be required. An observance of the principles just advanced would require education for medical social work to extend its boundaries somewhat—especially in field teaching, which is now too largely restricted to the hospital setting. And despite protestations to the contrary, concepts and curriculum materials of classroom courses rely too heavily on a social casework base. T h e observation is even more applicable to the education of psychiatric social workers. In so far as psychiatric social work is carried on exclusively in cooperation with psychiatrists, in hospitals and clinics devoted to mental illness as one phase of medicine, the base of the specialization is narrower than that of medical social work. In practice, psychiatric

2$4

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

social work has heretofore focused primarily on the mental hygiene aspects of behavior that are more closely identified with social services than with medical services. This situation suggests that psychiatric social work educators should develop a curriculum in terms of both of these essential functions rather than by applying social casework to psychiatry as one of the nineteen medical specializations. Indeed, an investigation of the common functions of psychiatric and medical social work in relation to the medical setting might lead to the amalgamation of these aspects of the two specializations. In the view of this report, an analytical review of advanced practice and education in school social work and in the child welfare and the family welfare fields, among others, would reveal an even more complicated and less defensible situation than exists in the more sharply defined and professionally recognized medical, psychiatric, and group work specializations. T h e bounds of practice, and hence of education in child welfare, are largely fixed by the casework approach and by settings and population groups which disregard the fact that children are usually members of natural or foster families. T h e major functions actually performed by advanced practitioners in the two specialized areas would constitute a better framework for education for direct service to individuals or groups. Specialization for Social Work Administration, Teaching, and Research Social work has heretofore given considerable attention to specializations for advanced casework and group work practice, but it has been dilatory or even resistant to assuming responsibility for preparing administrators, supervisors, teachers, and research workers for the profession. A substantial number of leaders in the field, for instance, doubt that social work administrators should be considered as members of the profession, and hence doubt that a professional school has any responsibility for their education. Instead, they believe administrators, other than supervisors, belong in a category similar to that used by the medical profession for administrators of hospitals and clinics. Pressures on the profession to produce more practitioners rather than resistance to the idea of educat-

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

255

ing teachers and research workers have delayed the inauguration of systematic programs in these specializations. It is the position of this report that administration, supervision, teaching, and research should be constituted as social work specializations, that the curriculum for each should be based on the major functions normally performed, and that these specializations should begin with the completion of the basic curriculum under policies and procedures similar to those used for the specializations of advanced practice. Many social work educators are reluctant to accept this proposal because, among other reasons, they believe students who have completed only one year of basic graduate professional study lack the experience and other aspects of professional maturity required for successful advanced study in these fields. Pending the achievement of the full two-year basic curriculum, the answer to this objection lies in limiting admission to any specialized curriculum to students who qualify by agreed-upon criteria. Such criteria could take into account differences in readiness which are to be found in students with some previous professional education and considerable professional experience who constitute a sizable portion of students in the schools today. T h e development of such criteria is not within the purview of this report, but those who undertake it should seek to eliminate or validate the unsubstantiated assumption that administrators, teachers, and research workers must have served as general or specialized practitioners; it may be educationally as sound for them to have had their social work experience as assistants in the field in which they specialize. Specialization by function will require an individual to explore the whole field of social work from his chosen approach and thus reduce the tendency to concentrate on techniques and on process commonly associated with specialization by settings. T h e most compelling reason for undertaking the four specializations forthwith is to prevent a further going of separate ways by administrators, supervisors, teachers, researchers, and practitioners. It is of paramount importance for the administrator and the research worker to be more closely identified professionally with others in the groups just named. Because of the nature of their leadership, the profession cannot afford to continue its present practice of denying them membership in professional associations be-

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

cause they have not completed a program of education designed for a practitioner and which contributes only marginally to the functions they perform for the profession. Instead, social work educators should devise a program suited to their needs, should make more use of other divisions of the university in offering it, and should take such other steps as are calculated to integrate administration and research work into the accepted core of professional practice. T h e profession also needs to review the functions performed by social work supervisors and to devise an advanced program of education suited to their needs. They are in part administrators, in part teachers, and in part practitioners. Nevertheless, they usually are educated as if they functioned only as practitioners—even though they may be on leave from supervisory positions at the time. They should not be expected to pursue programs designed for advanced practitioners, or for general administrators, or for professional teachers; the functions they perform require parts of these three curricula plus instructional units tailored to their specific needs. And, obviously, qualifications other than completion of the basic curriculum and service as a practitioner should be required for admission to the advanced curriculum for social work supervisors. Further Suggestions for Revising Specializations Social work educators may overwhelm themselves with the tremendous task involved in organizing curricula by functions for the advanced specializations of practice, administration, supervision, and research, by taking a quick look at the complexities of the problem in their own specialization—that of a teacher of basic and specialized social work. Greater and more specific knowledge in one's own field may make the undertaking seem more formidable there than elsewhere, but in reality it likely is less so because the graduate schools of the country have made some analyses of the issues. Moreover, the broad scope of teaching, especially in the basic year or years, makes the task of developing curriculum experiences easier. T h e pattern of functions customarily performed by social work researchers, like those of supervisors and teachers, has many ele-

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

257

ments in common with the other specializations that have been mentioned. Moreover, like administration, most of the basic body of knowledge on which it relies has been developed by mathematics and the natural and social sciences. But in order to apply his research and statistical skills in the field of social work, the researcher needs a substantial understanding of the theory of social work and of its administrative practices, and a moderate orientation in the areas of social work process and advanced practice. T h i s pattern of preparation should prepare one to undertake undifferentiated basic research. If the researcher is concerned only with administrative research in a specialized area of social work, such as child welfare, he obviously would need to devote more time to developing his knowledge of the field. Advocacy of the establishment of functional specializations in administration, supervision, teaching, and research should not be interpreted as implying that all accredited schools of social work should offer them. In fact, the position of this report is that these specializations should be offered only in situations that have adequate school and university resources for the purpose, and satisfactory professional commitments for cooperation with the graduate school, the school of education, and the school or division responsible for the administration of public administration and government. As of 1950 less than a dozen schools of social work were so situated; indeed, only half that number then offered any advanced courses in these fields. These sporadic courses, moreover, tended to be geared to the third year of graduate professional study — a level that so far has attracted only a token number of students. T h i s action appears to stem from the unverified assumption that administrators, teachers, and research workers should first have advanced professional education and experience as social work practitioners. What is suggested, after the profession has agreed upon the functions and curricula for these specializations, is that a limited number of the professionally and financially strong schools be encouraged to undertake programs for the preparation of personnel in one or more of the four specializations, as is now contemplated by the School of Social Service Administration of the University of Chicago in giving major attention to advanced study programs.

25«

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

Objective and Content in Education for All Specializations T h e broad scope of the study and the fact that the director is not a social work educator join to make it impractical for this report to outline the functions from which curriculum objectives should be derived for the specializations of advanced practice and for those of administration, supervision, teaching, and research. T h e contribution of this report to the clarification of objectives must rest on the discussion which appears in an early section of this chapter. For the same reasons, it is not feasible to analyze and illustrate concepts, curriculum materials, and methods appropriate for instructional use. Moreover, there is less necessity for doing so for social work educators than existed for spelling out these matters for them in the fields of undergraduate education examined in Chapter IV. These tremendous tasks are left to more competent professional hands. Nevertheless, some further comment on content and method may be useful to those who are assigned the vital responsibility of determining the character and bounds of social work specializations. In the view of this report, all specialized curricula should have their roots in a common basic curriculum. They should differ from it primarily through each having a narrower scope and sharper focus which permits the student to secure a working command of the functions involved. Even a cursory close-up look at the components of advanced social work of any kind shows functions that can be exercised only through a high order of knowledge and skill in two or more of the four basic curriculum areas proposed in the preceding section. Specialized education in each area will, in turn, be illustrated. In the first of the four areas—social institutions and social process —each functional specialization would focus on curriculum materials devoted to the institutions and social processes closely related to its work. If the school social worker continues to be recognized as a specialist he would, for example, need to study the school as a social institution, not as a social work setting. Before a school social worker can use professional knowledge effectively in what the teaching profession generally calls "visiting teacher" relationships, he must know why the United States has both a public school system

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

259

and a variety of private and church-related schools and colleges; something of how school systems are organized, administered, and financed; considerable of how its professional personnel are prepared and how their functions articulate with each other and with his own; what the laws, regulations, and esoteric practices are that govern teacher relations to the student, the family, and the community. Without a background of this kind, the social worker cannot join administrators and teachers in developing a constructive social service program aimed at preventing the ills to which a remedial program is directed. Indeed, the school social worker cannot use his professional skills successfully in remedial work with students and their families unless he has enough understanding of the work of teachers and administrators to secure their cooperation both in the school and the community. For these reasons and for the equally impelling one that public and private school administrators write the specifications for employing school social workers, it is imperative for social work educators to enlist the cooperation of the teaching profession, especially its schools of education, in devising and conducting an advanced curriculum for school social workers. Advanced curriculum content in the second of the four suggested basic areas of social work education—knowledge, skill, and attitude required for direct work with individuals and groups—should also be chosen in terms of the functions, if any, of each specialization. Investigation might show, for instance, that a curriculum for research workers required little or no advanced work in this area, while that for administrators, teachers, and supervisors required less concentration than the advanced curriculum for medical social workers. T h e latter specialization, despite too great a reliance on the casework approach, has done considerable pioneering in bringing public health and medical care officials, and a variety of medical teachers, into the development and 6ffering of this phase of the medical social work curriculum. There is, however, a real need to strengthen it by replacing items transferred to the basic curriculum with concepts of group work and of community organization that belong among the knowledges and skills of a medical social worker. Moreover, field teaching should not all be done in hospitals and clinics, much less in special settings for the mentally

2Óo GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

ill. Instead, it should be done in a variety of private and public health and medical care organizations and agencies. Advanced study in the third of the four areas of the proposed basic curriculum—history, philosophy, ethics, and other aspects of the theory of social w o r k — s h o u l d have as its purpose the reintegration of the specializations and, therefore, should be a requirement for all advanced students. T h e fundamental objective should be to prepare the specialist to exercise professional responsibility in social work as a whole; improving his outlook within the specialization, while important, should be a secondary objective. For the desired synthesis to take place, it is important for a class to be composed of a representative cross section of students enrolled in the several specializations, and absolutely essential for the teaching to be done by a broad-gauged social work educator, instead of by an educatorspecialist. Advanced study in the last of the four areas of the basic curriculum—organization, administration, finance, research, public information, and community organization—might be expected to be the major interest of students looking toward careers in all types of social welfare administration. Selected instructional units should be expected to attract research workers, supervisors, and teachers. Students studying in a specialization for advanced practice might not find it feasible to take advanced work in this area. It is doubtful if there is in existence at the moment enough of a systematic body of specialized knowledge in the area of social work administration to justify offering more than a master's degree in the specialization. T h e r e is little systematic advanced curriculum material available, for example, in the administration of the social insurances phase of social security, or in the administration of public assistance, or in the administration of community welfare councils, even though there is a considerable body of empirical experience in each of these fielfts which could be developed for instructional purposes. In addition to Breckinridge's Public Welfare Administration in the United States, perhaps the greatest recent contribution to the conceptualization of administrative practice is the work of Karl deSchweinitz and his Committee on Education and Social Security which operated under the auspices of the American Council on Education. A notable example of its work is deSchweinitz's

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

261

seminal study of administration. 7 Most of the public information and research materials suitable for an advanced curriculum in social work administration and other areas are also scattered about in other professional, business, and academic contexts. Curriculummakers face a prodigious task in extracting concepts and teaching materials from their present contexts and in putting them in a meaningful social work framework. Organization and Methodology of Advanced Curricula Curricula for all social work specializations should, perhaps, be planned as two-year or longer programs which terminate with the award of the doctor's degree; but until a two-year graduate basic curriculum is generally in being, there should be a well-defined arrangement for conferring the master's degree on completion of any first year of specialization, provided it has been preceded by an undergraduate concentration and a one-year graduate basic program similar to the ones proposed in the preceding and present chapters of this report. Realistic next steps, of course, require a recognition of the fact that current curricula for the several specializations of social work are at different stages of development. Accordingly, some will require more time and more university-wide cooperation than others in developing either master's or doctor's degree programs. T h e extent to which classroom and field situations should be used for instructional purposes requires decision that involves both curriculum organization and methodology. T h e present use of field work situations as the primary and vital curricular vehicle for teaching advanced social work is comparable to the use medical educators make of hospitals and clinics. In the view of this report, social work educators have not yet mastered the art of transforming advanced field work from an apprenticeship type of on-the-job learning to an effective form of professional instruction, but they are working assiduously at the task. Field instruction removes the center of gravity of education from the university campus and puts it primarily in selected social work agencies. Because there is no internship, the shift is greater than that in medical education or that in work-study plans used by engineering and other professions. f Karl deSchweinitz, People and Process in Social

Security.

2Ó2 GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

Field learning places an unusually heavy psychological demand on students who must acquire disciplined professional behavior under actual life conditions in a social work agency. T h e field work organization of advanced curriculum experiences also places a responsibility on teachers to which they are not accustomed. Many teachers who are adept at classroom instruction find themselves inept in the tutorial relationship associated with field instruction, and many competent agency supervisors find that they have small capacity for field teaching. T h e inductive method of organizing curriculum experiences, which is essential in effective field teaching, is an art that has few masters in any field of professional education. Without some such teaching methodology to conceptualize learning-by-doing experiences, it will be difficult to raise instruction from an enlightened apprenticeship to a high level of professional education. In doing this, it is important that one of the strongest contributions made by social work to field teaching in professional education be further studied and emphasized, namely, growth in the disciplined use of self in the professional relationship. RECRUITMENT

AND S E L E C T I O N

OF

STUDENTS

It is axiomatic that a profession is doomed to extinction unless it recruits and selects its own membership. All the professions are looking for the intellectually capable, the emotionally stable, the physically well, the personally strong, and the professionally apt. If social work is to attract a sufficient quantity of this type of person to its schools and to its fields of practice, the profession should develop forthwith an organization capable of systematic and continuous recruitment and selection. T h e function of such an organization is not to dragoon, persuade, or proselyte; rather it is to inform, counsel, and select. T h e strength of the profession lies in the challenge it presents for socially useful, personally satisfying, and adequately remunerative service. An effective program of recruitment nationally and locally must precede the use of a plan for selective admissions. T h e development of selective admission procedures can be little more than an academic exercise until the pool of would-be students exceeds by

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

263

more than 50 percent the number of students that can be admitted to the schools of a region. Under less favorable conditions, admissions officers usually eliminate only the obviously unfit. An unselected professional student body, in turn, calls for a more comprehensive and systematic personnel program than is common in schools of social work. Social work educators, being by training and experience helping persons, have of course given counsel in abundance—but what is being suggested is the need for a more extensive provision and use of university-wide facilities in medicine, psychiatry, testing, housing, and other personnel services. Recruiting Candidates for Schools of Social Work T h e job of maintaining a pool of desirable candidates for social work education that is considerably larger than the number of students who can be admitted should be recognized as the responsibility of the whole profession and not that of social work educators alone. T h e latter group is of course responsible for the administration of selective admission and student personnel procedures. Basically, recruitment is one of the objectives of a sound and continuous public information program. T h e profession can well afford to invest considerable money and talent in acquainting strategic elements of the population with what social work really is and does. T h e caricature of the social worker as an unrealistic "do-gooder" who is the stretcher-bearer of the social order needs to be dispelled. Social work will not have the high esteem it deserves and that is required to attract and challenge the volume of American youth required to man it, until legislators, editors, businessmen, college presidents, many more undergraduate college counseling officers, and a host of others know the facts about the opportunities for service and leadership the profession provides. T h e direction of such an over-all program might well be entrusted to the National Council on Social Work Education, or to whatever equivalent organization the profession decides to maintain. While this report does not favor directing an active recruiting campaign to high school students, the profession should prepare information on social work in a form suitable for inclusion in occupational information publications that are made available in second-

264

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

ary schools. T h e importance of such information is indicated by a study 8 of the college plans of a national sample of 10,000 high school students. Thirty-five percent of the group had made application for admission to college, and 85 percent of the latter group had a career objective in mind before they graduated from high school. Of the high school seniors who had applied for admission to college and who had a career in view, 2.4 percent listed social work as the career of their choice; 4.3 percent of the women had chosen social work (tentatively, of course) as a career as compared with 0.6 percent of the men. A number of significant cues for recruiting social work students can be gleaned from the responses of 1 , 1 7 1 first-year students in 32 schools of social work to the topic, "Why I Chose Social Work for a Career." T h e American Association of Schools of Social Work collected and compiled the responses for this study, and issued a detailed statement on them in an eight-page mimeographed release dated November, 1949. T h e four primary reasons listed for choosing social work as a career were: (1) a desire to work with people, and in so doing to find personal and job satisfaction; (2) a desire to work for the improvement of social and economic conditions; (3) because tests and counseling and indicated aptitude for social work; (4) a desire for job security. For the most part, wholesome specific justifications were given for each of these categories, but the lack of sufficient screening at admission was indicated by the considerable number of students who said they entered a school of social work to gain insight for solving their own problems, to regain emotional balance, or due to the "do-good" motivation that has long haunted the profession. A small number of handicapped students chose social work because they believed that their personal handicap gave them special insight for working with others similarly situated—a doubtful justification for being admitted to a profession. Just over one fifth of the 1 , 1 7 1 students listed "job security" as one of the primary reasons for choosing social work as a profession, and gave reasons for so doing that could be used widely in recruiting releases. A smaller number indicated dissatisfaction with jobs they «Factors Affecting Admission of High School Seniors to College (Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education, 1949), pp. 1 0 1 - 5 . (Planographcd.)

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

265

had been doing as the primary reason for entering a school of social work; most of these students had transferred from teaching, librarianship, secretarial work, and business employment. A more thorough study of these individuals and of their success as students and practitioners would provide vital information for recruitment and admission to the social work profession. Equally worthy of further study is the group of students for whom social work was a second or third choice of vocation; medicine, psychology, or business were frequently mentioned as the first choice of these individuals. Some experience or experiences connected with the period of undergraduate study was listed by a substantial number of first-year students to account for the development of an interest in social work. T h i s finding indicates the paramount importance of social work educators working with undergraduate college faculties to provide a better understanding of the profession, especially to bring social work more directly into occupational counseling and to encourage the development of concepts basic to social work during the period of general education. Statistics show a rapidly increasing number of bachelor's degree holders who constitute the potential pool of candidates for all advanced professional and graduate schools. In the decade 1928—38 the size of the pool increased by 35 percent (122,000 to 165,000); in the following decade, by 65 percent; and, while the circumstances are admittedly abnormal, the increase in the two most recent years alone (1948 to 1950) was 60 percent. T h e number of bachelor's degree graduates in 1948 was 272,000 and in 1950 it was 434,000, of whom approximately 105,000 were women. In the fairly stable year of 1948 the social sciences, from which schools of social work recruit most largely, accounted for approximately 69,000 bachelor's degrees; the biological science and humanities fields, from which social work students are recruited in considerable number, swelled the total to approximately 100,000. From such potentials that are well distributed across the United States and that show no signs of drying up, the social work profession should have no insurmountable difficulty in recruiting all the students that the schools of social work can accommodate. T h e task would of course be made still easier if the profession followed the recommendations of Chapter

266

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

I V f o r a n u n d e r g r a d u a t e c o n c e n t r a t i o n i n social w o r k w h i c h m i g h t b e o f f e r e d b y 800 o r m o r e c o l l e g e s . Hindrances

to recruitment.—Some

of the c o n d i t i o n s that h i n d e r

r e c r u i t m e n t are m e n t i o n e d w i t h the e x p e c t a t i o n that the profession is g e n u i n e l y i n t e r e s t e d i n m e e t i n g t h e c h a l l e n g e to r e m o v e t h e m . F a i l u r e o f t h e s o c i a l sciences, a n d of t h e h u m a n w e l f a r e p r o f e s s i o n s based primarily on them, to dramatize their appeal and challenge is p e r h a p s t h e g r e a t e s t l o n g - r a n g e h i n d r a n c e t o r e c r u i t m e n t

by

s c h o o l s o f s o c i a l w o r k . A s t u d y o n r e c r u i t m e n t of social s c i e n t i s t s p u t s it this w a y : C o n t e m p o r a r y A m e r i c a n culture tends to direct t h e interests of boys and girls m o r e toward other vocations than toward social science. L a w years, doctors, successful business men and engineers, and in some segments of society politicians, soldiers, and preachers e n j o y great prestige a n d h i g h visibility to children as well as to adults. T h e works a n d rewards of men in these vocations speak for themselves, and they are c o n t i n u a l l y e x t o l l e d by the press and other agencies of p o p u l a r impression. If it is assumed that adolescents are generally inclined to choose their scholastic interests in terms of a r a t i o n a l calculation of vocational advantages in the light of their o w n observations, there is n o b l i n k i n g the fact that o p p o r t u n i t i e s to become p o p u l a r heroes are m o r e n u m e r o u s and the chances of b e c o m i n g wealthy are greater in other fields than in social sciences. T h e m o r e subtle satisfactions of a career as a social scientist seldom come to their attention. 9 C o n t r a r y to g e n e r a l o p i n i o n a m o n g e d u c a t o r s , S i b l e y ' s i n v e s t i g a t i o n s h o w s t h a t u n i v e r s i t y p r o g r a m s in t h e s o c i a l s c i e n c e s s e c u r e a f a i r s h a r e of t h e b e t t e r c o l l e g e g r a d u a t e s . H e a t t r i b u t e s t h e d e a r t h o f s u p e r i o r s o c i a l scientists to t h e n a t u r e a n d q u a l i t y of g r a d u a t e e d u c a t i o n a l p r o g r a m s rather than to the lack of potentialities in s t u d e n t s a d m i t t e d to t h e f i e l d : If the g r a d u a t e departments of social sciences suffer from a lack of innately able students, the lack must be attributed to the processes by w h i c h g r a d u a t e students are recruited and selected, and not to a d e a r t h of ability a m o n g those w h o concentrate in related fields as undergraduates in some of the l e a d i n g liberal arts colleges. B u t as a matter of fact, there is evidence to support the belief that the g r a d u a t e student bodies in social science departments are not greatly inferior in previous schoSelection, and Training of Social 0 Elbridge Sibley, The Recruitment, Social Science Research Council, Bulletin 58 (New York, 1948), pp. 45-46.

Scientists,

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

267

lastic achievement, and presumptively in innate ability, to those in natural science departments.10 T h e r e is no reason to doubt that the generalizations just quoted apply with equal force to professional study in graduate schools of social work. A long period of continuous and effective work on recruitment for social work education will probably elapse before the profession can report ratios of applications to students accepted that are comparable with those in medicine, dentistry, and veterinary medicine. T h e 1949 ratio of applications to openings in medical schools was 1 5 to 1 (the ratio of applicants to openings was 5 to 1); in dental schools, 8 to 1; in schools of veterinary medicine, 6 to 1. T h e better established schools of social work now reject one out of three applicants for admission (the ratio for all schools is much lower), but those admitted include students who list social work as their second, third, or fourth choice of a profession. From interviews with 350 applicants for admission to the New York School of Social Work, for example, Sidney Berengarten reports that 15 percent started in or had made medicine their initial choice of a profession. Such a datum sharpens further the need of the profession to identify and recruit people who make social work a first professional choice. Of course, no amount of publicizing "the more subtle satisfactions of a career" in social work will take the place of data which show prospective students employment opportunities, salaries, working conditions, prospects for advancement, and welfare provisions in the profession. Most of the research and compilation required for producing this information is yet to be done. T h e recent Bureau of Labor Statistics study and publication of the Occupational Outlook Series by the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor are beginnings. T h e kind of persons needed in social work will no more choose the profession on financial grounds alone than will people choose the ministry, teaching, public health, or nursing for financial reasons alone; but the welfare professions are likely to be rejected by desirable candidates unless they make provisions for their employees in these matters that are relatively comparable to those made by government and industry. And at the moment, these mundane items in the field of social work require considerIbid.., pp. 30-31.

268 GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

able improvement before they will attract a sufficient pool of desirable recruits. A sound public information program showing the facts for comparable professions might have a powerful and salutary influence on present and prospective social workers. Recruitment requires popularization.—The profession has never marshaled the facts about the opportunities and challenges of a career in social work; it has issued recruiting leaflets but has done practically nothing to dramatize the professional appeal of a modern program of social welfare. The field has a range of dramatic potentialities equal to those in medicine, law, and other professions. Someone must be found who can present them graphically and pictorially, after the fashion of the Public Affairs Pamphlets, Life, Fortune, and the Sunday Magazine of the New York Times Dozens of popular magazines that are read by undergraduate college students and their parents would welcome copy of this kind on social work as a career. Documentary and entertainment films, such as the March of Time and animated cartoons, could be used to carry the message; the educational types of audio-visual material that could be made available to counseling services of colleges and for more general use are limited only by the ingenuity and energy of the persons to whom the profession entrusts the task of developing them. There is space for only two illustrations of informing the public about social work at a level between the popular and the strictly professional audience. The August, 1946, issue of the Children's Bureau publication The Child presents an outstanding example of the effectiveness of photography in interpreting the responsibility of a social agency in selecting an adoptive home for a child. The Outlook for Women in Social Work in a Medical Setting (Bulletin No. 235-1 of 1950), the first of a series of bulletins on occupational outlook in social work, mentioned previously as being issued by the Women's Bureau for the use of college students and their counselors, gives promise of making a significant contribution to the recruitment literature of the profession. Literature on the career aspects of a profession makes for understanding and readiness on the part of potential students, but actual 11 Cora Kasius, Nancy Clark, Social Worker (New York: Dodd. Mead and Co., 1949), hai produced a book of fiction that is designed for recruiting purposes.

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

269

recruiting more often than not requires the personal effort of another human being. T h e most effective of all such agents is an individual actively pursuing a program of social work study with zest and satisfaction. N o faculty should fail to encourage this most effective word-of-mouth plan of recruitment. Members of social work faculties who have or can put themselves in normal advisory relations with liberal arts faculties and with undergraduate students after the fashion in use at the universities of Indiana 12 and Minnesota are perhaps the next most effective recruiters, especially if they have a teaching relationship with undergraduates through giving social work information or similar courses. T h e participation of qualified social work educators and practitioners in vocational and career counseling conferences is effective if they exemplify the story they are presenting. But if their personal and professional qualities belie their words, prospective students are likely to decide against becoming social workers. Scholarships and educational leave as recruiting devices.—The position of student aid at the end of the section devoted to recruitment symbolizes the fact that this report does not consider financial inducements as the most effective means for recruiting desirable social work students. However, when stipends are used to attract individuals to the field of social work, that use should be clearly separate from using such stipends to make it possible for students w h o have already chosen social work as a profession to stay in school. T h e distinction is very real, but either use is legitimate. A school should be clear and explicit as to which use it is making of scholarships and fellowships. T h e donor, moreover, should not be allowed to attach conditions to a grant that would interfere with the agreedupon purpose, a principle that is widely violated. Such hindering strings often exert an untoward influence on educational programs and on the freedom of movement of students in accepting a position on the completion of a program of study. Stipends that are paid to an individual on educational leave from an agency for further training normally are not for recruiting purposes. T h e individuals usually are already in the field, although 12 For details sec Agnes A n d e r s o n , " G u i d i n g the U n d e r g r a d u a t e S t u d e n t t o w a r d the Profession of Social W o r k , " Selected Papers, 29th A n n u a l M e e t i n g ( N e w Y o r k : A m e r i c a n Association of Schools of Social W o r k , 1948).

2?o

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

under Child Welfare Service funds a worker-in-training classification is used as a recruiting device. Educational leave is a means whereby an agency improves its own personnel, and there is nothing unreasonable in the conditions usually attached to such grants for study. Agencies that regularly send a considerable number of persons to a given school of social work do not, of course, thereby acquire any right to specify the programs of study to be followed by their employees. T h e programs of persons on leave and on scholarships should not be influenced by that fact. Statistics on Social Work Education for 1949-50, compiled by the American Association of Social Workers, show that as of November 1, 1950, 3 , 1 3 7 of the 4,719 full-time students enrolled were receiving some type of financial aid. Only 362 students received scholarship and related aid from the school, as compared with 673 who received aid from outside private philanthropic sources and 2,423 who received funds from public sources. T h i s distribution suggests the need for more fellowship funds controlled by the school for use as a recruitment device or for aiding outstanding students already recruited. N o unit of a university ever felt that it had enough grant-in-aid funds, but it may be significant to indicate that only theological schools subsidize a larger percentage of their students than do schools of social work. Usually there is an inverse ratio between earning power after graduation and the amount of financial aid available during the period of preparation. Selection for Admission to Professional Study of Social Work Where it is commonly supposed that anybody can do social work, anybody is likely to do it. T h e truth of this statement is being tragically demonstrated throughout the United States. T h e profession is justifiably alarmed at a national situation that is believed to approximate that foreshadowed by data in Chapter II on the educational background of social workers. Does the remedy lie in offering professional social work on a mass basis to a relatively unselected cross section of college undergraduates, half of whom are already employed in the field? A small but articulate element of the profession is convinced that this is the way to bridge the wide gap between supply and demand. Most social work educators, however, seem to agree with the position of this report, namely, that the way

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

271

out of the lamentable situation lies in increased undergraduate and graduate professional facilities that are open only to carefully screened students who are intelligent, healthy, informed, emotionally stable, and otherwise likely to succeed as social workers. If it is assumed that recruiting efforts provide a sufficient pool of candidates, how should social work educators go about the task of selective admissions? It is necessary to recognize in the first place that admissions officers cannot select individuals with high potentials for success without a fairly comprehensive and specific understanding of the requirements of the profession. Effective selective admissions policies cannot be formulated until the profession and the individual professional school make decisions about three fundamentals mentioned earlier, namely, the ultimate purposes and goals of social work and hence of education for social work, the qualities and competencies expected of social workers, and the curriculum experiences by which the promising individual moves from potential to actual social worker. Until the three fundamentals become less nebulous and better articulated, it is unrealistic and even dangerous to assume that admissions officers can select students likely to succeed as social workers. In our present stage of knowledge, they should not be expected to do more than conserve educational resources through eliminating the most obviously unfit candidates. T h o s e who administer selective admission procedures are also limited in what they can achieve by the stage of development of the appraisal instruments used by the teacher, the psychometrist, the psychiatrist, and other specialists on w h o m they must depend for basic data about the individual applicant. T h e team of testing technicians, for example, has not produced instruments for adequately measuring or forecasting attitudes, interests, emotional drives, and other personality traits that operate so powerfully in social work and other professions that depend largely on interpersonal relations. Perhaps in another decade, j o b analysts, test specialists, interviewers, and admissions officers will have perfected their procedures to do what we wish they could do now. B u t selective admission is geared to technical developments in the areas mentioned and can move forward only as they make progress. Most schools of social work, nevertheless, have several years of

272

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

work ahead of them in bringing admissions procedures abreast of known scientific developments. Competent specialists can now determine accurately enough for general admissions purposes the degree of intelligence, physical and mental health, stamina, and information which constitute the potential professional resources of a candidate. How to proceed in selective admission.—The problems of selection are not identical in any two schools of social work. Schools are not at the same stage of development, do not have the same resources, and do not have the some kind or quantity of applicants from whom to make selections. Nevertheless, any school that attempts to improve its selection practices will be faced with the problem of where to begin and how to proceed. Working agreements will need to be reached with respect to at least the following: (1) the purpose of social work and the characteristics a social worker should possess; (2) the levels of competence on agreed-upon items to be required for admission; (3) the evidence to be used to identify the levels of competence agreed upon; (4) the means to be used for gathering the evidence; and (5) the plan to be followed in interpreting and evaluating the data that have been gathered. Each phase of a selective admissions program, moreover, should be developed cooperatively, drawing upon the ideas of all the people—including students—who have a stake in the outcome. However, after policies and procedures have been agreed upon, day-to-day administration should be the responsibility of designated school officials. Administration by committee is cumbersome, inefficient, and an uneconomical use of limited faculty resources. Perhaps enough has been said about how the profession or the faculty of a school might go about reaching a consensus on the first of the five steps proposed for establishing or improving a plan for the selective admission of students to a school of social work. It might be helpful, however, to comment on and illustrate how the profession or a faculty might come to a meeting of minds on each of the other four steps. T h e importance of an agreement on the levels of competence to be attained can be illustrated by health requirements. In saying prospective social work students should be healthy, the faculty is

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

273

not only recognizing a professional responsibility but is also defining an area in which it must establish criteria for selective admission. It might begin the process negatively by deciding what health and physical deficiencies cannot be tolerated in students who expect to become social workers. It would be easy, for example, for the group to agree that active tuberculosis would be sufficient cause for rejection, but in considering less obvious health deficiencies conflicting ideas of desirable criteria are likely to arise. What position, for instance, should a faculty take toward an applicant who has deformed limbs or is blind? Should favorable action hinge on how well the applicant has adjusted to his condition, as well as on the degree of the defect? A professional school cannot reasonably be expected to rehabilitate a student physically; therefore, a professional level of competence should be required for admission. If instead of health, the applicant's command of subject matter were chosen for purposes of illustrating the level of achievement expected, the criteria for admission would be less absolute. A professional school of social work may be expected, for example, to extend the range and enrich the quality of a student's achievements in relevant bodies of knowledge, such as psychology, sociology, public welfare, the field of social work, and human growth and change. At the same time it has a right to expect the candidate for admission to show an agreed-upon command of these and similar areas of learning. T h e profession may decide to encourage the establishment of undergraduate concentrations that provide these learning outcomes through admitting students from them without examination, but in the view of this report such achievement should be measured by a standardized test required of all applicants. It would of course be a normal expectation that the graduates of approved college programs would rank high in such a test. Accordingly, this report recommends that social work educators develop and standardize several comparable forms of a test for appraising the command applicants actually have of the concepts considered to be a necessary foundation for beginning basic graduate professional study of social work. This test should seek to reveal philosophy, attitude, and viewpoint as well as knowledge. T h e production and standardization of such a test constitute a major undertaking in selective admissions which would require the cooperation of social

274

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

work educators, undergraduate college teachers, and specialists in test construction and validation. T h e proposed test of learning outcomes for use in admitting students to the basic graduate curriculum might also be used as a test of readiness for graduation from the undergraduate concentration in social work education proposed in Chapter IV. During the years that will be required for developing the proposed undergraduate concentration, such a test would be an invaluable device for appraising the effectiveness (and thereby setting high standards) of programs that are expected to develop apace in several hundred colleges. At least a decade may be expected to elapse before colleges that have approved concentrations in social work can supply graduate professional schools of social work with substantially all their beginning students. For that period at least, and perhaps as a continuing policy, schools of social work should be willing to admit to the basic curriculum any college student who can show by authenticated tests that he has a command of the knowing, doing, being aspects of concepts considered essential for beginning such study. Current admissions practices give little or no assurance that the candidate has an essential command of the basic concepts of either general or specialized education which the successful pursuit of a graduate professional program in social work requires. T h e evidence to be used in identifying levels of competence agreed upon usually cannot be established without considerable group deliberation. By what evidence, for example, shall an acceptable level of English usage be established? This illustration is chosen because social work educators and practitioners across the nation have indicated that too many of their students have an insufficient command both of oral and of written English. By what tests and other screening devices shall a faculty determine whether an applicant has the required command of language? Can the school of social work afford the expense involved in individual oral English testing? Can the service be secured gratis from some other division of the university? Should prospective students be expected to equal or exceed national norms for English usage, or should they be admitted or rejected by locally determined norms? In either case, shall these norms be that of average achievement of eighth grade graduates, of high school graduates, or of college seniors? T h e

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

275

answer may well depend on the extent to which the school of social work or some other division of the university assumes responsibility for effecting improvements. If no responsibility is assumed, a high standard must be required, but a lower standard may be used if the university makes definite provision for helping deficient students to improve. T h e means to be used for gathering evidence of the nature and degree of competence possessed by a candidate for social work education will vary with the item under consideration. T h e means for collecting most health data, for example, are of a technical nature and can appropriately be delegated to the university physician. T h e physician usually supplements his own examination by data gathered from the student and his family physician. T h e confidential nature of health information often makes it necessary for the examining physician to be the sole judge of admission or rejection for reasons of health. When other items of competence are involved, the sources of evidence are more varied but not always so reliable. Information on many competencies may be secured from the student himself, from former teachers and guidance counselors; from his minister, other community leaders, and former employers. Other more impersonal but commonly used means for gathering information include checklists, rating scales, anecdotal records, interview reports, aptitude appraisal, high school and college grades, and achievement tests. T h e final and most important step in selective admissions involves interpreting and evaluating the evidence gathered so as to reach a decision on whether to admit or reject an applicant. T h i s decision can seldom be made with a satisfying degree of confidence except in the case of students whose qualifications are uniformly high, markedly low, or characterized by glaring defects. Until selection devices are more selective, decisions regarding the middle range of students should be based on group probabilities of success rather than on individual diagnosis. A prospective student, for example, may present a generally mediocre record but give evidence of such strong motivation, seriousness of purpose, and persistence as to justify admission to the school of social work. His self-propelling qualities may compensate for numerous small deficiencies or for a few larger ones. If the school has or will develop an efficient program

276

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

of orientation and guidance, it may safely admit large numbers of students from the lower end of the middle range of competence for a tryout under actual working conditions. From visits in schools of social work across the country and from reports on admission practices that a n u m b e r of schools have supplied for this report, it is evident that a substantial amount of experimentation is now under way. T h e N e w York School of Social W o r k of C o l u m b i a University, for example, is well along with a carefully planned comprehensive pilot study 13 on selective admission. T h e major objectives listed are: (l) to establish more scientifically the personality foctors that correlate with aptitude for social work; (a) to determine the types of tests that would make the interview technique more effective when conducted by competent social workers; and (3) to discover the correlation between predictability established at the time of admission, established during field work, and as established in the less protected employment situations. T h e University of Pennsylvania School of Social W o r k is perfecting an admission plan 14 which goes beyond the evaluation of objective qualifications to a reliance on "knowledge which comes from experience in a relationship." T h e r e is need for sustained experimentation by many schools on the gamut of admissions problems that have been mentioned.

SOCIAL WORK

EDUCATION

AS A

CONTINUING

PROCESS

It is difficult to reach a judgment on the validity of the analyses and proposals that have been made in Chapters IV and V. T h e following more or less discrete comments may be helpful in evaluating what has been said: 1. T h e two chapters should be appraised as an attempt to stake out the boundaries of the total program of formal education for social work, not as a systematic proposal for reorganizing curriculum and methodology. Only enough of an analysis has been made to set a broad framework of bench marks which it is hoped social work educators will adapt and use in developing a comprehensive 1 3 Sidney Berengarten, "Pilot Study: Criteria in Selection for Social W o r k , " Social Work as Human Relations (New York: Columbia University Press, 1949), pp. 170-94. 1« Margaret E. Bishop, The Selection and Admission of Studies in a School of Social Work (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1948).

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

277

and articulated program of general and professional education. T h e primary purpose of specific proposals has been to illustrate and give body to what otherwise would have appeared as abstract generalizations. 2. An estimate of the extent to which the preceding purpose has been achieved requires a shift in focus from close-up views of individual segments and aspects of social work education to a long-range view which enables the parts to be seen as a whole. It also requires enough perspective to see the whole of formal education in relation to the less formal but no less vital educational proposals that are made in Chapter V I I . 3. An appraisal of the material also requires one to recognize that the mosaic which an overview of the segments produces is shaped and colored not only by the evidence presented but by the value system of the appraiser. Therefore, judgments as to whether the analyses and proposals are true or false, good or bad, realistic or fanciful, should be expected to vary with the background, viewpoint, and predilection of the individuals expressing them. 4. Just as formal education in general more largely reflects the social order than builds it, so this report recognizes that social work education tends to reflect the status of the profession rather than its growing edge or its aspirations. In the final analysis it is the profession and the public that determine the character and scope of social work education. T h e proposals for an undergraduate concentration for a year and ultimately two years of basic graduate professional education, and for two-year or longer programs of specialization according to major functions intend to bring education closer to the ever changing needs of practice, but it is recognized that a lag will always exist. Due to the rapid expansion and increasing complexity of social services, the lag between current social work education programs and the needs of practice is perhaps greater today than it was a quarter of a century ago. 5. In projecting the educational needs of the social work profession, one must take into account the historical and the current social forces that have shaped and that now determine the status of the private and public social services that employ social workers. In addition, and equally important, the projection must be made in terms of the probable role of social work during the next two

2j8

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

decades. T h e analyses in Chapters I, II, and I I I were for this purpose. 6. T h e ultimate worth of an educational idea rests on the ability of the forecaster to predict the character, force, and direction in which the social work profession will develop—even though a decade or two may be required to bring the idea to fruition. On the other hand, the immediate feasibility of an idea rests on ability to estimate the readiness of the profession for change and on skill in showing how next steps may be taken without incurring undue risks. Either or both of these criteria should be used in assessing the merits of Chapters IV, V, and V I . 7. What social workers accomplish in the exercise of their professional responsibility depends, of course, on the nature and extent of their knowledge, on their analytical and creative power to apply it, and on the ends to which it is put. Accordingly, the bench marks proposed for use in revising curricula emphasize the importance of undergirding preparation for professional practice with a broader and more systematic base of knowledge, the edition of teaching methods that make a maximum use of the five senses and the creative powers of students, and a more explicit recognition of the critical role of value judgments in professional education for social work. By and large the social work curriculum of today does not have enough of these qualities. 8. T h e emphasis that Chapters IV and V place on the use of more systematic, vital knowledge in classroom and field teaching situations to produce professional growth should not be interpreted as advocacy of the knowledge-is-power concept of education. Neither should it be interpreted as advocacy of the outmoded educational theory which holds that full, precise knowledge must be acquired before the skills or attitudes aspects of learning begin. In the view of this report, the knowing, doing, being aspects of professional growth go hand in hand in the total learning process. 9. T h e idea of constructing social work curricula—once purpose and objectives have been determined—through identifying manageable-sized concepts and selecting learning situations which embody them is an arduous and time-consuming process, but it should not be rejected before exploring the effectiveness of what apparently are more feasible alternatives. Among these is the tradi-

GRADUATE

PROFESSIONAL

EDUCATION

279

tional plan of shifting into new contexts such imponderables of subject matter as courses and parts of courses. 1 o. General education beyond the sophomore year, the proposed undergraduate concentration in social work education, the one year or more of basic graduate professional study, and the curricula for specialization based on the major functions performed, together constitute the proposal of this report for social work education. T h e i r merit as a whole should be judged before they are subjected to more intensive internal appraisal.

C H A P T E R

VI

Organization and Administration of Schools of Social Work

/ more than in most countries, there is general recognition of the desirability for professional schools to operate as integral units of a university. T h i s concept includes the newer professions, such as social work, as well as the time-honored ones. Essential differences in the nature and focus of professional education and of liberal or graduate study, nevertheless, have prevented full acceptance of professional schools in academic circles. Professional educators, accordingly, have usually found it difficult to steer a sound course between university requirements as formulated by academicians and the expectations of organized practitioners. Educational statesmen in every age and country have held tenaciously to the position that the university must be open to the whole reality of its time; that it must be saturated with life's urgencies or it will be overtaken by the creeping paralysis of scholasticism. A m e r i c a n public opinion is generally favorable to the idea that the university should keep one foot planted firmly in the market place, b u t there are sharp cleavages among the priesthood of higher learni n g on the scope and function of the university. 1 Almost every university faculty has an able and articulate contingent that follows the lead of A b r a h a m Flexner and Norman Foerster in wanting to Y N THE UNITED STATES,

1 For elaboration see Abraham Flexner, Universities: American, English, and German (New York: O x f o r d University Press, 1930); Norman Foerster, The American State University: Its Relation to Democracy (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1937); Ernest V. Hollis, Toward Improving the Ph.D. Programs (Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education, 1945), especially Chapters I and VII.

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

281

limit the scope of the university to programs of the liberal arts college and the graduate school of arts and sciences. Despite the fact that more than one-fourth of all Ph.D. degrees and more than half of all master's degrees are currently earned in fields other than the traditional arts and sciences, the academic purists are opposed to the graduate school's awarding these degrees in such fields as social work, library science, home economics, and physical education. Indeed, some purists doubt that other units should offer programs of study in the newer professional and semiprofessional fields, lest the university be reduced to a high-level vocational school. Fortunately, a majority of most university faculties are willing to devise working arrangements for undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools to live together in the same university, even though they may not always dwell in harmony. T h e s e ideological cleavages have produced or sustained a number of organizational and administrative practices that are inimical to professional schools becoming integral units of a university. T h i s chapter will examine the circumstances that fashioned some of these unsatisfactory practices, especially as they relate to schools of social work, so as to encourage remedial measures and increase understandings that normally produce more tolerance and a larger core of common education purpose. More specifically, it will examine issues related to organization, degrees, faculty, facilities, and finances as they are faced by boards of control, by presidents and other general administrative officers, and by deans or directors of schools of social work. But before doing so, some attention will be given to other major factors that should be taken into account by universities considering the establishment or discontinuance of a professional school of social work.

SHOULD

"X"

UNIVERSITY

HAVE A

SCHOOL

OF

SOCIAL

WORK?

D u r i n g the study, a substantial number of college and university officials expressed a definite interest in establishing a school of social work in their institutions. Invariably, they asked for criteria, information, and cues likely to be useful in deciding whether to d o so. Comments on the regional, state, and interinstitutional factors that enter into the location of a school of social work may be as help-

282

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

f u l to their purposes as findings and recommendations on the organization, degrees, faculty, facilities, and finances of a professional school. In deciding whether to devote a part of its resources to social work education, an institution should as a first step assure itself that such a program is in keeping with its over-all purpose and objectives. For example, it would be consonant with primary purposes f o r most liberal arts colleges to offer social work content as advocated in Chapter I V , but it would be inconsistent for such institutions to establish a professional school of the type discussed in Chapter V. A multipurpose university that has a graduate school of arts and sciences and the resources of other professional schools provides the most normal environment for a school of social work that admits only post-bachelor's degree students. A n institute of technology, no matter how distinguished, usually would not be a hospitable environment for either undergraduate or professional programs of social work education. A second step in deciding whether to offer a program of social work education requires a tentative determination of the social work needs and resources of the region, state, or smaller geographical area served by the college or university. Such a survey requires the active cooperation of social work agencies and associations of the area, just as any program that might eventuate would require their participation. A n undergraduate college can, with ease and assurance, take the steps recommended here and in Chapter IV, but far-reaching changes on the part of schools of social work would be required for taking them. As of 1950, fewer than 200 colleges had even the rudiments of a concentration of social welfare concepts suitable for students who are looking toward a career in social work. T h e national need for this type of program, to provide qualified candidates for professional schools and to provide beginning workers for agencies that must have personnel now, is so gTeat as to require the probable output of 800 or more undergraduate colleges. Therefore, this report encourages any general-purpose undergraduate college that has a hospitable internal and external environment for social work to offer a comprehensive concentration (see Chapter IV), under controls and standards similar to those used for broad undergraduate majors or similar forms of concentration. T h e

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

283

cost should be no more than is required for other social science fields that make an extensive use of learning-by-doing through field and laboratory experiences. But an undergraduate college should not confuse itself or the public in undertaking this work: all concerned should understand that an undergraduate concentration in social welfare is not a substitute for a professional school program. T h e fact that a person with a bachelor's degree, with or without an undergraduate concentration in social welfare, can enter social work and some other professions without further study does not qualify him as a professional worker. If a university is considering the establishment of a graduate professional school of social work, taking the step of determining the needs and resources of the field in relation to institutional resources is a serious and exacting responsibility. Communities and states that have the greatest need for professional social workers often have the least resources for employing them and the least awareness of a need for them. In such areas, student field work opportunities available in social work agencies are also likely to be mediocre and widely scattered. Under such conditions a university should expect to spend more than the average sum per student to provide an approved quality of professional education, and it should be prepared to see its graduates attracted to other states and regions by higher salaries and better working conditions. These adverse factors may discourage privately supported universities that must husband their financial resources, but they should not deter state universities, land-grant colleges, and other tax-supported institutions from establishing a school of social work wherever one is needed and its establishment is feasible. Approximately two thirds of all social workers are employed by taxsupported agencies. T h e people of the several states have a right to expect one or more tax-supported institutions to help provide personnel qualified to discharge the social welfare functions the states have undertaken. T h e establishment of schools of social work should of course be preceded by a survey of the needs of the field in the area, and of resources of the university and of the profession for meeting them. Some states that recognize their need for a professional school of social work do not believe they can support such a school from tax

284

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

resources, and they have been less fortunate than other states in that no privately supported university has been venturesome enough to establish a school. A few other states recognize that their population is too sparse to support such a school even if the taxpayers were able and willing to pay the bill. Under such conditions the remedy for the time being seems to lie in interstate or broader regional planning to conserve limited tax resources for the support of selected graduate and professional programs at designated universities within the region. Both the New England and the Rocky Mountain states are moving in this direction, but the best example is found in the Southern states that have joined in a compact for the regional use of several types of professional and graduate schools. A m o n g its projects, the Board of Control for Southern Regional Education (headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia) has induced the legislature of each state that does not have a tax-supported school of social work to appropriate funds for strengthening and expanding the resources of privately or publicly supported schools beyond its borders but within the region, in return for assurance that these institutions will admit specified numbers of social work students from the participating state. Such arrangements enable the financially underprivileged or the less populous state to provide a variety and quality of professional and graduate education for its citizens that would otherwise be beyond its means. Universities in such regions that are otherwise qualified to provide a favorable climate for a professional school of social work should be encouraged to explore the feasibility of an interstate or other regional plan of financial support and professional cooperation. Most of the requests for counsel on establishing new schools of social work came from universities in urban centers where such schools already exist, rather than from institutions in underprivileged states and regions. In each instance they were interested in findings of the study on m i n i m u m over-all and per student costs for capital outlay and current support purposes (which are shown in later sections of this chapter), but it was commendably evident that their decisions also w o u l d take into consideration factors other than ability of the university to support a school of social work. A listing of the essence of some of these inquiries may provide cues

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

285

for other universities engaged in e x p l o r a t i o n and deliberation f o r the same ends. T r u s t e e s of the tax-supported system of h i g h e r education i n o n e large urban center asked whether their i n t e n t i o n to establish a school of social work w o u l d be given u p because a private a n d a church-related school already exist in the city. Officials of a churchrelated university w h i c h expects to draw half of its students f r o m outside the state w h e r e it is located, asked w h e t h e r they should decide against establishing a school of social w o r k because the state already had a p u b l i c and a private school of social work, o n e of them in the city w h e r e the proposed school is to be located. In another instance, a state college is at the edge of an u r b a n center w h i c h includes nearly half the population of the state, and the state university is in a remote and sparsely p o p u l a t e d section: to w h i c h institution should the board of regents allocate the school of social work? T h e organized social work practitioners in another state asked if they are justified in e n c o u r a g i n g an i m p o r t a n t p r i v a t e w o m e n ' s college to establish a school of social w o r k in this relatively populous and wealthy state which has none, inasmuch as the state university has declined to do so for w h a t a m o u n t s to reasons of political expediency and professional indifference. A privately supported university which levies heavily on its general funds to maintain a superior school of social w o r k in an area w h e r e one is critically needed, indicated that more than three fourths of its graduates were employed by state and local welfare departments and asked why should n o t the states to which it supplies professional personnel either c o n t r i b u t e to the support of this school or encourage its transfer to one of them or several of them jointly. T h e chancellor of the state university system in another state asked w h e r e they s h o u l d establish a school of social work and u n d e r w h a t auspices, g i v e n the f o l l o w i n g conditions: the state university is in a small town n e a r one corner of this large state, but it has an extension center in their largest city; private college officials and social workers in the u r b a n center advocate a c o m b i n e d state-private control and support arrangement. T h r e e paragraphs the length of the p r e c e d i n g one w o u l d be req u i r e d for a bare listing of the m a j o r questions asked of the study

286

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

staff, and all the space allotted to this chapter would be required to produce the gist of the answers that have been made in terms of general principles and local conditions surrounding each inquiry. T h e generally applicable material out of which answers were fashioned will be found here and there throughout this report, but space limitations do not permit repeating it here. It relates, among many other items, to the need for new facilities that do not duplicate those already existing in a community; to the need for inculcating new ideas of what constitutes satisfactory field work opportunities; to the importance of fixing financial and administrative responsibility clearly; to a recognition that a school tends to serve the types of communities from which it draws students; to the obligation of tax-supported universities to prepare professional social workers at least in numbers equivalent to the needs of tax-supported social work agencies; and to the obligation of organized social workers nationally and locally to provide university administrators and faculties with professional information that should be taken into account in establishing or discontinuing a school of social work.

ORGANIZING F O R E F F E C T I V E

ADMINISTRATION

If a university decides to establish a professional school of social work or if it has one already, giving it a position in the university structure comparable to that of other schools and colleges is the surest way of getting it off to a good start in the university family. It is not crucially important whether the head of the school is called a "dean" or a "director," or whether his salary equals that of the dean of a large and long-established school or college, but it is of paramount importance that the school be recognized as an equal in the academic family. Almost every type of professional school has experienced difficulties of one kind or another in finding a satisfactory place in the university structure. T h i s is due primarily to the fact that American universities have grown by accretion rather than by plan and secondarily to the fact that most professional schools came into the university after the liberal arts college and the graduate school had come to be recognized as the backbone of its administrative struc-

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

287

ture. Theology, law, and medicine, for examples at one extreme, largely developed outside the university tradition and in many respects may still be thought of as being in the university but not of it. At the other extreme, professional fields such as social work, business administration, journalism, and teacher education developed largely within the undergraduate college and are experiencing great difficulty in securing administrative independence from it. In recent years this struggle has been complicated by the fact that as these professional programs have expanded into the graduate (some would say post-bachelor) field they have acquired a new overlord without losing the first one. Apparently, the university is committed to resolving organization and curriculum issues with each profession separately, even though the working arrangements agreed upon may have many elements in common. T h e primary interest of the present study is in a feasible arrangement for administering social work education. Except for the accidents of history, social work might have followed the pattern used by pharmacy and become an undergraduate professional school, or that of theology and become a wholly graduate professional school. It also might have followed the intermediate pattern used by dentistry, law, and medicine—namely, that of assuming total responsibility for a pattern of education which includes two years of undergraduate work and two or more years of graduate professional study, admission to which is based on two years of general college education. T h e latter recommendation still could be made with assurance if American higher education were predominantly organized as are the University of Chicago and the junior or lower division colleges. This plan considers general education as ending with two years of work beyond high school and assumes that graduate or professional schools take over more advanced university study with the beginning of the third undergraduate year. Inasmuch as the slow-moving trend toward the Chicago plan is not likely to become majority practice within the next two or three decades, it seems more fitting to propose an administrative arrangement for social work education that is related to the more traditional pattern of a four-year undergraduate college as the base for graduate and professional programs. Since professional preparation for social work cannot be com-

288

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

pressed within the bounds of a four-year undergraduate program, two practical alternatives are open to the profession: first—following the pattern of dentistry, law, and m e d i c i n e — t o establish a fouryear program which would be administered by a school that offers two years of undergraduate work and two or more years of professionally oriented graduate study; second, to establish and operate a graduate professional school of two or more years and encourage undergraduate colleges to provide the essentials of what they would have offered in the first two years of a four-year program. T h i s report rejects the first alternative because the need for social workers with at least undergraduate professional preparation is so great that a thousand colleges ought to be engaged in it instead of the fifty-seven existing or perhaps one hundred potential separate schools of social work; because it is uneconomical for a university to maintain relatively parallel undergraduate courses in several different schools; and because accreditation and administrative conflicts would interfere with its freedom of action. Chapters IV and V sketch the recommended arrangements. T h e second of the above two alternatives is favored as likely to serve the public interest better and more economically. Chapter IV sketches the character of undergraduate education recommended for a career in social work and elaborates the reasons that impelled this study to propose its administration by the undergraduate college instead of by the professional school. It also maintains that the profession should encourage and assist colleges in developing social welfare concentrations along lines suggested in Chapter IV in full recognition that the liberal arts college is giving prospective social work students in its final two years essentially what would be given in the first two years of a four-year independent undergraduate-graduate professional school of social work, if social work education were organized in this way. T h e proposal of a wholly graduate professional school of social work is in keeping with trends in other professional fields and with prevailing social work practice. Public health and hospital administration are among the fields that have recently moved to an entirely or predominantly graduate curriculum. Slightly more than two thirds of all students admitted to medical schools are college graduates even though professional standards require only three years of college work. College

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

289

graduates also predominate in dentistry and several other professions which require only two years of college for admission. T h e schools that hold membership in the American Association of Schools of Social W o r k are accredited on the basis of being wholly graduate. Graduate School versus Professional School In the academic domain that extends beyond four-year programs in institutions of higher education, it is sometimes hard to tell whether the graduate school is one among the schools of a university or whether it is the university. Initially, there were no competing schools, and graduate study was largely restricted to the humanities. A t one time or another they have been the nemesis of all newer fields of learning, including the natural and social sciences, that have sought to offer graduate work. Social work education is now being questioned—as were the sciences before it—as lacking a sufficient body of scholarly knowledge, for failing to use scholarly research topics, for using unorthodox tools of research instead of foreign languages, and for failure to attract the quality of professor and student necessary for the rigorous discipline required to advance the boundaries of knowledge. For the most part, the graduate school has not doubted either its right to sit in judgment on the newer professional fields of learning or the wisdom of its decisions. Professional and technical schools, moreover, have encouraged the graduate school in its course of action through inviting it to appraise their advanced program in order to secure the prestige of graduate school degrees. T h e time has come for boards of control and the general administrative officers of universities to decide whether, academically speaking, the graduate school is synonymous with the university or whether it is one of several schools in the realm of advanced study. If it is declared to be one among equals in the structure of university schools, then a council of representatives from all advanced schools should become the policy-making body instead of that function being exercised, as it now commonly is, by the graduate school of arts and sciences alone. W h a t is needed is a university council to replace the graduate school council. Such a body should have on it as many representatives of professional

2go

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

schools as of the graduate school and should have the president or his representative as the presiding officer. A number of universities have the form of organization being advocated, but in most institutions the graduate school still exercises policy-making and enforcing functions in relation to curriculum and degrees in its own field and in the relatively new professional fields. On the other hand, most schools of theology, law, and medicine, and a few schools of social work—also in violation of sound educational policy—tend to go the even tenor of their ways without much regard for graduate school pronouncements that pass as university policy. Social work and other professional schools need the steadying influence of a university-wide education council, as do other advanced programs, but they cannot accommodate themselves to the authority of a body on which professional and technical school leaders do not sit as equals, if indeed they sit at all. Students of university administration do not advocate one plan of structural organization that is to be preferred above all others, but they do insist on a structure that permits each major functional unit of a university, such as a school of social work, enough independence to do its work unhampered and at the same time be truly an integral part of the university. This is best assured through a formal authorization of the board of trustees which gives the school a defined status, adequate control of its own program, faculty, and budget, and a clear channel of communication with the general administrative officers of the university. In smaller universities the channel of communications, for example, may be from the dean or director to the president and other general administrative officers; in universities of more complex structure, the dean or director may report to a general administrative officer designated by the president. T h e r e is no virtue in uniformity. Universities may exhibit many variants without violating the criteria for a sound structural arrangement. The Too Dependent School T h e most common and perhaps the most aggravated form of unsatisfactory organization is one in which the school of social work is administratively responsible to the head of an undergraduate

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

291

department or to the dean of an undergraduate college, and at the same time is responsible to the graduate school for programs of study and for degree requirements. In a variant of this arrangement the social work unit of the university is administratively and fiscally independent, but is dependent on graduate school officials for approval of courses, faculty, and degrees. These clumsy arrangements are more largely due to educationally unsound evolution than to any design of the graduate or undergraduate college to control schools of social work or other similarly situated professional schools. In Nebraska and Wisconsin, for example, the board of regents cannot establish a new school or college within the state university; this prerogative is reserved to itself by the legislature. Most of the poorly organized social work units began as a few courses in social welfare that were taught in some undergraduate department such as sociology, political science, or economics. At that stage it was realistic for administrative and program controls to rest with the undergraduate department. 2 But when social work education evolved to the stage of offering advanced courses, the tradition of academic departments offering both undergraduate and graduate courses, and the mind-set of the professors favorable to this arrangement, made it natural and administratively easy for the graduate school to assume a major responsibility in the field—even though doing so impelled the graduate school a step closer to what many considered the objectionable goal of becoming an undifferentiated professional school. T h e interest in social work education thus acquired by undergraduate and graduate faculties, and the reluctance of general administrators to recommend the creation of new schools that usually add financial burdens, has tended to create and to perpetuate an unsound administrative structure in more than one third of the schools of social work. These cumbersome administrative arrangements occur more frequently in publicly controlled universities than in those under private auspices, perhaps because social work education is at an earlier stage of development in tax-supported institutions, and because these universities tend to use larger and less homogeneous administrative units. 2 See Chapter IV for the implications of organization for social work offerings in the undergraduate college.

292

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

D u r i n g the period when social work education was becoming a professional field, the development of awkwardly organized schools may have been unavoidable. T h a t day is past. Boards of control, presidents, and other general administrative officers of universities should now recognize that social welfare is a multibillion-dollar enterprise with positions requiring thousands of professional staff members. T h e situation clearly calls for separately organized professional schools comparable in structure and resources to the facilities that universities commonly provide in law, medicine, dentistry, and other professional fields. Social work education should n o longer be undertaken on a financial shoestring as if it were a minor or marginal field of national interest.University officials, moreover, should establish a school of social work only after facing the fact that it operates in one of the most sensitive economic and cultural areas of American life, and is subject to all the crosscurrents of social doctrine and social action. It therefore requires more understanding and courageous support from trustees and the president than most other professional schools in the university. A professional school that deals so directly with the urgent and controversial realities of human welfare, and as a consequence is subject to political and economic reprisals, obviously needs to be firmly embedded in the structural framework of the university. Otherwise, the economic predilections or the political views of powerful individuals in the state or region might too easily force the liquidation of a program established to prepare those who serve a particularly inarticulate portion of the population. Schools of social work in more than one state have been threatened or closed in response to such pressures. Nevertheless, at least one third of the graduate schools of social work are vulnerable in that they have not been established by formal action of the governing board and because they lack other organizational arrangements that protect a school against the onslaughts of its enemies. It is of course easier to forestall than to correct an undesirable administrative arrangement. Boards of control and presidents are therefore urged to be especially vigilant in preventing a new crop of social work education units from coming into the university through the back door. Despite justification based on strategy or expediency, a social work program that comes into being by in-

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

293

direction seldom has the vitality and prestige of a professional school authorized and accepted from the beginning as an obligation of the university. Officials in social work agencies, practitioners, professors, and others who want to establish a program of social work education in a university should insist, as has previously been stated, on arrangements that meet the criteria of location in a recognized university, authorization by the board of control, a clear channel of communication with university general administrative officers, and provisions for adequate control of program, faculty, and budget. T h e application of these criteria will of course vary in each university because their general administrative organizations vary widely. Officials in most of the schools of social work that have what are considered unsatisfactory administrative structures are working for improvements. T h e first step usually brings more administrative and budgetary independence and formal authorization to be designated as a school rather than as a department. It takes capacity and time to gain essential control of program, faculty, and degrees. Progress toward becoming an articulated but self-propelling unit of a university comes only to schools that seek it, and then only to the extent that the faculty and social work leaders impress the university community with the soundness of their social and educational views. A few dependent schools prefer their present structural arrangement to the one proposed in this chapter. At one university, for example, the dean believes that the establishment of a full-fledged school of social work would upset a long-established balance of power among the major colleges and would leave the school in an unfavorable competitive position. H e considers it more effective for the powerful college dean to represent social work education before the graduate school and before the general administrative officers of the university. It is his opinion, moreover, that greater reliance should be placed on the good will of key personalities than on structural arrangements. Reliance on the good will of individual administrators to compensate for a faulty organization is obviously unwise, but there may be sound sense in unwillingness to change an unconventional administrative structure that is working acceptably in a given university. Nevertheless, where statutory provisions do

294

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

not have the effect of negating the proposal, it is recommended as a general principle that graduate social work education be administered through a professional school organized along lines comparable to those a given university accords other professional schools. If the staff and program cannot be strengthened to justify full professional school or department status in the foreseeable future, graduate instruction in social work usually should not be undertaken, and should be discontinued if it is already under way without such a commitment. The Too Independent School An administrative apparatus which permits the school of social work to be so independent that it is part of the university in name only also violates all the sound reasons for wanting a professional school to be affiliated with a university. Approximately one of each ten schools of social work may be so characterized. Such an organization is no more to be desired than one which throttles initiative and encourages overdependence on divisions of the university that are only secondarily interested in the preparation of professional personnel for the field of social welfare. A mean between these extremes is what this report advocates. T h e lack of articulation and integration inherent in too much independence isolates a school and tends to make it impervious to scholarly ideas and inspirations that originate in other divisions of the university. A school so situated does not carry its share of responsibility for making and enforcing university-wide policies that assure high standards for itself and other divisions of the university. T h e lack of participation in the family life of the university, moreover, is usually a symbol o f too much dependence on, and service as the agent of, professional organizations or social agencies—one of the circumstances sought to be corrected by bringing professional schools into the university. Occasionally, affiliation is not much more than an arrangement of mutual convenience. By contractual stipulation the university lends its name and degree-granting privileges in return for a new professional school, but it assumes no responsibility for providing physical facilities or for underwriting current budgets. Quite often such schools are not located on the university campus and the principal educational tie is through a

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

295

lone representative serving on university-wide policy and administrative bodies. Such arrangements obviously fall f a r short of the conception of the university as an institution made up of genuinely articulated schools that are manned by self-propelling but interrelated scholars. T H E SELECTION

AND ADMINISTRATION

OF

DECREES

W h i l e it is true that since 1945 the American Association of Schools of Social Work has endorsed and advocated the Master of Social Work as the designation of the first professional degree in social work, schools of social work, nevertheless, are not in agreement on the names of degrees that should be awarded or on how they should be administered. In two fifths of the member schools of the Association, the degrees awarded for two years of graduate professional study carry the academic designation of Master of Arts and Master of Science, with the latter predominating two to one. T h e graduate school has essential control of the standards by which they are awarded in most of the schools. In the other three fifths of the schools of this Association, the degrees conferred have professional designations such as Master of Social Work, Master of Social Welfare, and Master of Social Service, with the first named leading in the ratio of ten to one. T h e y are generally authorized by the graduate school council, but essential control of professional degrees usually rests with the school of social work. In 1950 only five universities offered the doctorate in social work: three schools conferred the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and two the professional degree Doctor of Social Work (D.S.W.). Basic requirements for the Ph.D. degree in social work and all other fields are commonly prescribed and enforced by the graduate school; the latitude it gives schools and departments in prescribing and enforcing secondary requirements for the degree varies from one university to another. T h e school of social work usually enforces both basic and secondary requirements for the D.S.W. under a general grant of authority from the graduate school council or its equivalent in the university structure. T h e social work units of some universities, chiefly those affiliated as the National Association of Schools of Social Administration,

296

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

follow the more common graduate school practice of awarding the Master of Arts or Master of Science degree, with the designation "in social work," on the satisfactory completion of one year of graduate professional study. T h e American Association of Schools of Social Work advocates, in lieu of this practice, that the Bachelor of Social Work (B.S.W.) degree or a certificate be awarded for the satisfactory completion of one year of professional study following graduation from college. This report assumes that each university will continue to be the judge of what degrees it will confer. T h e fact that two reputable universities confer an identical master's degree in social work and that one requires twice as long a period of study for it as the other is confusing to laymen, but the practice is not peculiar to the field of social work. Princeton and a few other universities require two years for the Master of Arts degree in arts and science fields; Illinois and Harvard are among universities that require two years of study for a professional master's degree in education, a field in which one year of study constitutes majority practice. There is a tendency toward a two-year requirement for the master's degree in most professional fields, and it is established practice in the field of social work education. What Degrees Should Be Awarded? How each university resolved the issues implicit in awarding one or another of the degrees mentioned in the preceding paragraphs was no doubt determined more by its own history and situation at the time the decision was made than by any abstract considerations of what it ought to have done. It is recognized, moreover, that there is no inherent virtue in one degree over another and that each university has the right to make its own choices of degrees. Nevertheless, there are certain practical advantages in a relatively new profession making a deliberate choice of a master's and a doctor's degree which it uniformly encourages universities to adopt. Master of Social Work (M.S.W.) and Doctor of Social Work (D.S.W.) are the field's two most widely used professional degrees. Each can be used in any university without incurring an obligation to meet graduate school requirements for the M.A., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees, but there is no consensus in practice for so doing, and social work educators are not in agreement on the

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

297

theoretical advisability of offering the D.S.W. in lieu of the Ph.D. degree in social work. Schools that choose degrees with the M.S.W. and D.S.W. designations must, of course, have the fortitude not to be disturbed when people in academic circles say the degrees are ersatz or that they never heard of them. It took three decades to make the M.S. degree known as widely as the M.A. degree, and there are still many people who consider it inferior to the Master of Arts degree. It would be naive to expect the M.S.W. and D.S.W. degrees to have prestige with the public in a shorter time than was required for the Master of Science degree, even if all social work educators and practitioners promoted their acceptance. T h e unreality of expecting so united a front is illustrated by the written comment of the dean of a school of social work who, after describing the procedure by which the graduate school supervises both the program and the degrees awarded for it, said: The advantages of our arrangement is that social work degrees have the status of other graduate degrees. Our graduate dean and graduate council believe we expect much from our students. Our present administrative arrangement makes it possible for the graduate school to be acquainted with our curriculum. If we were acting on our own there would not be that understanding and we would not profit from the prestige of the graduate school, which our affiliation now gives us. In addition to the relatively weak schools that lean on the graduate school for protective and prestige purposes, the profession may expect a smaller number of strong schools to follow the preferred policy of their universities by continuing to use the M.A. or M.S. and the Ph.D. degrees as symbols of the completion of appropriate programs of study. If the graduate school of a university is flexible enough in its degree requirements to permit a school of social work to pursue its professional goals unhampered, there is really very little justification for establishing the M.S.W. and D.S.W. degrees —aside from maintaining solidarity with schools where such favorable conditions do not exist and as a means of reducing the confusion that civil service and other lay officials experience in dealing with a multiplicity of equivalent requirements. What a school should genuinely want is the substance and not the symbol of the right to conduct its own professional program under a university-

298

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

wide committee on policy and procedure. It should be unwilling to sacrifice program freedom for the symbols of prestige and should make a studied effort to avoid rationalizing the fact that it is doing so. How Should Degrees Be Administered? Degrees usually are authorized and conferred through whatever administrative structure a university uses for establishing a school and for approving its basic regulations, program, and faculty. While there is no one best arrangement, several universities have evolved commendable structures which, with appropriate adaptations, are worthy of consideration by a university that wants to improve its present form of organization. T h e structure consists of the board of control, the president, the provost, an inclusive academic senate, and a representative graduate council on which the president and provost serve ex officio and on which professional schools have equal representation with the larger divisions of graduate study in the arts and sciences. Basic proposals for the creation or modification of all schools and programs of study, policies for the appointment and promotion of faculty, and authorization for the award of degrees must have the approval of these bodies and individuals in reverse of the order in which they are named above. T h i s arrangement assures the faculty of each school a common and democratic channel for working as truly articulated units of an integrated university structure. It makes for a genuine university policy, for a minimum of domination by a single school, and for a minimum of isolated and independent action by individual schools and colleges. At the same time, a school or college is left a maximum of freedom in conducting its internal affairs. Within such a framework, the school of social work can award degrees with all the independence and prestige that attach to any degree conferred by the university. Without it, social work and other professional schools tend to become too dependent on the graduate school or too independent of what it represents. There obviously should be a university-wide body to establish and periodically review the administration of degrees by the several schools and colleges of a university.

ORGANIZATION

FACULTY

PERSONNEL

AND

ADMINISTRATION

ADMINISTRATION

IN

PROFESSIONAL

299

SCHOOLS

T h e salutary influence of a c o m p r e h e n s i v e university policy o n the appointment, p r o m o t i o n , w o r k i n g conditions, and w e l f a r e of the teaching staff has always been h i g h a m o n g the justifications offered for i n c l u d i n g professional schools as integral units of a university. T h e r e is general acceptance of this theory of personnel administration, but professional and academic faculties o f t e n differ sharply on what constitutes the body of principles and procedures to be used in securing and m a i n t a i n i n g a faculty of o u t s t a n d i n g ability and usefulness. Social work educators, a l o n g w i t h those from most other professional schools, point to the i n d i s p u t a b l e fact that in most universities, principles and criteria for these purposes were formulated by and for the academic disciplines, with little t h o u g h t as to their effect on professional faculties. T h e y believe the social w o r k faculty should follow university-wide personnel practices w i t h o u t asking for special consideration, b u t not until professional faculties have had a chance to sit as equals in revising the policies and procedures by which faculties are g o v e r n e d . T h e w r i t t e n comm e n t of the dean of a school of social w o r k in an outstanding university, prepared for the restricted use of this report with the expectation that neither he nor the university w o u l d be identified, is representative of majority o p i n i o n and illustrates w h y these issues should be settled on a university-wide instead of an i n d i v i d u a l school basis: In this school no one without the Ph.D. degree has been appointed to a professorship or an associate professorship. Salaries of assistant professors are low in comparison with opportunities open to people of this rank in the field of practice and, apparently, an assistant professor without a doctorate cannot look forward to promotion except under unusual circumstances. Moreover, women faculty members have had greater difficulty on this campus than men in achieving high rank, a practice that hits the social work faculty particularly hard because more women than men are employed. In order to secure competent personnel we have had to appoint full-time staff members as "lecturers," a practice that enables us to avoid the rigors of academic requirements and to provide more "take-home" pay. In addition we have had to use

3oo

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

more part-time people than we believe to be sound educational practice. Emphasis upon research as a requirement for advancement often handicaps the school of social work. While some of the faculty should and do make substantial contributions to research and writing, it is equally important for others to undertake professional service and community activities in order to keep the school in close touch with the field of practice. Academic bodies that make and enforce regulations governing appointments and promotions apparently are not discerning enough to equate professional and community services of professors as a substitute for, or an equivalent of, research and scholarly writing. But having presented our side of the case, we have also done our very best to accede to university practice on degrees, research, and writing. While we believe the current developmental status and characteristics of social work justify our complaint, we also believe strongly that, if our schools truly wish to operate within a university framework, they should exert themselves to the utmost to live up to the general rules applying within that framework. Such a policy will yield the greatest possible returns. For example, one of the great lacks of the day is that of integration between the fields of social welfare and the theoretical fields of psychology, sociology, anthropology, physiology, and psychiatry—fields on which social welfare has made heavy drafts and needs to make still heavier ones. This lack of integration is undoubtedly due in part to the fact that social work departments have not been staffed by persons with the academic status which makes possible the free interchange of personnel and ideas with other departments of the university. In short, our insistence that we are different from other departments has served to isolate us within the university community at the very time we need most the life-giving flow of a richer body of knowledge. Criteria for Selecting Professional Faculty T h e r e is urgent need for a truce and a modus vivendi which will enable graduate and professional school leaders to resolve their differences concerning criteria for selecting and promoting regular full-time professional faculty members. T h e position of this report is that it would be equally disastrous for extremists in either camp to have their way. At the moment, schools of social work are believed to be suffering from a plethora of faculty members who are practitioners rather than educators and, what is more to the point, who are transmitting little more than the "doing" side of narrow fields of practice. But the remedy is not thought to lie in increasing academic respectability through replacing these "practical" people with academicians who have all the earmarks of scholarship but

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

jot

who lack functional and professional usefulness in the field of social work. What is needed are teachers of intellectual force as well as effective experience. T h e y must have and be able to impart a social philosophy that gives meaning to social work in the complex democratic society of the United States; they must have a type of mind that can generalize soundly from a great variety of conflicting ideas and experiences. These are qualities commonly expected of persons who have earned the doctorate or other advanced degrees, but they are not synonymous with it. Moreover, a substantial n u m b e r of other persons have these characteristics; university appointing officers have the obligation of devising criteria other than degrees and formal research publications for determining their existence. Alternative ways of determining teaching competence are especially important for social work educators. A young and rapidly growing profession that has only five schools which award the doctorate in social work—they have to date conferred the doctorate on fewer than 100 candidates—obviously cannot secure a professionally competent teaching staff that has as high a percentage of earned doctorates in its field as is normal for the older arts and science fields. T h e first and most obvious step is for the profession to employ more teachers with doctorates in closely related fields but who have social work education and experience in their earlier backgrounds. Indeed, there is need for accelerating the barely perceptible trend in social work education toward having professors comparable to those in the basic medical sciences and professors comparable to those in clinical medicine. T h e former category of social work professors, for the time being, might be selected more largely from persons who have earned the doctorate in relevant fields other than social work. As a second or concomitant step, it is suggested that discerning social work educators systematically canvass their students to discover persons who have a high potential as teachers and to encourage them to undertake a regimen of preparation designed to develop these qualities. As a third step, deans and directors of schools of social work should collect and present to college appointing officers both quantitative and qualitative information designed to demonstrate the functional qualifications of candidates who are being recommended for appointment to permanent positions in which they

jo2

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

receive rank, tenure, full-scale salary, leave with pay, and retirement benefits. This information must show evidence of both professional and intellectual leadership. T h e latter may be shown through scholarly or creative contributions to professional periodicals, committee reports, administrative documents, or similar writing of significant import to the profession. Applying such criteria is, of course, a more difficult undertaking than appraising professorial competence by such status factors as degrees, but it is more fruitful. Nevertheless, the whole idea is a pipe dream unless as a matter of policy the relevant university committees and officials are committed to consider functional data in lieu of status data. All parties concerned must agree that what is wanted is the substance rather than the symbol of scholarly professional competence. In the appointment of temporary full-time or part-time professional staff members, this report recommends that deans and directors of schools of social work follow the same principles and criteria as are used for permanent appointments. Slightly more than 55 percent of the faculty of schools of social work in the United States in 1949 were part-time, nonstatus employees. In a school at one extreme, the ratio of full-time to part-time faculty members was 5 to 1, but in a school at the other extreme the ratio was 1 to 7. While no one knows what the ratio of full-time to part-time staff members ought to be under specified conditions, most professional educators would concede that the latter school with 4 full-time and 28 parttime teaching members of the staff could not be expected to maintain a first-rate graduate professional program—and in this instance the probabilities were further reduced by the fact that 19 of the part-time teachers were social work practitioners without highly specialized qualifications, who came to the campus only once a week for a two-hour period of instruction. Criticism of this and similar situations is of course not intended as condemnation of an educationally sound practice which is followed by social work and most other professional schools—that of employing temporary and regular part-time teachers for highly specialized assignments, such as the use of qualified specialists from medicine, law, psychiatry, psychology, administration, research, and other fields as instructors in schools of social work. T h e board of control and the president of a university ought to be among the first to join with social work educators in modifying

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

joj

what amounts to an undue dependence on the field of social work practice, to a cheap labor policy, and to other violations of sound faculty personnel practices. On the point of inadequate compensation, it may be of interest to record that the 55 percent of the faculties who were employed part-time did nearly half of the classroom teaching, but received only 16 percent of the faculty salary budget. In the school with 4 full-time and 28 part-time teachers, the latter group did practically all the classroom teaching, but received only three fifths of the amount budgeted for faculty salaries. For the most part, those who administer schools of social work do not follow these questionable practices from desire or by design: they occur from a sheer lack of an adequate instructional budget. Professional schools in general and schools of social work in particular are only moderately successful in attracting top-flight individuals with the highest level of salaries paid professors and associate professors. Men and women of high administrative, teaching, and research capacity usually can command more salary in the practice of their profession. Unless, therefore, they are readily admitted to all the rights and benefits of academic life, they tend to stay in the field of practice. If the general administrative officers of a university want a school of social work that has the prestige to give leadership in the area of social welfare comparable to that given in other areas by its stronger professional schools, they must provide social work educators with realistic employment standards, the customary academic privileges, enough staff to man a professional school, and salaries comparable to those paid other graduate and professional teachers. Substandard policies attract mediocre professional teachers and administrators.

FINANCING SOCIAL WORK

EDUCATION

It is practically impossible to calculate the gross or the per student cost of any type of professional education, including social work. University accounting simply is not geared to these ends. A large share of the cost of professional education, moreover, is borne by social work agencies that provide field work and other forms of firsthand learning experiences. Agency expenditures for these purposes are not identified in their own budget or in that of the university as part of the cost of professional education. Altogether, there are

3o4

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

more hidden costs in social work education than in an imported luxury item sold in an American night club! T h e crucial importance of cost data to university and professional school administrators, even in the face of such obstacles, is offered as justification for piecing together facts, estimates, and informed guesses to arrive at some approximations of over-all and per student expenditures in schools of social work of differing sizes, locations, controls, and sources of support. But before attempting to ferret out the maze of current costs in providing professional education for social workers, boards of control and university administrative officers perhaps would like to have at least an estimate of the cost of physical facilities required for a school of social work. Estimates of capital outlay expenditures are important for universities that are considering the establishment of a school, for universities that wish to bring an existing school up to some reasonable standard of physical facilities, and for colleges or universities that are deliberating on closing a school because the ends being achieved are not commensurate with the outlay required for adequate facilities. Capital Outlay Costs Adding a new professional school or providing adequately for such an obligation already incurred is not a matter to be undertaken lightly by the board of control and general administrative officers of a university. Using figures that range from $4,500 to $23,000 per capita, educational finance authorities estimate that approximately $8,500 per student in capital outlay expenditures must be made for buildings, equipment, and other relatively nonrecurring items before any thought is given to the recurring costs that enter into current operating budgets. A graduate school of social work cannot be established within these per capita figures unless it is of optimum size for economical operation. No one has made the complex investigation required for determining minimum, maximum, or optimum size in terms of university and field work requirements. A later subsection which examines size in relation to current operating expenditures offers some empirical evidence to show that a two-year graduate professional school of social work is very

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

305

uneconomical if the facilities are used by fewer than 50 full-time students. If a school enrolls 150 or more full-time students, more adequate facilities can be provided at a lower cost per student. If a university most favorably situated in terms of low costs procured land, buildings, and equipment to accommodate 50 students, the minimum investment would approximate $250,000, and in areas of higher prices it would exceed $500,000. T h e fact that a university likely to establish a school of social work is already a "going concern" with dormitories, cafeterias, and other service facilities might make it possible for most institutions to provide additional social work education facilities for considerably less than the sums indicated. While this is often the case, it is not generally so. In order to avoid creating an imbalance in service facilities, one university visited during the study found it necessary to expend $1,350,000 for capital outlay items required for a school of social work which enrolls 175 students. After reading the section on financing social work education, one director of a poorly housed and inadequately supported school said that if the recommendations of this report are followed, only the economically privileged universities could afford schools of social work. In a sense this is true. Only such universities can afford medical, dental, and other professional schools that do not operate on a mass basis which enables them to pay their way from student fees. Opinion to the contrary notwithstanding, the recommendation in this report would not make social work education a prerogative of either the wealthy university or the wealthy individual. As measured by either capital outlay or current operating costs, it stands close to the median of all professional schools. Nevertheless, social work education is not a program to be undertaken by universities that must house it in garrets, cellars, or dilapidated dwellings. It is of course recognized that some educators consider the preceding estimates of capital outlay costs useless and agree with the dean who declined an invitation to supply facts or estimates for this purpose on the ground that "when a train [university] is equipped to move across the country it is impossible to estimate what it costs to add one more car." Nevertheless, the capacity of the university locomotive, to continue the analogy, is not unlimited, and those in

jo6

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

responsible charge have to make choices as to what cars are to be attached to the train. And since a university must build and pay for its own rolling stock it must calculate capital outlay costs as well as operating costs. Relative Adequacy of Facilities An inspection of the physical facilities of more than half of the schools of social work in the United States indicates that this field is, on the average, as well housed as other professional schools or graduate departments. It had some of the best and some of the worst housing, depending on the university being visited. While in general the quality of housing given a school indicates its prestige on the campus, the assignment of space depends on so many circumstances that generalizations are not in order. One of the best programs observed, for example, was housed in temporary facilities located at an obscure corner of the campus, and one which was less outstanding as to program had the most desirable space in an imposing new building at the center of the campus. Not more than six schools of social work, located in unsatisfactory converted residences, storage buildings, basements, and attics, could properly have been refused accreditation for a lack of adequate physical facilities. T h e quantitative adequacy of space per school, per faculty member, or per student is more difficult to assess than qualitative adequacy. There are no nationally established norms than can be used to gauge the average number of square feet of floor space the undergraduate or professional student should have for classroom, library, laboratory, recreation, and other uses; the paucity of information is as great on the office and conference space that should be considered adequate for members of the faculty. 3 Even though full-time social work faculty members have on the average 21 square feet of floor space each as compared with 11 square feet for faculty members in other divisions of the universities, all schools except three reported the need for more office and conference space. A large share of the favorable balance of schools of social work is undoubtedly due to s For a compilation of over-all tentative norms see Ernest V. Hollis and associates. College Building Needs (Federal Security Agency-, Office of Education, Special Series No. 1, Bulletin [Washington, D.C., 1949]).

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

307

the fact that they provide office space for a large number of parttime staff members. Students in schools of social work have 25 square feet, as compared to 30 for all university students, of gross (includes net space plus halls, toilets, closets, storage rooms, etc.) classroom space and slightly more library and recreational space than students in general, but no one knows what is "adequate" or the functional meaning of theoretical averages that take no account of space utilization per hour and per student station. Oddly enough, the two schools of social work at the extremes of the distribution of classroom space each reported its space as inadequate—in one case there was 10 and in the other 91 square feet per student! In some of the schools visited, for instance, it was found that classes that enrolled six students were being conducted in rooms equipped for 30 students and, moreover, the space was used slightly less than 15 hours per week. Classrooms constitute roughly one fourth of the total space per student for all campus facilities and presumably are used with as great efficiency as any other space. It is not unreasonable to suppose that taxpayers and philanthropists who provide funds for capital outlay purposes will more and more ask university administrators to justify the use being made of space already provided. Some enterprising student of the administration of social work education could take time by the forelock by getting a comprehensive study of space utilization under way. Size of School in Relation to Current Expenditures Physical facilities and the operating budget alloted to a school usually are related to the number of full-time students being educated. Although there are exceptions, it is presumed that part-time students will use the same facilities at periods when they are not being used by full-time students, and that the fees of part-time students will nearly pay for the instruction they get. Schools of social work as a group enroll two full-time students to one part-time student, despite the fact that the ratio is reversed in a few institutions. Most university administrators, therefore, usually want to know the minimum number of full-time students required for the economical operation of a school of social work. Definitive informa-

308

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

tion, as has already been indicated, is not available, but a few empirical data and rule-of-thumb criteria may be of some help to boards of control and university administrators who must make decisions before soundly based studies can be made. T h e bulk of social work education in the United States is offered as an articulated two-year post-bachelor's degree program, though a few schools offer only a one-year program and a few offer advanced programs leading to the doctorate. T w o years is certainly a minimum period in which to prepare a qualified undergraduate to enter the complex and emotionally charged profession of social work. Consequently, it is recommended that a university entering this field commit itself to facilities and funds necessary to maintain at least a two-year graduate professional school. Such a school does not spring full-grown from the forehead of some Jove on Olympus; there may be only a one-year program during a three- or four-year developmental period, but the university should be able, willing, and committed to at least a two-year program. During this developmental period it must be willing and able to add to its normal budgetary provisions a sum to cover the total instructional cost of students for whom provision is made but who have not yet enrolled. A university should not be expected, as some are now doing, to carry beyond the developmental period the extra costs involved in maintaining a school of social work for 15 to 20 students. T a k i n g into account the considerations sketched in the two preceding paragraphs and based on a firsthand study of educational programs and budgeted and unbudgeted expenditures, it is believed that a mature, conventional two-year school of social work must enroll a minimum of 50 full-time students and half as many more part-time students to justify its existence financially and educationally. If cooperating social work agencies provide most of the staff for the direct supervision of student field work, such a school can be manned by a staff of five or six full-time teachers, one of whom carries the title and salary of director or dean. Otherwise, the equivalent of a dozen full-time teachers will be required. In order to relieve the regular staff for developmental work and related profession-wide work, it would be necessary, in addition, to secure from other divisions of the university and from outside agencies part-time staff members who devote time equivalent to the man-

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

309

months and salary of four full-time staff members of the rank of associate professor or higher. Otherwise, 12 to 15 full-time professional staff members would be required for a school of 50 students. These numbers would not be increased appreciably if enrollments increased to 100 students, primarily due to uneconomical class size for a student body of 50 students distributed over a two-year program. Adequate current support, as professional school funds are commonly budgeted, would require approximately $50,000 per year, in 1950 purchasing power. In a few communities it might be done for $40,000, but there are many universities that would require $75,000 to give the school of social work equal treatment with comparable units. If the proposed current university budget were chargeable to 50 full-time students the annual per capita cost would approximate $1,000, a sum that approaches half of the 1950 median cost per student for medical education, namely, $2,364. T h e cost of medical education per student ranges from $ 9 1 7 to $9,500. T h e fact that education is also usually provided for part-time and extension students would reduce the per capita cost by perhaps 25 percent. Costs of social work education normally hidden within the general university budget and those buried likewise in the operating budgets of social work agencies of course add to the funds and the per student costs of schools of social work. A n analysis of these factors is presented later in the section. It is common knowledge that students do not pay nearly all the cost of their education either in undergraduate college or in graduate and professional school. T h e proportion they pay varies between publicly and privately supported universities and from institution to institution within the two groups, as well as from school to school within the same university. In general, students in privately controlled colleges pay approximately 60 percent of the cost of instruction and in publicly controlled colleges about 35 percent of this cost. In the very expensive field of medical education, students pay approximately one third of the estimated cost, the range being from $300 to $830 per student, with the median approaching $750. It is likely that the tuition and fees for students in the field of social work education will continue to approximate those of graduate students rather than those of medical students.

)io

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

In proposing these minimum goals for an adequate conventional two-year school of social work it is of course recognized that many schools accredited by the American Association of Schools of Social Work do not enroll 50 students, and that many of those above this minimum enrollment do not have the physical facilities or the current budget proposed. Indeed, it is for this very reason that the proposal is made. More than one fourth (13 out of 48) of the accredited two-year schools of social work, as of November, 1949, enrolled fewer than 50 full-time students; in fact, three that are long past the developmental stage enrolled 25 or fewer full-time students. Four of the eight one-year schools that are accredited by this Association enrolled fewer than 30 students; one of these enrolled only 12 students even though it has been in operation in a reputable state university since 1919. A one-year school of social work in another state university has a budget of $39,000 and enrolls only 34 full-time students, 22 of whom are reported as specializing in social work. These facts suggest the importance of reviewing the causes of low enrollments in one fourth of the two-year schools and in one half of the one-year schools. Such a review should note unsound educational practices as well as the causes of uneconomical operation due to inadequate enrollment. How Faculty

Administration

Affects

Budget

It is not within the purview of this section of the report to call into question the basic premises on which schools of social work administer programs of study. It must be pointed out, however, that since two thirds of the budget in most schools is allocated to salaries, the fundamental answer to the question of what constitutes a fair annual cost per student depends on the degree to which instruction is individualized. If the administration, supervision, counseling, and teaching of students continue to be done largely on an individual basis, costs per faculty member and per student will necessarily remain high even in schools that have large enrollments. If, on the other hand, group procedures can be used more extensively, a larger ratio of students per faculty member can be maintained. This arrangement also would allow for a specialization of faculty function that does not now exist generally. The patterns of professional work responsibility of 166 of the

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

jii

197 full-time teachers and administrators in 17 schools of social work that enrolled approximately half of the full-time students in attendance during the autumn of 1948 illustrate the lack of differentiation in faculty functions. The average number of hours per week they estimated as devoted to nine categories of duty is shown in Table 17.4 It is a difficult table to read. Except figures in column 7, each figure in Table 17 may have been derived from a different number of persons. Columns 2-6 should be read as is illustrated for column 2: that portion (actual number unknown to authors of this report) of 166 faculty members who listed teaching as their primary area of responsibility devoted 6.1 hours per week to teaching, 5.0 hours to direct supervision, 8.0 hours to indirect supervision, and so on for the remaining six categories of duty. Column 7 is read as follows: the 166 faculty members as a group estimate that they devote 5.0 hours per week of their total professional activity to teaching, 17.9 hours to direct face-to-face supervision, 9.3 hours to indirect supervision (i.e., supervising those who do the direct supervision), and so on for the remaining six categories of duty. From a comparison of column 2 and column 7 of Table 17 it is evident that faculty members who list teaching as their area of primary responsibility actually teach only 1.1 hours per week more than the average of all faculty members. Column 2 indicates that teachers spend twice as much time in indirect and direct supervision as they spend in actual classroom teaching. Teachers give nearly as much time to each of three other activities as they devote to classroom teaching, namely, to administration, to committee work, and to other assigned projects. In general, those who are primarily responsible for teaching devote only 20 percent of their scheduled professional activity to actual classroom teaching. Dr. Magnus 5 says that 40 percent of the 166 faculty members worked in each of the five areas of responsibility and that 80 percent worked in four such areas. Moreover, apparently everybody engages in teaching and administration, a practice which this report considers inimical to sound administration and wasteful of good teaching and supervisory talent. A high quality of teaching and * Data in T a b l e 17 are adapted from T a b l e 6 of " A Study of Faculty Work Loads," an unpublished investigation made under the chairmanship of Dr. E m a Magnus, School of Social Work, Howard University, Washington, D.C. ® Ibid.

312

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

T A B L E 17 Weekly Work Load in Hours of 166 Social Work Faculty Members, Distributed into Nine Categories of Activity by Five Primary Areas of Responsibility a (In average hours per week) P R I M A R Y A R E A S OF R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y CATEGORIES OF DUTY

I

Teaching Direct supervision Indirect supervision Administration Student consultation Committees Thesis supervision Research consultation Assigned project

Teaching

Indirect Direct Supervision Supervision

3

}

4

6.1

2.8

5.0

27.0

3« 3-7 •9-9

8.0

3-4 4-4 M *-7

ALL

Re- Adminissearch tration

FACULTY MEMBERS

S

6

7

4.0

34

5.0

3.0

*-7 4-' '•5 4-5

4.0

>7-9 9-3

6.8 22.6 6.8 5° 6.2 3-6 3-9 7.2 4-7 5» 3-4 2.8 13.6 3-6 4-7 2.6 4.8 2.6 3-8 i-5 '•3 8.2 5-5 3°-5 » Adapted from Magnus (sec footnote 4). T h e average hours per week in each category of activity under each major area of responsibility may represent a different number of faculty members. Altogether they represent 166 of the 197 full-time faculty members from 17 schools of social work which in the autumn of 1948 enrolled approximately half of all full-time students. Data in the table take no account of preparation for teaching nor of unassigned research, writing, or other professional commitments.

scholarship obviously cannot be maintained under such conditions. T h e expectation that a teacher of social work shall be all things to all students is educationally unsound at the graduate professional level of work, and is not followed to the same degree in any other professional or graduate school. Observations during the study in approximately half of the schools of social work in the United States corroborate the findings of the Magnus investigation and lead to the conclusion that in most schools a majority of faculty members engage in too diverse and too heavy a load of professional duties. This practice generally constitutes a greater waste of funds and professional skill than is represented by the wastes incident to small enrollment in the schools cited earlier in this section. T h e nature and stage of development of the profession have impelled social work educators to extend their work load beyond normal educational bounds. A young profession where only 27 percent of its practitioners are qualified by one or more years of professional education for leadership activities must necessarily

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

5/5

rely largely on the 500 or fewer social work educators to share with them local and national responsibility for establishing welfare programs to meet community needs, for the development of professional standards, for formulating criteria and procedures for the staff training activities of government and voluntary agencies, and for a host of other profession-wide leadership responsibilities. T h e s e f r u i t f u l relationships, however, have not been without a debit side. T h e pressing and varied general professional activities undertaken by faculty members have been a detriment to much needed basic research and publication in the field of education f o r social work. These statements do not intend to imply that outside professional activities should be abandoned. Instead, it is suggested that they be kept within bounds that are feasible for small faculties that are already overburdened and that must operate on slender financial resources. What is devoutly to be desired is enough funds to increase the size of faculties and at the same time reorganize their duties more in keeping with the work patterns that prevail in the older related professions. What Does It Cost per Year to Educate a Social Worker? If a categorical answer is required, it must be said that no one knows the national average annual cost of educating a social worker or a member of any other profession. University and agency bookkeeping systems simply are not geared for this type of accounting. Altogether, between one fourth and one half of the institutional cost of professional education is buried in the undifferentiated expenditures of universities. T h e r e f o r e , data presented in this report are based on actual expenditures for salaries, on estimates of other university expenditures, and on informed guesses of the expenditures of field work agencies for providing professional education. T h e steps to be taken in making an estimate of costs, aside from capital outlay expenditures, will include: (1) a comparison of teachers' salaries in schools of social work with those in schools of five other professions; (2) a further analysis of school of social work salaries; (g) an estimate of other university expenditures for social work education; (4) an informed guess of the expenditures of social work agencies that provide field work placements f o r students who

3i4

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

are enrolled in schools of social work; (5) a consolidation of data to give a rough estimate of the total annual cost of educating a social worker, and a breakdown of total per student cost to show the proportion chargeable to field work instruction and to intramural education. Salaries in six professions.—A school of social work usually must compete with other administrative units for its share of the university budget, especially with other professional schools. Since students of educational finance agree that approximately two-thirds of the budget for current expenditures in professional schools is usually allocated to salaries, the most feasible and realistic comparison of instructional costs among professional schools can be seen by noting the averages of the maximum, minimum, and median salaries paid to teachers of different ranks. Table 18 shows the situation for six professions, those in columns 2, 3, and 4 being largely undergraduate in character, and those in columns 5, 6, and 7 being largely or wholly graduate. Except for the field of social work, these data were derived from a study conducted by the American Society for Engineering Education with a Carnegie Corporation grant. The report was published by the Society under the title of A Survey of Teachers' Salaries in Engineering and Other Professional Schools. The ratio of schools and staff members for whom data are reported bears approximately the same relation to totals in each field, except for engineering, where a much larger proportion of all schools and all faculty members is reported. It was necessary to reduce some social work salaries to the academic year basis of nine or ten months in order to have them on a base comparable with those of the other five professions. Professors, including deans, directors, and department heads, in from 5 to 10 percent of the cases actually received salaries one-sixth larger than those recorded, a fact that tends to make actual maximum and median salaries higher for all professions than the figures reported. Financial data from schools of social work were supplied with the understanding that in their use individuals and institutions would not be identified. Table 18 establishes the basic fact that social work educators as a group are in an unfavorable financial position, rank by rank, when compared with five other undergraduate and graduate professional schools. Law, for example, has 57 percent of its staff members at

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

3/5

TABLE 18 Distribution of Faculty in Schools of Six Professions, by Maximum, Minimum, and Median Salaries for Four Academic Ranks a Architecture 1 Institutions reporting Staff members reported

a

3

ssistant professors Number Percent Salaries: Maximum Minimum Median Instructors Number Percent Salaries: Maximum Minimum Median

Engineering 4

Dentistry

Law

Social Work

5

6

7 X4X

x6

34

2,252

8,585

388

93 «•3

60s

1,820

1

'S

461

*7

XI

30

57

$14,000 3,800

$12,000

$10,800

$15,000

3400

3.000

3.500

6,500

5.800

6,600

7,100

390 '7

'•536

78 xo

127

$ 8.000 3,600

$ 9.500

$ 9.500 3,200

$ 7.300 3,800

$ 8,000

3.500

4,600

5,000

4400

5.300

5,000

>44

486

1.911 XX

75 19

'74 XI

79 33

$ 6.800

$ 6.300

$ 7,000

$5,400

2.500

2,500

x,3oo

4.300

4.X00

3.750

43

516

Professors (including deans and department heads) Number "J XX Percent Salaries: $12,000 Maximum 3,000 Minimum 5,800 Median Associate professors Number Percent Salaries: Maximum Minimum Median

Business

118

»3

54

1*3

18

16

3,600

65 *7 $9.354 3.5°° 543' 58 «4 *5.765 3.277 4.500

x8

XX

$ 8,000 2,800

$ 7,000 3,000

3,800

4,000

3.100 3.800

141

774 34

3-3'8 39

1XX 31

51

40

6

16

$ 54°°

$ 4.700

$ 5400

1,900 3,100

2,500 3,000

800

$ 7.500 2,400

$4.500 1.667

3,100

3,600

2,930

«7 $ 4,000 2,000 3,200

a Data for professional schools other than social work adapted from A Survey of Teachers' Salaries in Engineering and other Professional Schools (New York: American Society for Engineering Education, 1949). All data based on ten months service. Salaries reported for eleven or twelve months of service have been reduced by one sixth. Academic year covered, 1948-49. Social work data secured directly from 34 AASSW schools.

JI6 ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

the rank of professor as compared with 27 percent for social work; the range of salaries at this rank is twice as great in law, and the median salary is nearly $2,000 a year greater than in social work. Social work maintains its median position in the "professors" category only because schools are small and each dean or director is included in the category, whereas in a field such as engineering, the ratio of professors to deans is much greater. Further investigation might show a causal relation between salaries in the six professions and the qualifications of professors as measured by degrees, scholarly writing, and professional leadership, but it is more likely to reflect the prestige which society accords to the older professions. Associate professors of social work are in a favored position in the proportion of teachers they have at this rank, but an inspection of maximum, minimum, and median salaries in this category in the six professions shows social work to be the low field. Minimum and median salaries in engineering constitute an exception to this generalization, but it holds without an exception for the assistant professor category. T h e comparatively high percentage of social work educators at the rank of assistant professor reflects the fact that the maturity and experience required cannot be secured at the salary paid instructors. T h e labor market pays as much to reasonably competent stenographers, and more salary to custodians of buildings, than to social work instructors. Tabulations from which the generalized figures in column 7 of T a b l e 18 were derived indicated a bimodal distribution of social work educators within the salary ranges stated for each rank. In the professorial category, for example, a plurality clustered around either $9,000 or around $4,000; only seven individuals received salaries at the middle of the range. Associate professors also tended to cluster at either the top or the bottom of the salary range of that category. In the assistant professor category, 20 of the 79 individuals clustered around $2,300 while the salaries of only 34 exceeded $4,000. These consistent bimodal distributions of salaries derive from the fact that there is one group of schools that pays comparatively high salaries to all ranks and another group of schools that pays low salaries to all ranks. Column 7 of Table 18 therefore conceals as much as it reveals. This situation suggests that, in addition to using T a b l e 18 as a point of reference for determining

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

j/7

the adequacy of local salaries, social w o r k faculties also should compare their salaries, rank by rank, with those paid in other professional schools of their university and region. Neither the average median salary nor the potential m a x i m u m salary offered social work educators provides the financial incentive for j o i n i n g a faculty that is offered by other professional schools. Moreover, social work does not provide the opportunities afforded by some other professions for faculty members to add to their salaries through fees for consultation, surveys, special projects, and part-time private practice. A t the same time, few of the other professions have a stronger or more consistent pull made on their faculties to enter employment in the field of practice. W h i l e salaries paid the great mass of social workers are low, the demand for social work administrators, supervisors, and other leaders, at salaries that exceed those paid most social work educators, far exceeds the supply of such individuals. T h i s economic fact adds to the difficulty most professional schools experience in recruiting and retaining a firstrate faculty. Even though rank by rank, teachers of social work on the average are paid less than other professional educators, the cost per student for faculty salaries is higher in schools of social work than in any other of the professions analyzed in T a b l e 18. Faculty salaries in schools of social work across the nation for the academic year 19481949 divided by full-time enrollment give an average cost per student of $580. W h e n part-time and extension students were equated to a full-time basis and included in the calculation, the cost per student for faculty salaries approximated $545 for all students enrolled. T h e s e figures would be much higher except for the fact that nearly half of the classroom instruction was done by part-time teachers who were paid much lower salaries than those received by fulltime faculty members. T h e per student cost for faculty salaries will be discussed further in a later paragraph that attempts to state a consolidated over-all figure for per capita costs in social work education. Other university expenditures estimated.—Faculty salaries in schools of social work that submitted their budgets to the study for analysis constituted 62 percent of all budgeted funds. T h e remaining 38 percent covered a wide range of items, many of which ap-

318

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

peared in less than half of the budgets studied. Some schools, for example, paid all their telephone costs while others paid only longdistance tolls; some schools budgeted library expenditures while in others the university budget carried this item; and, to cite but one other example, some schools budgeted faculty travel funds and others carried the item in the general university budget. These variations in budgeting practice were so great that several social work education administrators doubted the practical worth of trying to generalize them into a dollar value per student. Nevertheless, as budgeted across the nation, this 38 percent of all budgeted funds amounted to $355 per student. What the university general budget carried for the school of social work must rest on informed guesses. It is the opinion of several specialists in university business management and financial accounting that the undifferentiated costs per professional student carried in the university budget approximate 15 percent of the sum budgeted to such schools. The actual percentage, of course, varies as widely as the budgeting practices of universities. Fifteen percent of average budgeted funds of schools of social work, per student, approximated $140, which added to a salary cost of $580 and to an "other budgeted items" cost of $355 aggregates a total estimated average cost to the university of $1,075 for each full-time social work student enrolled. The range of the estimated costs from which this average was derived extended from $387 at one university to $3,780 at another. Education costs borne by social work agencies.—The social work profession will understand, though perhaps others may not, that social work agencies do not pay all the costs of providing direct supervision of students that may be receiving field experience with them. Some schools of social work provide for as much as three fifths of such costs in their own salary budgets. Moreover, some agencies feel that being a teaching center is worth as much as the agency pays for supervisory and other costs incident to field work instruction. If these and other variables are held in mind, it can be stated that the informed guesses submitted by schools of social work show estimated agency expenditures that might properly be charged to field work instruction of students ranging from $ 1 2 1 to $827 per student, the average being $381. This figure should be recognized

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

319

as flimsy and generally unreliable. It was not feasible for the study to gather data of this kind from social work agencies. T h e subject of field work instruction costs is of such paramount importance that a special study should be made to secure the facts. Such a study should, of course, include an analysis of who bears these costs and should offer some cues for determining who should underwrite them. A11 average field work instruction cost of $381 added to a university cost per student of $ 1 , 0 7 5 would aggregate an over-all estimated cost of $1,456 per full-time student as the over-all cost of providing an academic year of social work education in the United States. Perhaps the nonstatistically minded reader should be reminded again that averages usually conceal as much as they reveal. In reality, there may not be a single school in the United States that approximates all the estimated averages. Nevertheless, there is reason to believe that the figures have reality in them and that they foreshadow the situation in social work education. Regional and other variables that influence costs.—Financial data were tabulated to determine the variations in per student costs for different sections of the United States, for schools of different size, for tax-supported and privately supported schools, and for schools located in urban and in rural environments. For the most part, the results were inconclusive because there were not enough cases in the several categories to justify valid inferences. In general, it may be said that schools of social work follow the pattern of most other forms of higher education by costing more per student in the East than in the South, Middle West, or far West; that costs were greater per student in small schools than in large schools; that factors other than the source of support accounted for differences in cost in publicly controlled and privately controlled universities; and that the higher costs in small-town and rural environments are due to small enrollments and greater field work costs rather than to other environmental factors. Intramural versus field instruction costs.—There remains the task of trying to unscramble the total cost per student for social work education so as to show the approximate proportions properly chargeable to field work and to intramural instruction, regardless of who pays the field work costs. T a b l e 19 shows how one university

}2o

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

carried out the whole process of determining approximate costs and of dividing them between field work and intramural purposes. T h e information from this particular school of social work is of course peculiar to its own situation, and no one should generalize from a single instance. Nevertheless, it is genuinely worthy of study by students of social work education costs. From a synthesis of such documents from schools across the country reliable data could be compiled from which valid generalizations could be made. From scattered samples of such reports and from firsthand investigation at a n u m b e r of schools of social work, this report tentatively concludes that the average total cost of $1,456 per student should be apportioned so as to allocate $831 to intramural costs and $625 to the cost of field work instruction. A study of reports from individual schools indicates that whatever the total sums involved, the ratio of actual costs between intramural and field work does not vary greatly from that represented by the above figures. If the instructional plan recommended in Chapter V for the basic curriculum should be adopted, both classroom and field work costs might be reduced substantially.

A CONCLUDING

STATEMENT

T h i s chapter has tried to create the outlines of a framework for administering a graduate school of social work within the structure and dynamics of a university, and in keeping with the needs of the profession. T h e discussion does not constitute a treatise on organization and administration, despite the fact that it gives some attention to the assumptions that underlie and guide the administrative process. University administrators and social work educators are left the task of sharpening or modifying the framework and of securing more valid data or of focusing it on the problems with which they are concerned. It is recognized that the generalizations and recommendations do not apply to all universities or schools of social work and that where they do apply, the force and direction of the impact vary. Nevertheless, considerable study and a firsthand inspection of schools across the nation have left the conviction that the conclusions and recommendations are generally applicable. At any

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

32/

T A B L E 19 Analysis of Social Work Education

Costs,* "H"

University, March,

I. Expenses of students' field work travel and lodging: a. Total cost of field work travel and lodging b. 42 students, per capita total cost c. Field work fee, per year per student contribution d. Per capita cost to University for field work (b — c) II. Agencies' contribution to field work for students: b a. Cost to agencies of supervision (computed on estimated minimum of $2,400 each supervisor, the equivalent in time contributed estimated at 7 supervisors) b. Office space, stenographic services, and supplies— not estimable c. Travel to school by supervisors, two trips per year by each supervisor, financed by agencies, estimated for 1947-48 at 5,442 miles traveled at $.05 per mile d. Total agencies' contribution to field work (a -(- c) e. Per capita (42 students) agencies' contribution to field work (d 42) III. Instruction and administrative cost to University: a. Personnel budget, Social Work Department b. Nonpersonnel budget, Social Work Department c. Total instruction and administrative cost to University (a -f- b) d. Per capita instruction and administrative cost to University (c -h 42)

1949

$ 6,843.32 162.94 7500 87.94

16,800.00

272.10 17,072.10 406.50 34,409.00 1,300.00 35,709.00 c 850.21

IV. Over-all per capita cost to University of maintaining a program of social work education (I.d lll.d)

938.15

V. Over-all per capita cost to University and field work agencies of maintaining a program of social work education (IV -f- 11.e)

1,344.65

» T h e s e statistics are based on the full academic year, 1947-48. b T w o agencics paid students a cash sum during their field work experience: One agency paid $20 per month to two students; the other paid expenses of student in scholarship form. All cash payments were credited toward total students' expense account, thus lowering total expense of field work. c Does not include such University-supplied overhead items as utilities, office space, library services, etc.

J22

ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

rate, the purpose of the chapter will serve if the analysis stimulates university administrators and deans or directors of schools of social work to review their policies and procedures on the place of the school in the university structure, on the development and approval of curricula, on the award of degrees and certificates, on the selection and promotion of the faculty, on capital and current financing, and on relationships between the university and the social work profession. What this report has to say about student personnel administration is included in the preceding chapter. T h e overriding conclusion of the chapter now that social welfare has become a major function of local, state, and federal government, as well as of philanthropic organizations, is that more of the leading tax-supported universities should establish first-rate schools of social work to supply professional personnel to administer the multibillion-dollar welfare enterprise. T h e conclusion is equally obvious that some existing schools need to be better supported and better manned, or that they should be closed in the hope that a more hospitable environment can be found for a school in the region concerned. T h e matters discussed in the chapter should be helpful to educators concerned either with establishing or with revamping a school of social work.

CHAPTER

VII

Educational Responsibilities of Social Work Organizations T

V / H E R E IS MORE t o e d u c a t i o n

for professional responsibility

in

social work than is indicated by the programs of colleges and universities, to which the three preceding chapters have been devoted. T h e s e dealt with the differentiated aspects of social work education which the profession has tacitly delegated to institutions of higher education, but in which it rightly continues to exercise a pervasive influence. Here and there those chapters also foreshadowed a discussion of other educational responsibilities of the social work profession which constitute the body of this chapter. T h i s chapter will present an overview of certain undifferentiated and interrelated educational functions as they are carried on jointly and separately by professional and semiprofessional membership organizations, by employing agencies, by associations of these agencies, and by legal or voluntary groups that have educational or regulatory functions. It also will propose a national organization to coordinate and articulate the educational undertakings of the several types of social work bodies. T h i s overview of the educational responsibilities of social work organizations will be followed, in Chapter V I I I , by a detailed analysis of one of these responsibilities, namely, accreditation, a function which this report maintains belongs jointly to all organized elements of the profession and to the public. T h e extent and degree to which social work is a profession, as was emphasized in Chapter II, are determined by the measure of professional responsibility exercised by its organized components. At that point, and again in Chapter V, the major areas of profes-

524 EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

sional responsibility were listed, but are briefed here for the convenience of the reader. These included the promotion of a better understanding and a more responsible use of data relevant to social welfare, the furthering of research and experimentation, the stimulation of more disciplined professional behavior, the advancement of professional standards in practice and education, the encouragement of better teaching within the profession and related fields, the dissemination of information about the social work profession, and the development of teamwork with other professions and collateral disciplines that have a similar stake in social welfare. T h e exercise of many aspects of these responsibilities is obviously an educational undertaking. It is not feasible within a single chapter to present a comprehensive survey of the actual and potential educational and regulatory functions of the organized components of the profession in the several areas of professional responsibility. T h e topics examined are only illustrative of the many cooperative efforts the profession has undertaken, of the potential opportunities it has for joint endeavor, and of some areas where there is an urgent need for overall professional collaboration in education for social work. Among the specific topics discussed are joint responsibility for recruitment, for field teaching, for educational leave, work-study plans, and service courses for employed social workers, and for research projects related to educational issues and to the regulation of practice. In analyzing some of the major issues and making proposals for working together in resolving them, the public interest rather than a more narrowly defined professional interest will be the basis for forming judgments. In a democratic society, the public as consumer has an important stake in preparation of social workers. T h e quality of social services available to individuals, groups, and communities is directly shaped by the standards of undergraduate and professional study, by the educational requirements for entrance to employment in social agencies and other organizations employing social workers, and by the effectiveness of voluntary and legal regulation of agencies and of individual practice. Non-social work educators, legislators, and laymen who serve on the boards of social welfare agencies exert a substantial if not a dominant influence in the embodiment of such standards.

EDUCATIONAL

WORKING

TOGETHER

ON

RESPONSIBILITIES

INTERRELATED

EDUCATIONAL

)25

FUNCTIONS

While each segment of the profession has distinctive educational responsibilities, no professional group stands alone in exercising them. Each is associated in some way with other social work organizations in producing well-equipped persons for the broad range of responsibilities required. This principle will be illustrated by showing how educational functions presently carried on by employing agencies, regulatory bodies, and professional membership associations are related to each other, to the functions of educational institutions, and to the general welfare. The fact that these efforts do not always articulate or focus on the major educational objectives of the profession seems to call for the proposals made at the close of the chapter for cooperation by local, state, and national groups with particular attention to an over-all structure for the national coordination of social work education. Central Educational Functions of Each Segment of the Profession Confusion sometimes exists about the respective educational functions of the undergraduate college and the professional school as well as of the social agency and the school and, indeed, as to whether organizations of practitioners, regulatory bodies, and the general public have any place within the constellation of forces that shape education for the profession of social work. Therefore the central or distinctive educational responsibilities of each group are summarized as a preliminary to discussing the interrelationships of these and of other educational functions. The undergraduate college and the professional school.—As indicated in Chapter IV, the role of the undergraduate college is to provide education which orients one toward the individuals and the society of his own and past ages. Such an education should include an understanding of the basic concepts of social welfare and social work which are appropriate to general education for citizen responsibility, for graduate study in related fields, for entrance into nonprofessional positions in social agencies, and for beginning professional study in social work. The major responsibility of the professional school of social work should center with the two-, three-,

J26

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

or four-year educational program for full-time students. In this phase there is application of concepts from general education to the profession of social work, but the emphasis is on shaping basic professional attitudes and conduct and on teaching (through classroom, field, and research) the general principles, historical perspective, and the beginning knowledges and skills of social work. But these educational responsibilities, which in the United States are delegated to educational institutions, cannot be carried out without the cooperation of social agencies in providing adequate field teaching and research facilities. Employing agencies.—The central educational function of an employing agency is staff development and training, although providing opportunities for field teaching and student research is also an essential function in agencies that are willing to serve as teaching centers. T h e relationship is similar to that of medical schools and certain hospitals. Staff development and training, while based on concepts from both general and professional education, and drawing on the resources of educational institutions, is focused on teaching employees within the agency the purpose, function, philosophy, organization, procedures, and policy of a given agency in a local or larger community. T h e concept of growth of staff is inherent in efficient administration. A staff development plan is usually not considered well rounded unless it includes participation in policy formulation, adequate supervision, educational leave, and service courses for employed workers to help them keep abreast of new developments in the profession at large. Professional membership associations and national functional groups.—The membership associations in social work fall into three groups: (1) those made up of individual practitioners, such as the American Association of Social Workers, the American Association of Psychiatric Social Workers, and the American Public Welfare Association; (2) those including schools, such as the American Association of Schools of Social Work or the National Association of Schools of Social Administration; and (3) those in which social work agencies are affiliated for the purpose of promoting better standards of service, such as the Family Service Association of America or Community Chests and Councils of America, Incorporated.

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

527

T h e central educational function of most of the membership associations is difficult to identify. They carry multiple responsibilities of a stimulating and coordinating nature in the development of social work education. These include opportunity for professional growth and development of the individual practitioner, of the school, or of the agency, and cooperation within and among organized groups in defining and developing those aspects of the profession bearing on educational matters. Examples of these functions include requirements for membership, policies on selfregulation, legislation dealing with standards for legal regulation of individual or agency practice, and research or promotion for the development of basic and specialized educational programs. Regulatory agencies.—The impact of regulatory functions on education is immediate enough to justify calling attention to the fact that both functions are frequently exercised by a single organization. T h e regulatory functions, broadly defined, include: (1) standard setting by groups of individual practitioners or agencies banded together for purposes of mutual interest and for improving services to the public; (2) methods of voluntary or legal regulation such as registration or permission to use a title; (3) the restrictive sort of regulation which prohibits an individual or an agency to operate without a license. T o illustrate: the American Association of Schools of Social Work has carried on accreditation as a voluntary function through member schools, shaping their programs by certain standards of admission, curriculum, and administration. Practitioner membership organizations—the American Association of Medical Social Workers and the American Association of Psychiatric Social Workers are examples—have exercised a significant degree of self-regulation through the use of requirements for membership, based primarily on professional education, that amounts to voluntary certification or permission to use a title. Groups of agencies like the Child Welfare League of America and the Urban League have carried a self-regulatory function through membership standards geared to professional criteria for staff qualification, for agency administration, and for professional practice, related respectively to the care of dependent children or for services to Negroes. T h e only legal regulatory bodies per se in the field of individual social work practice in the United States are the Board of Examiners

ja8

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

of Social Workers in Puerto Rico and the Board of Social Work Examiners of the State of California. Official bodies in states and cities that have statutory provisions for licensing social work agencies regulate agency practice as, for instance, those engaged in child placing. Regulation of individual practice is limited primarily to that of a voluntary character except that exercised by indirection through certain of the regulations of public welfare agencies, civil service commissions, and merit systems which control to a large extent the educational standards, the methods of selection, and tenure requirements for employees entering public social services. Recruiting to the Profession Successful recruiting and discriminating selection of candidates f o r social work, as in any profession, are important foundation stones on which the quality and extent of service rest. As indicated in Chapter V, these activities are directly related to prestige factors, economic status, and public understanding of the role of the profession in society. T h e recruiting function is carried on by each segment of the profession, with a focus on its special needs and interests it is true, but this generally benefits social work as a whole. T h e use of scholarships and other special educational funds and programs as recruiting devices, by local schools and professional membership associations, has been mentioned earlier. Upgrading agency services by adding to the number of professionally qualified practitioners in the field provides another illustration of the ways in which voluntary and governmental agencies, schools, and other social work organizations carry on recruitment. For example, in 1950 all except four governments of the states and territories, the Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia, budgeted child welfare service funds for professional study by staff members, and state plans showed a total of $644,015 for educational leave. T h e number of workers to whom grants were to be given in this year was estimated at about 600. Child welfare service plans in 16 states budgeted for approximately 1 5 5 workers-in-training, an increase over 1949 in which 1 1 states provided funds for 62 workers in this classification. Workers-in-training are recent college graduates who have been recruited to an agency to test their interest in the field with the expectation that successful candidates will be sent

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

529

to schools of social work. These students augment and strengthen public welfare staffs and thus assure more adequate services for children, parents, and communities. T h e Family Service Association of America and its member agencies have a long tradition of active participation in recruitment to the profession. T h r e e recruiting pamphlets have been issued by this Association since 1945. T h e i r scholarships f o r professional education have also served to provide a substantial nucleus of leaders to the field of social work. For example, fellowships have been granted to students for study at the New York School of Social Work ever since it was established at the turn of the century by the Charity Organization Society of New York City. Since the 1920's, when apprentice training was largely discontinued in favor of graduate professional education, family agencies in various parts of the country have maintained a continuous recruitment and scholarship program. In 1942, the National Board of Directors of the F a m i l y Service Association approved a recommendation from its Personnel Committee that recruitment and scholarship become a permanent part of their program. In December, 1944, 50 member agencies reported 1 2 , 1 3 5 available for scholarship grants. In May, 1946, 48 agencies had $120,000, and by 1947, 65 member agencies reported scholarship funds available. Individual grants have been highly variable, ranging from §50 to $ 1 5 0 per month. T h e general underlying philosophy of family agencies is that scholarship grants should be given to increase the general pool of professionally qualified social workers. However, during World W a r I I many agencies began to require a commitment at completion of training to accept one year's employment with the agency granting the scholarship. T h e present (1950) thinking of this Association favors the granting of scholarships without commitments. Some factors, however, such as continuing commitments by other fields of social work and continuing vacancies in social agencies in which community scholarship funds are raised, mitigate against the immediate acceptance of an over-all, noncommitted scholarship plan. Nevertheless, the Association's Personnel Committee advocates that first year scholarships should no longer carry commitment as a part of the requirement for receiving the grant.

330

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

Progressive merit systems, in cooperation with the public welfare agencies, have done intensive work at both college and secondary school levels to interest students in social work as a career. Many systems, however, largely confine their efforts to recruitment for current vacancies, including, of course, beginning jobs in the field. Membership associations influence the recruitment of suitable persons to the profession by virtue of their membership requirements. Employing agencies also exercise a major influence on who enters social work, with or without benefit of education, and schools determine to a large degree, by admission policies and practices, w h o shall receive professional education. But the membership associations, by virtue of their functions, have an over-all responsibility for recruitment to the profession which is divorced from the more or less self-directed interest of particular agencies or individual schools. T h i s function has been carried on by membership associations nationally and locally by means of the usual membership committees, scholarships, special appeals to graduating classes, and distribution of literature. T h e r e has not been a national program of recruitment to the social work profession except the efforts of the War T i m e Committee on Personnel during World W a r I I , which was spearheaded by the professional associations and supported by all other groups in the profession. A renewed effort of this kind is timely not only because the great need for large numbers of qualified persons continues, but because it can now be based on comprehensive and reliable data heretofore unknown and currently available through the 1950 Bureau of L a b o r Statistics study of qualifications, salaries, and working conditions of social workers. T h i s survey gives a national picture of private and federal agencies, and a full census by states for the public welfare field. Associated with recruitment is an urgent need to study and analyze the requirements and opportunities of the various fields of social work, as is currently under way in the "Occupational Outlook Series" being issued by the Women's Bureau of the United States Department of Labor. T h e r e is further need also to analyze (1) what the over-all professional needs are in beginning, supervisory, administrative, consultant, teaching, and research positions, and (2) why the public, including the young college graduate, often has a distorted view of the profession, and what can be done to cor-

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

331

rect these inaccurate and unfortunate attitudes. Also, there are no comprehensive current data on agency requirements for professional and nonprofessional workers to correlate with the census data that will soon be at hand. This and an analysis of public interpretation of the profession could well be study projects for an interassociation committee that would serve not only a crying and practical need of the whole profession but, because of the noncontroversial nature of the subject, should facilitate unity through participation in a common cause. Review of some of the popular media of public information shows little that would appeal to the social ideals of young people and a shocking lack of understanding of the role of the professional social worker. An excellent recording for radio, Fear Begins at Forty, is a case in point. The whole theme is sympathetic to the ideals and objectives of social work—but, when the social worker speaks, the lack of knowledge displayed on how an interview should be conducted is obvious to anyone familiar with professional standards and practice. Negligible use has been made of films, the daily press, the comics, and popular magazines, although there are such notable exceptions as the portrayal of sound adoption practices which appeared in Life, February 19, 1951, under the title " T h e Happy Case of Linda Joy." These media are among the most powerful forces reaching and motivating high school and college students and conditioning their choice of a career. Here, indeed, is a challenge to the profession. It is clear from these and other school and agency experiences reported that in spite of the earnest and persistent efforts of individuals, agencies, schools, merit systems, and national associations to carry their recruiting functions separately, two essentials are lacking in the field of social work in the United States today: (1) an extensive and effective public information program with profession-wide focus and support; and (2) an adequate national supply of professionally educated social workers such as could be developed only through an over-all professional plan. The latter idea might be furthered through federal aid to professional education and by noncommitted scholarships similar to those proposed in legislation introduced in 1950 during the Second Session of the 81st Congress. This should be differentiated from educational leave

332

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

plans that commit the worker to one particular program for which the money was appropriated as a device for improving the services of the agency through improving the competence of staff. Development and Training of Agency Staffs and Faculties It is now rather generally accepted that staff training is a major administrative responsibility that must be assumed by social agencies if services are to be well and effectively rendered and if all staff, regardless of the amount of preparation at entrance to employment, is to have opportunity to develop professionally in the course of the day-to-day work. In fact, it was this concept that led to establishing the first institutes in social work, and at present accounts for the extensive developments of staff training programs in local, state, and national voluntary and government agencies throughout the country. A recent study 1 of staff development programs shows that some type of training activity is being carried on in all state public assistance agencies, and that 28 agencies have set up full-time positions or units which give special attention to the staff training function. Yet many agencies, particularly in public welfare, have not examined, clarified, or assumed to the extent desirable their particular supervisory and educational responsibilities in developing professional competence. As indicated earlier, these are (1) the responsibility for a well-planned and continuous program for training and development of all staff; (2) the assumption of distinct teaching and research functions related to formal professional education, similar to those carried by certain medical institutions for education of medical students. T h i s has been done in some of the older established agencies; for example, one half of the 2 1 5 member agencies of the Family Service Association in 1949 reported field placements for 736 students of graduate schools of social work. For agencies that assume these two basic responsibilities this will require setting up and labeling a definite portion of the annual agency budget on a long-time plan for these two purposes that are so directly related to meeting agency and broader professional needs and goals. 1 " T h e Work of the Full-time Training Supervisor in State Public Assistance Agencies," a report by the Bureau of Public Assistance, Federal Security Agency, February, 1951.

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

333

A well-rounded staff development plan, whether for agency staff or school faculties, should include orientation of new staff, help through regular individual and group supervision, some type of educational leave policy, and work-study plans for those who live near schools of social work. It should also include the use of supplementary resources within and without the agency, such as offcampus courses, special institutes, or attendance at conferences and other professional meetings that have educational value. Close cooperation with educational institutions already exists in several of these areas. These efforts should continue and be strengthened. At the same time, clarity about separateness of functions and observance of sound educational principles in both the school and the agency are essential. In planning for educational leave, which is a basic method of upgrading staff and services, it is the responsibility of the agency to develop the policy. 2 T h e agency should also decide how many persons may go to school without disrupting agency services, who shall go, the amount of payments while on leave, and the type of position and kind of responsibility that will be assumed by the employee on his return to the agency. On the other hand, it is the responsibility of the school of social work to make decisions about who shall be admitted, to determine the educational program, and to evaluate the worker's progress as a student in a graduate professional school rather than in terms of requirements of a particular agency. It is obvious that here are not only areas for cooperation, but also areas of potential confusion and conflict. There has been a tendency in social work as a new profession struggling to find its boundaries and to achieve community recognition to draw sharp lines between staff members with professional education and those without benefit of formal study. This is important to the public interest, but it has led to problems in constructively incorporating the graduate social worker into an agency program—as, for instance, when the staff member who has been on 2 Recent statements of generally accepted principles and usual procedures in educational leave policies will be found in two Federal Security Agency documents: "Guide for Educational Leave Policies," issued by the Children's Bureau in April, 1948, and "Educational Leave," Handbook of Public Assistance Administration, V4451, issued by the Bureau of Public Assistance as State Letter No. 94, effective September, 1948.

334

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

educational leave returns to the agency to work among experienced workers who are without formal professional education. It has led also to expecting far too much of the person who has acquired only the foundations of professional knowledge and beginnings of skill when he leaves a school of social work. It has often created a false sense of expectation on the part of the agency as to the degree of preparation of the graduate. When this type of problem occurs, it may indicate that the agency has failed to assume effectively its responsibility at the point where the student leaves the school and goes into employment either as a new worker or an employee returning from educational leave. This type of situation affirms the principle that formal education and professional growth on the job are continuous processes. It also throws into sharp relief the necessity for both school and agency to see clearly the articulation of their distinctive educational functions. Agencies and schools have tried to meet their mutual and interrelated responsibilities and to work with differences in a number of ways. Schools have invited agency representatives to sit on the committees on admissions to discuss basic policy matters and, in turn, agencies have sought consultation from schools through the use of local and state-wide training committees or conferences on educational and personnel questions. The latter have often included representatives of schools of social work, undergraduate colleges, the public welfare agencies, and the state merit systems. The Nebraska State-wide Committee on Training, the Pennsylvania Agency-School Committee on Preparation for Public Social Welfare, and the Indiana Committee on Social Work Education and Recruitment are examples of productive agency-school cooperation at the state level. Local, state, and national groups should expand the evaluation of educational programs that are now carried on through conferences among social work agencies, welfare council groups, and schools. In the last two years, for example, annual workshops have been sponsored by the American Association of Schools of Social Work in which representatives of operating agencies joined with faculty members to discuss the scope, content, and focus of various areas of the educational program and to examine these against the personnel needs and experiences of the field of practice. T h e bien-

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

nial meeting of the American Association of Medical Social Workers Education Committee which most teachers of medical social work attend, while planned as a joint conference for curriculum planning, also provides an excellent instance of staff development for faculty members in which schools and a professional membership association cooperate. Professional associations, social agencies, and community welfare councils have often been the most potent instruments in establishing local schools of social work and giving to them continuing professional support and encouragement. Nationally and locally, these associations usually have had standing committees on education and training that have been responsible for relating education and practice. These committees should of course continue, but it is of special import that combined national efforts be devised and supported in the field of education. It is only as the profession in an over-all capacity is equally related to all facets of education that a wholesome degree of equilibrium can be maintained among the many conflicting forces that press upon social work. Three of the major causes of imbalance in social work education are: the appropriations of public and voluntary funds for special fields that are apt to skew educational programs and enrollments; educational leave payments attached to particular agency programs or fields of specialization which (while they are a valuable interim means of providing competent staff) promote competition for existing personnel rather than add to the pool of graduates available to the profession generally; and differences in educational requirements for membership in the several professional associations which do not take into account the changing requirements for the master's degree or the tendency of practitioners to move from field to field. Work-study plans, service courses, and institutes.—In a young profession which has a limited number of workers who are either partially or fully qualified through professional education, there rests on agencies and schools a special responsibility to meet educational needs. For social work there is a particular challenge in the large numbers of untrained workers, as for instance in group work, public welfare, and the field of corrections. Work-study plans, service courses, special institutes, and summer sessions offered by the professional school are used to improve staff competence.

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

Schools and agencies must cooperate in observing certain principles if the educational planning is to be sound. For example, it is recognized that only a limited amount of professional preparation should be carried on in piecemeal fashion. In keeping with this principle, most schools set limits on the number of credit hours that may be earned in part-time study; and, conversely, they prescribe requirements for full-time study and establish the sequence of courses required for the master's degree. Constructive planning also requires applying the regular school admission standards to part-time students, and systematic counseling both by the agency and the school. Care must also be exercised by the agency to prevent administrative duties from infringing on the time set aside for study and in observing an adequate compensation plan for staff on workstudy.® Social work, like every profession, faces the question of how to provide refresher opportunities that will keep practitioners and educators related to philosophical, technological, and social changes; to developments in the profession; and to new data from the basic sciences. T h e Family Service Association has held regional institutes throughout the country for several years to help their member agencies keep abreast of the changing scene. In an institute held at Dartmouth College in the summer of 1949, the American Association of Psychiatric Social Workers sponsored a program for ninety leaders from schools and agencies devoted to achieving these purposes. T h e Training Bureau for Jewish Communal Service has an extensive agency training plan for professionally qualified staff, which focuses on the special cultural components that social workers employed in Jewish welfare agencies need to know. In meeting the need for staff to keep currently informed, schools and agencies have another area for cooperation—offering of regular courses at hours and times convenient to the practitioner, providing special institutes or off-campus courses, planning special sessions at times convenient to the field, and providing opportunities for faculty to have firsthand experiences in the field through practice, research, and field teaching. » See Work-Study Programs, Report of Sub-Committee on Part-time Curriculum, May 1944, American Association of Schools of Social Work (reprinted by Boston University School of Social Work) for further discussion of principles and methods.

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

m

A current study by the East Bay, California, chapter of the American Association of Social Workers 4 indicates the range and nature of requests for services beyond the regular program for full-time students in several communities adjacent to the university. A total of 730 persons employed in social agencies replied to the questionnaire, and all but 43 indicated an interest in continuing their education. Of 525 persons who had a college degree, 59 percent were interested in working toward the master's degree in social work. O f 103 with the master's degree, 60 percent wished to begin work on a third-year sequence. A b o u t one third of the total group were interested in three-day institutes, and 289 persons, about 38 percent, were interested in extension courses which would carry no credit. It is planned to extend the East Bay type of study to all the populous Northern California communities in cooperation with the local branches of the American Association of Medical Social Workers and the American Association of Psychiatric Social Workers. T h i s survey suggests another way in which professional membership associations may combine their efforts with schools and agencies, and thus contribute to joint educational planning. T h e extent to which schools of social work have taken responsibility for programs supplementary to the regular curricula for fulltime students is indicated in the replies to an inquiry sent by the study staff to all schools of social work. From these, two points were clear: (1) the schools believed that their first responsibility in meeting the educational needs of the profession was to give primary attention to the regular program for full-time students who w o u l d eventually be available to agencies; (2) all schools have made continuous and earnest efforts to supplement the regular program. T h e methods used, listed in the order of frequency, give some idea of how schools have met this responsibility through planning with agencies locally or on a state or national basis: short institutes (usually without credit); extension and off-campus courses; late afternoon, evening, or early morning courses; summer sessions of four to six weeks; work-study plans; counseling on in-service train* Unpublished report of the Committee on Professional Education, East Bay chapter of American Association of Social Workers, "Professional Education for the Employed Worker," April 19, 1950. T h e study staff is indebted to Maurine McKeany, of the University of California School of Social Work, chairman of the committee that conducted the survey for a preliminary report.

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

ing and staff development; extensive participation of faculties in institutes sponsored by other organizations; enrollment under special admission plans of selected experienced persons w h o do not meet regular admission requirements; tuition scholarships. Correspondence between the staff and the schools also points up major problems for employees of agencies and for faculty in supplementing the regular program. Workers are often too tired to profit from late afternoon or evening classes. Pressures on faculty time have made it difficult to carry extra sections and have encroached on time needed for research, writing, and preparation for teaching. T h e n u m b e r of workers admitted is a very small proportion of the untrained staff employed in agencies. It is clear that few schools can adequately meet their responsibilities for special institutes, refresher opportunities, summer sessions, off-campus courses, extension work, and advisory services to agencies and to individual part-time students, without additional budget and faculty for administrative planning and teaching. In the larger universities, as in the Minnesota University Center for Continuation Study and the University of California Extension Service, there is provision for this type of machinery in a cooperative arrangement with professional schools. T h i s report recognizes the importance o f providing help to agencies in staff development planning through these special offerings, but recommends that this be done through additional budgetary and faculty provisions and not at the expense of the regular programs for full-time students or by the overloading and exhaustion of faculties. N o doubt this area of service has been one that detracts to some extent from much needed time for research and publication by faculties of schools of social work. If the universities will provide the necessary budget and faculty for this important phase of professional education, communities would be better served, more regular faculty time released, and additional areas for research, experimentation, and publication would be available. School-agency responsibility for field teaching.—Field teaching is discussed in Chapter V in connection with the curriculum and program planning of the graduate professional school of social work, and in Chapter V I where field work is shown to constitute

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

339

a p p r o x i m a t e l y two fifths of the total cost of i n s t r u c t i o n in a school of social work. H e r e it is discussed in relation to t h e m u t u a l responsibilities of schools a n d agencies in p r o v i d i n g facilities a n d staff for this i m p o r t a n t phase of professional e d u c a t i o n . Some of the issues, problems, a n d specifics involved in schoolagency relationships in the area of field teaching are sketched in the following excerpts f r o m G o r d o n H a m i l t o n ' s p e n e t r a t i n g analysis: Tie-in sales of supervisory time through apprentice type fellowships and bidding for second year students should be abandoned in favor of the idea of the student pool, and responsibility assumed to adapt training in any field for the first as well as the second year student. All fields are committed to help develop the professional social worker, not the technician who fits smoothly into a specific agency pattern. We are "one world" in education and cannot tolerate competitive "nationalistic" practices among agencies in recruiting students for special fields. T h e whole educational process, because of our integrative pattern of field work, should increasingly become a joint concern of field and school. School and field periodically should evaluate and restate the educational goals and purposes, and adapt both class and field curricula in this light. . . . Collaboration between school and field must take place at national, state, and local levels, for realistic growth and effective leadership. Both school and agency have responsibility to develop a generic field work curriculum which will reduce the present concentration on the specifics of agency practice, and provide range of experience as well as opportunity for emotional growth within the supervisory experience itself. Acceptance of students means taking responsibility for an active, mature teaching process in which supervisory time is freed, space and tools to work with are provided, and the obligation to bring the student into vital touch with the program of social work in the community is fully recognized. T h e reward for the teaching agency in student training is not in getting the day's work done, not in competitive recruitment but, through increasing the pool of workers, in developing and maintaining the profession itself. This is an investment which can bring one of the deepest of all professional satisfactions, namely, the communication of

34o

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

skill and the challenge of working experimentally on common problems.® T h e need for a more explicit and realistic basis on which to formulate working arrangements between schools and agencies in the area of field teaching is also suggested by the following experience of one well-established school of social work. This school has just completed a study of available field work placements over a three-year period, 1947-50, which showed a decrease from sixty-six to forty-three in beginning casework placements in the local community. Reasons given for fewer opportunities for field teaching were: administrative problems of agencies; lack of sufficient supervisory staff; major shifts in program and structure of agency, as, for instance, prospective withdrawal by the American Red Cross of certain casework activities in military hospitals; budget cuts of both voluntary and public agencies with consequent reductions in services and personnel; pressure to secure adequate second-year placements; expanded scholarship programs that have increased the second- and third-year enrollments and thereby limited first-year admissions; use of agencies for advanced field work once used for the first-year casework students; and improved standards of field work required by the school without concomitant upgrading of the agencies. T h i s school is now using block field work placements to supplement concurrent field work opportunities and is considering extending the use of this system as one method of meeting the problem. T h e philosophy and assumptions about field teaching whicli guided the study are not stated, but there is an implication that the untoward changes are due primarily to agency situations. It would be interesting to hear the agencies' side of the story and then to evaluate the situation by Gordon Hamilton's philosophy and criteria. In its entirety, as well as in the excerpts quoted, the Hamilton statement is a forceful plea for the development of more explicit educational criteria for use at local, state, and national levels in guiding schools and agencies in discharging their joint responsibility for field teaching. Currently, field teaching situations are too 5 Gordon Hamilton. " T h e Interaction of School and Agency," Social Work nal, X X X (April, 1949), 86-87.

Jour-

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

341

often selected or rejected on the subjective judgment of a single school official or a single agency administrator. T h i s arrangement encourages decisions based on local and sometimes fortuitous considerations which fail to take into account the policies and responsibilities which the respective organizations have assumed regionally and nationally for the conduct of education. T h i s report recommends that schools and agencies use at least three different approaches in working toward a solution of their joint responsibility for providing an acceptable quality and quantity of field teaching opportunities. First, they should reexamine the nature and purpose of field teaching, after the fashion suggested in Chapter V, so as to determine its scope and limitation in terms of objective; second, they should review, extend, and make more explicit the criteria a school is justified in using in selecting field teaching agencies; third, they should develop a comprehensive and flexible structural arrangement for administering field teaching programs which take into account the shifting balance in school needs and agency resources. T h e latter two of these suggestions call for further comment. Realistic criteria for selecting and operating field teaching facilities can be very helpful to schools and agencies. T h e American Association of Schools of Social W o r k and individual schools have given considerable attention to the development of criteria for selection of field work agencies and to measures that enable field supervisors of students to maintain the standards that apply in their particular area of responsibility. Adequate criteria should help identify "best agencies" in terms of the educational objectives of students, thus reducing the use of agencies on the basis of physical proximity and willingness to cooperate; they should encourage the use of facilities related to the employment objectives of students, thus leading to a more extensive use of federal and state as well as local public welfare agencies. These criteria should also encourage the selection of field teachers in relation to ability to teach advanced graduate students, thus stimulating a greater use of faculty members who are especially well qualified for field teaching and reducing the use of good agency supervisors who are not equipped as field teachers. Further, such criteria should encourage schools in other than urban centers to use the facilities of the local region and to

j42

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

help bring these field work facilities to the high level alleged to be available in urban centers. In addition, adequate criteria for selecting field teaching facilities should be helpful in resolving the social and philosophical assumptions that interfere with the effective working relationships of a school and its cooperating agencies; they should help avoid or resolve school and agency differences on administrative matters related to field teaching; and as an over-all effect at the local level, the use of these criteria should reduce the irritation and friction between school and agency personnel which sometimes arise from vested individual interests, professional predilections, and a failure to understand the policies and procedures to which their local and national organizations are committed. T h e third approach to school-agency responsibility in the area of field teaching calls for a consideration of the dual nature of the undertaking, attention to organizational arrangements that are likely to be most fruitful, and comment on who should pay the cost of field instruction. These problems are not unlike those faced by medical education and teacher education, but it is likely that the situation in the social work profession more nearly approximates that of the teaching profession. Neither social work nor teacher education can afford the expense of controlling its field work facilities in the way medicine does its clinical facilities, and if they could it would be unwise to divorce them from the realities of everyday life. Teacher education has found that campus schools, while having many educational uses, are not the answer to their need for student teaching facilities. But in using the public and private schools of the vicinity for this purpose, they had to come to grips with the dual administrative nature of the project. Like a social work agency, a school has a fulltime operating responsibility to human beings; its teachers and supervisors are employed for this purpose and not as teachers of advanced professional students. Again as in social work, quite often these teachers and supervisors have neither the time, interest, nor talent for advanced graduate teaching. Under such circumstances, it takes a lot of clear-cut educational and administrative planning on the part of all concerned to effect a feasible working arrangement. For these reasons, no one outside the field of social work should attempt to resolve the issues for the profession.

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

343

In the view of this report, whether the field teacher is employed and paid by the school or the social work agency is not the crux of the matter. It is important for all parties concerned for the professional school to be responsible for this phase of its educational program in the same way that it is responsible for the campus program. They are indivisible parts of an educative process. T h e school must be the ultimate judge of what human and physical resources of an agency it can use for educational purposes, and the agency, of course, has the final decision as to whether it will make its facilities available for educational use. If a school of social work can secure funds for employing field teachers and can work out an arrangement whereby they function as staff members of the school and of the agency, it has an educationally sound arrangement. If the social work agency can contribute all or a part of the salary of such a person in addition to providing him a sound working relationship for field teaching, that arrangement is equally valid educationally. T h e training function is costing the public the same sum in either instance; it is largely a matter of where it is most feasible to secure and budget funds. On the other hand, a school has an undesirable arrangement, even if it has funds to pay for field teaching, if it assigns inexperienced members of the faculty to this part of the educational program or if campus teachers are, or are regarded by the regular personnel of the agency as, little more than visitors. T h e field teaching arrangement is equally unsatisfactory where agency supervisors who have no real teaching function at the school are employed, even though the agency provides all facilities and pays the entire cost of their field teaching service. Field teaching is part of an integrated educational process and not merely a matter of inducting a neophyte into the intricacies of agency operation. Voluntary agencies of recognized professional standing have always assumed a large responsibility for providing opportunities for field experience, and in return have profited from the professional stimulation inherent in a school-agency relationship. These agencies should continue to face realistically with their boards and central planning and financing bodies the need for continuing this substantial and significant item in the budget. With the greater volume of social work now being carried on under government

344

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

auspices, tax-supported social agencies at all levels should allocate funds to provide adequate settings for field teaching and student research. While some state and local agencies have accepted their educational responsibilities as an integral part of administration, most of them have not assumed an appropriate share of responsibility for the education of social workers. 6 This responsibility is inherent in the functions of both public and voluntary agencies that offer professional services and therefore require a qualified staff. Professional Study and Research as Joint Responsibilities T h e profession of social work is agreed that one of its most urgent needs is for a series of broad and basic research studies. T h e 1950 federal census figures and the Bureau of Labor Statistics study provide national status pictures of the number, qualifications, and working conditions of social workers in the United States. T h e study reported in this volume provides a broad framework of another kind for use in developing the profession through educational measures. These general surveys should be followed by more detailed and technical studies of social work practice and education. T h e national council on social work education proposed later in this chapter might well constitute the framework within which such a series of studies could be developed. T h e spadework on these more detailed but basic studies may well be undertaken, under direction, by local and state components of social work agencies, associations, and schools, and by the associations of social work specializations. T h e illustrations which follow serve to point up the character of these undertakings. There is a widely recognized need for study of practice in social work. It is financially and professionally important to determine those positions which require professional qualifications and those through which services may be rendered by semiprofessional and nonprofessional personnel. It would also be helpful to have a more scientific base for ascertaining the ratio of professional to non« A statement of principles and suggestions to state and local agencies for cooperation with schools of social work was sent to state welfare administrator«; by the Federal Security Agency on March 3 1 , 1947. T h i s mimeographed memorandum and attachment were released jointly by J a n e M. Hoey, Director, Bureau of Public Assistance, and Katharine F. Lenroot, Chief of the Children's Bureau.

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

professional staff required in an agency of specified nature and purpose and according to the program and services offered. Ruleof-thumb plans for these purposes have been followed in some public and private agencies to insure a better protection of the public interest. For example, in some public agencies, when not enough fully qualified professional workers are available, the ratio of the number of these workers to each professionally qualified supervisor is smaller than under more normal conditions. A method with a similar purpose has been recommended by the Family Service Association of America to member agencies. Through a graded system of responsibilities, recent graduates of professional schools have work loads limited in size and complexity for the first year or two in employment and in which supervision is more intensive than is provided for more experienced practitioners. Such empirical measures also offer cues for determining standards for judging increases in knowledge and skill which assure true expertness or specialization. Nevertheless, there does not now exist a sound base of experimentation and investigation to guide these essential practices. Under a substantial grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, the American Association of Psychiatric Social Workers was in 1950 in the third year of a fact-finding study of social casework practice in psychiatric hospitals and clinics. Nearly 2,000 individual social workers employed in psychiatric settings in over 450 agencies were participating in the project. T h e data being secured gives information on the psychiatric setting, the social service setting, and on the education, experience, and range of job responsibilities of individual social workers. These findings will serve as the basis for the work of the Association's committees concerned with professional education and practice. Regardless of the outcomes of the Association's study, it is on such detailed investigations of the functions of agencies and of individuals that a better specialized curriculum should be based. Specializations in social work, as in all professions, have developed unsystematically both in practice and in education, in response to needs of special groups. It is expected that this trend will continue due to the social, scientific, technological, and philosophical shifts and emphases of the times. Today the profession of social work is moving toward a review of specialization in both education

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

and in practice that is most timely. Expressions of this concern are found in current curriculum studies that are going on in the specialized membership associations, in a number of schools, and in the work of the Curriculum Committee of the American Association of Schools of Social Work. Another manifestation of the tendency to reappraise specializations appears in the work of a joint temporary council of the several professional membership associations that for the past two years has developed principles of cooperation, analyses of issues that obstruct unity, and practical ways for effective working together. T h e profession has many important decisions yet to make regarding specializations, if planning, rather than random developments, is to guide the future course of these aspects of education and practice. Until considerable professional study and research have been done, social work will not have a sound basis for answering such questions as the following: What are to be the social work specializations in the future? When should specialized study begin? What should be the relationship between study and experience in promoting professional growth and readiness for broad professional responsibility? How may the values of each be determined or tested for entrance to employment, for professional membership, for permission to practice, and for different levels of responsibility or areas of specialization? How is specialization to be designated and regulated for protection of the public? How can the values of specialization be preserved and greater unity among the professional membership organizations be secured in carrying out their special educational functions and those that require cooperation with employing groups and regulatory bodies? All elements of the profession should be involved in answering these questions and in making the far-reaching decisions implicit in them.

T H E I M P A C T O F R E G U L A T O R Y A C T I V I T I E S ON SOCIAL W O R K EDUCATION

Regulation of a profession, whether self-regulation or that of a legal character, is designed to protect the public interest. As the Carr-Saunders classic, The Professions, has shown, association for study and consideration of problems of common concern is an early manifestation of self-consciousness in the evolution of all

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

347

professions. T h i s first phase soon leads to distinguishing members by titles, and then moves from mutual self-protection by use of certain exclusive rights to a more altruistic self-regulation for protection of the public and for the responsible development of the profession through standards and regulations that safeguard both privileges and abuses. T h r o u g h o u t this part of the report references have been made to these characteristic manifestations as they appear in social work and particularly to how they are related to professional education. Seen broadly, regulation may be said to include not only the more commonly accepted methods and devices such as a code of ethics, right to use a title, accreditation of educational programs, or legal permission to practice by license or certification, but also certain other controls less often thought of as regulatory. T h e latter include membership in professional organizations based on certain standards of education, conduct, or performance as well as controls exercised by legally established bodies, such as public welfare agencies and civil service or merit systems. Membership standards, whether administered by local welfare councils, by local, state, or federal tax-supported organizations, or by national voluntary organizations, have either facilitating or deterring effects on the caliber of services available to the public. T h e accreditation of educational programs, which ultimately determines these qualifications, is of such signal importance as a regulatory method that the following chapter is devoted to a consideration of the subject. T h e present concern is only with those aspects of regulation that bear a direct relationship to educational qualification for professional practice. In the early years in the development of professional standards, leadership came through the forerunners of the present professional practitioner groups—the American Association of Social Workers, the American Association of Medical Social Workers, and the American Association of Psychiatric Social Workers. It was furthered also by national associations of functional agencies such as the Family Service Association of America, the Child Welfare League, Community Chests and Councils, and notably in the field of public welfare by the United States Children's Bureau. More recently, other practitioner membership groups

148

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

have undertaken a similar role in school social work and group work. Education and the Regulatory Function in Public Welfare Public welfare agencies in cooperation with state and local merit systems and the United States Civil Service Commission have determined the educational standards for entrance into employment within their respective jurisdictions. State and local merit system standards, including educational standards, are influenced by the work of the State Merit System Service of the Federal Security Agency. Formal entrance requirements for admission to examinations are expressed in terms of education and experience as evidence of essential qualifications. For beginning positions in most public welfare agencies, standards have been geared to general education and to capacity to perform, primarily as it may be inferred from the results of written examinations, which correlate significantly with educational achievement but not with personal attributes that are also essential in practitioners. Usually, ratings of training and experience and oral examinations are included in the examination process. For higher level positions, the same examination components are used, but education and experience ratings are weighted heavily and oral examinations are used regularly. An absolute requirement of professional education and social work experience has been used chiefly in the higher and specialized social service positions, recognized as professional. For specialized professional responsibilities, the membership requirements of the respective professional associations, which are based largely on education, have provided guides to specifications for classes of jobs and have influenced the standards used by state and local agencies. T h i s differentiation in standards as between those for beginning positions and for advanced or specialized positions has been due to three main factors: the limited number of professionally prepared persons available, the lack of recognition on the part of the government as employer of the professional nature of general social work positions, and the lack of recognition of the social work nature of certain programs themselves. In looking at the question of selection for jobs, educational in-

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

j49

stitutions and civil service or merit systems begin with very different assumptions. While their selection of students is based upon comparison of applicants, universities and professional schools assume it is safe to infer that an individual who has completed a specified regimen of training is basically qualified for positions that fall within a given field. Civil service and merit systems, on the other hand, begin with the premise that they are selecting for employment the best available persons and that, as a first step, those presumptively qualified by education and experience in the field should be admitted to competition. T h e r e is postulated the right of a citizen to be considered for public employment on the basis of evaluation of his qualifications through open competitive examination. On an analogy with the statutory prohibition of political, religious, and other discrimination, legislatures have sometimes prohibited educational requirements as a discrimination against able, experienced workers without formal training. Thus, sometimes no educational requirement can be specified except for positions classified as "technical, scientific, and professional," and in some instances only minimum requisite education can be specified with the provision that it may be reduced in case the candidate has relevant practical experience in the field. For example, federal agencies have had considerable difficulty in convincing the United States Civil Service Commission that their social service positions are entitled to be included as an exception to the general provision of federal law, among categories of employment which are classified as technical, scientific, and professional, and which require minimum professional education. T h e state merit systems have made a notable contribution to the building of a career service, to the elimination of flagrant spoils abuses and the minimizing of political influences in personnel administration, and to the selection of the best potential talent among the interested candidates. However, the problems of recruitment and selection through state and local merit systems are complicated in some sections of the country by such handicaps as inadequate salaries, state or local residence requirements, and the requirement of a car as a condition of employment. T h e administrative application of tenure provisions tends to protect the incompetent as well as the competent from easy removal. Retention

)50

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

of the incompetent and the mediocre, particularly in supervisory and administrative positions, lessens the attractiveness of the service and the number of job opportunities when qualified candidates are available. Despite these handicaps, no one has yet proposed an acceptable substitute for the merit system for recruiting available talent. More often than not, the deficiencies of merit systems in relation to public welfare flow from a failure of educational institutions to produce an adequate pool of qualified candidates. Educational institutions in the field of social work have a responsibility for understanding the objectives and techniques of effective personnel administration and supporting the merit principle. T h e r e is a real need for better articulation between the recruitment and examining process and the completion of appropriate levels of professional training. Professional educators and practitioners have contributed to the development of valid examinations. T h e schools should continue to help define the scope and type of examination best suited for recruiting personnel for the various types of social work positions. Social work educators and practitioners should continue to work with civil service examiners and psychometricians in developing adequate examinations with appropriate content for positions in which general and professional education and experience are pertinent. Agencies have a contribution to make in the development of criteria for appraising performance. T h e schools and agencies can strengthen merit systems in their effort to reduce restrictive practices such as local residence requirements and excessive veterans' preference. T h e i r contribution to the building of an effective career system will enable schools to prepare practitioners for the public welfare field in confidence that there will be entrance opportunities and promotional possibilities for their graduates. Albert H. Aronson summarizes the problems of merit systems, after a decade of operation, that directly affect the standards of professional qualification in public agencies. After discussing some of the achievements, he states: In some states, the selection of permanent staff has been made too largely from the ranks of provisional employees. The caliber of provisional employees has often been lower than that of a random sample of the applicants and seriously lower than that of the better candidates.

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

Staff shortages and emergency needs have been made the basis for marginal appointments. . . . There are numerous other unsolved problems that present a challenge to administrative leadership. Most of the systems lack provisions for retirement for superannuation or disability. State salary scales are often inadequate to attract the best persons. T h e universal problem of the tenacity of marginal employees and the lack of administrative courage in rating them and in exercising the power of removal has not been solved. N o r has the dilemma as to the recognition to be given to in-service performance as against superior outside talent been resolved. There is need for the development of adequate techniques for measuring personal attributes to supplement those for measuring knowledges, skills, and mental abilities. More importantly, not enough has been done to enlist active public support of the merit principle. With such support, administrators can successfully withstand the recurring pressures to which they are subjected for appointment and retention of incompetent personnel. Public understanding of the operations of the merit system may also contribute to the prestige of the public service and influence some of the bestqualified young men and women in each college generation to seek careers in the service. Effective application and support of the merit principle can help management in both personnel and program operations in developing staff morale and efficiency. T h e r e has been realistic recognition in the states that a merit system is not a panacea for management ills or an answer to the absolute shortages of technical personnel in specialized fields, such as psychiatry. . . . Departmental management must assume its full responsibilities within the system. It must further provide program leadership, standards of performance, dynamic supervision, and training and employment conditions that reflect progressive practices in the human relations aspects of management. 7 Despite the efforts of educational institutions and merit systems to provide a supply of qualified social workers, private and p u b l i c w e l f a r e agencies in many of the states are u n a b l e to secure a continuous flow of either the quantity or the quality of personnel needed to man the agencies most effectively. A f t e r registers of eligibles are exhausted, a p u b l i c agency is usually free to offer app o i n t m e n t , p e n d i n g the n e x t e x a m i n a t i o n , to anyone in the labor force w h o meets bare m i n i m u m r e q u i r e m e n t s for entrance to the e x a m i n a t i o n and w h o is w i l l i n g to accept the salary and w o r k i n g conditions of the agency. T h i s type of r e c r u i t m e n t w i t h o u t a d v a n c e c o m p e t i t i o n has added to the n u m b e r of i n d i v i d u a l s in social w o r k * Albert H. Aronson, "Merit System Objectives and Realities," Social Bulletin, XIII (April, 1950), 3-6, 19.

Security

152

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

positions who lack adequate general or professional preparation for the duties expected of them. A n ultimate remedy obviously inheres in more and better education for social work, but it is equally obvious that such efforts should be better related to a job analysis of social work practice to determine the realistic needs in specific jobs and programs. Even if it works perfectly, a civil service or merit system examination can be expected to do no more than select for identified positions from among whatever quality of candidates apply as a result of the recruitment efforts of all interested organizations. T h i s report recommends that colleges, schools of social work, practitioner associations, welfare agencies, and merit system councils undertake a comprehensive study of practice. Legal Authorization to Practice A substantial n u m b e r of social workers are of the opinion that the profession will never have all its practitioners qualified until the state requires legal authorization for practice through licensing, certification, or registration. T h e y point to the fact that voluntary social work agencies are not permitted to use the registers of eligibles maintained by civil service and merit systems and that they need the assurance of quality which state licensing would give to applicants for social work positions. However, in the one outlying section of the U n i t e d States where licensing has been tried, the device has not lived u p to the expectations of its advocates. A f t e r 13 years of provisional and permanent licensing, based on two years or less of professional education, Puerto Rico in 1947 had only 366 licensed social workers available for 570 positions. T h e Board of Examiners of Social Workers has from time to time called the attention of heads of agencies to the fact that they are violating the law when they appoint untrained and unlicensed personnel, but no further action has ever been taken. T h e administrators of social work agencies rest their case on the fact that the services they render are authorized by law and cannot be discontinued even if substandard professional personnel must be used. A m o n g other things, the experience of Puerto R i c o indicates that a profession cannot be legislated into being. It does not follow, however, that licensing, certification, or registration cannot be

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

353

used as a leverage for upgrading the social work profession. T h e state of California has taken a first step in this direction through maintaining a system of voluntary registration which is used by both public and private welfare agencies. Public school teaching is notable among the professions for the use it has made of legal certification as an upgrading device. T h e success of the teaching profession lies in the realism with which it has recognized the actual educational level of practitioners and in its willingness to set standards in a gradation of steps which made it possible for teachers to upgrade themselves through summer school and other brief or part-time education programs. New recruits to the profession were admitted to practice only if they met the level of education prevailing at the time they entered teaching, and they of course were provisionally certified and therefore under the necessity of continuing their professional education. In the teaching profession, the upgrading process usually has been motivated and accelerated by attaching salary increments to each new step of the ladder. This raises a question of the most desirable type of motivation for improving professional services. Economic motivation, whether that of competition among private practitioners or that which inheres in salary increments attached to each step of the professional ladder, is powerful but in the direction of self-interest rather than that of pure professional concern. It is well known that the stimulation of professional association in work toward a common goal is also a powerful incentive to development of a higher standard of professional service. Perhaps the two motives can be combined in promoting upgrading among social workers. T h e social work profession should also explore the potentialities of regulating social work agencies by licensure as a substitute for licensing the individual practitioner. At present, such licensing is chiefly used for institutions and foster homes where children are placed, but it has a salutary effect on professional personnel. A similar outcome is apparent from the standards required by the Federal Hospital Construction Act, which have speeded the licensing of hospitals in most states. These instances provide a small body of experience that is worthy of study as an indirect means of regulating the quality of professional practice.

354

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

PROPOSALS FOR COORDINATING SOCIAL WORK

EDUCATION

T h e two preceding sections and analyses elsewhere in this report seem to justify the conclusion that social work organizations need a permanent profession-wide coordinating body to give focus and direction to their commendable work in promoting education for social work and in educating the public about the profession. T h e need has been illustrated by the overlapping, gaps, and working at cross-purposes which still prevail in undergraduate and professional education, in field teaching, in provisions for staff training, in standards for approving professional schools, and in provisions for making a job analysis of social work practice. T h e profession responded to this felt need in 1946 by creating the National Council on Social Work Education, but that organization is still in its swaddling clothes, limited in representativeness and function, and considered by some to have been created as an interim body. Whether the name chosen for the organization to perform the functions suggested in the following paragraphs is that of the present council or another is not of critical importance, but in the view of this report there are real advantages in proceeding from the beginnings made by the National Council on Social Work Education. The Scope and Character of Coordination Needed Many social workers wish there were a single organization that could speak for the social work profession on all matters with the authority that the American Medical Association speaks for that profession. Many others are of the opinion that so much centralization would be inimical to the best interests of the social work profession and of the public. Thus the profession, like many other social institutions, is struggling with one of the basic issues of democracy—the desirable balance between centralization and decentralization. This report advocates the view that a majority of the profession would, for the time being, be satisfied with four comprehensive and stable coordinating bodies: one similar to the National Conference of Social Work, to serve as a forum for deliberation on social wel-

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

555

fare issues that are of national importance; one similar to the Nationxl Social Welfare Assembly, to coordinate the activities of natioml agencies and groups of agencies in the field of social work practice; one similar to the American Association of Social Workers that would be comprehensive enough to serve as the voice of organized practitioners; and one similar to the National Council on Social Work Education, to stimulate and coordinate all undertakings related to the promotion and regulation of education. The scope and character of machinery needed for the coordination of educational activities constitute the only one of the four areai of social work profession with which this report is directly concerned. T h e work expected of such a council may be expressed in terms of basic purpose and major functions. This report recommends that consideration be given to establishing a representation which would have authority to speak for the profession in educational matters. T h e organization would have a twofold purpose: that of conducting a selected group of activities which no one segraen; of the profession can or ought to undertake alone; and that of stimulating, assisting, and coordinating research and promotioml projects of individual organizations and groups of organizations in the field of education. A nationwide program of education and consultation services on undergraduate and graduate stud? in social work, and the accreditation of professional school programs, are examples of the first aspect of the twofold purpose, and iacilitating the educational projects of different segments of the profession illustrates the second aspect. T i e council per se should be an over-all planning and legislative bod} for forming and authorizing basic educational policies, and for devising and authorizing administrative machinery to effect its purposes. T h e officers of the council should coordinate and give general direction to such commissions as the council may create to ccnduct its work. One illustration of how this report envisions a commission working under the council is provided by the accred tation commission which is described in the succeeding chapter, but there is no intention in that account to imply that all commiss.ons should operate on that identical pattern. Among the major educational functions envisioned by this reportas being initiated, directed, or conducted (in conjunction with

556 EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

other organizations) by a profession-wide coordinating council are: identifying undergraduate education for non-social workers with appropriate social work concepts; facilitating the development of programs of undergraduate education for prospective social workers; shaping the character of professional education and encouraging qualified universities to establish or improve schools of social work; determining and promoting ways to strengthen and extend field teaching facilities; helping schools and agencies develop educationally sound part-time work-study and refresher programs for faculties and employed social workers, and facilitating other forms of staff development projects for teachers and practitioners; working with civil service and national merit system bodies in developing educational and related standards for use in recruiting social workers; finding ways to provide a national pool of professionally prepared graduates which more nearly equals the demand for such social workers; developing and applying standards and criteria for the accreditation of professional schools of social work or of new programs within an approved school; coordinating international planning in relation to social work education developments. In addition to these intraprofessional functions, such a council should have direct responsibility for the promotion of interprofessional education as it is related to the field of social welfare. T h e council should also conduct and facilitate educational research incident to the foregoing functions or to other educational functions which from time to time may be undertaken. Whatever functions the council may undertake, a most important consideration in constituting it is to make the council genuinely representative of all major organized groups that have a substantial stake in social work education and social welfare, including the public as consumer of welfare services. These groups include, among others, schools of social work, colleges and universities, social work practitioner associations, public and private social work agency organizations, civil service and merit system organizations, and the public as consumer. T h e multiplicity of national, state, and local associations in each of these categories presents a formidable but not insurmountable barrier to forming a policy-making body that is workable and which at the same time meets the criterion of representativeness. But however difficult the task may be, it is

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

557

imperative for the council to be the creature of the whole profession so that it may speak for the profession on educational matters and not merely for the social work educator segment. It is of course proper and to be expected that the several segments of the profession and of the public will be represented in the council by interested laymen and by social workers of established educational competence, and that the profession-wide educational needs of social work, rather than individual educational and occupational viewpoints, will provide the basic criteria for guiding deliberation and action by the council. It is important, too, that a two-way flow between the national organization and state and local thinking be established and maintained. Structural and Administrative Arrangements If a council on social work education is to be representative of a diverse and far-flung profession and if it is to perform the functions proposed, it may have to be constituted with a membership approximating 100. If a council of this size is to remain the legislative and policy-forming body envisioned, it must have an administrative structure which promotes these goals. Accordingly, it is proposed that the council per se be organized along lines common to legislative bodies, and that it create a series of commissions to carry on its administrative and coordinating functions. The officers of the council, assisted by a professional secretariat, should serve as the liaison and coordinating agent between the council and its commissions, and should directly exercise functions that are not delegated to commissions. Council structure and procedure should be formalized by a constitution and by-laws. Proposals for its consideration should be developed by authorized council committees which should have the benefit of services from a professionally competent secretariat and from special consultants regardless of their official relation to the council. The council would be expected to create from time to time such commissions as it deemed necessary to effect its purposes, and to prescribe the character and scope of their undertakings. As the program of coordination is inaugurated, the council may need to give consideration to establishing the following: (1) a commission on general and career education and recruitment in undergraduate

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

colleges to work along lines suggested in Chapter IV; (2) a commission on professional social work education to coordinate activities of the kind discussed in Chapter V; (3) a commission on personnel standards and the in-service education of social workers to deal with such problems as those discussed in this chapter; and (4) a commission on accreditation to function along the lines indicated in some detail in Chapter VIII. Each commission or subcommission would be concerned with interprofessional relationships in the area of its special assignment. Preliminary discussion of this proposal, as a beginning, has led a duly constituted committee of the National Council on Social Work Education to propose three commissions: Program Planning and Services; Research and Publications; and Accreditation. The creation of a council on social work education and establishment of its several subordinate commissions should not, in the view of this report, constitute additional social work education machinery. Instead, it would, by creation of commissions, replace such organizations as the American Association of Schools of Social Work and the National Association of Schools of Social Administration. The more comprehensive and potentially better articulated council should, of course, avail itself of the achievements and experience of these organizations and of the schools represented in their membership. It should stimulate and assist—not replace—the work now being done by the education committees of local, state, and national practitioner and agency organizations. Creating and Financing the Proposed Structure Those closely associated with the preparation of this report realize that they have neither the wisdom nor the esoteric knowledge of social work organization required for devising an acceptable plan for administering and financing national coordinating machinery for the field of social work education. The staff suspects that the task, if it is ever done, will require a high order of compromise based on democratic give-and-take with regard to representation, financing, and the use of findings. T h e comments which follow may stimulate and give some directions toward a solution, but they should not be thought of as an attempt to resolve the issues involved—that is a job for experienced statesmen in the field of social work education.

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

Securing representation of an educational council from the whole of the organized social work field and from the general public is indeed a thorny problem. While the public interest is of course implied in all standard setting and legal and self-regulation carried on by various segments of the profession, actual representation of the general public in educational matters has been limited in social work. This kind of representation has appeared primarily in special committees on education and personnel in public or voluntary social agencies, in the over-all councils of state merit system agencies, in national and state conference committees dealing with educational matters, and in lay groups advisory to local schools of social work. Among the special functions of laymen in relation to social work education are the following: (1) that of an advisory role on the extent and kind of professional services needed in the community, and on the caliber of professional person required to render them; (2) that of informing themselves of the facts and issues related to the public interest, and a willingness to give support to the profession in achieving educational standards that will make superior service possible; (3) that of encouraging the use of professional social workers in the development of public policy related to social work education. T h e function first named is well illustrated in the function of the national advisory committee to this study and in the type of public representation recommended in the proposed council. T h e profession already has benefited from the effective participation of laymen in these areas, but there is need for a more widespread exercise of such functions by laymen. N o one is sure what organizations constitute the field of social welfare, and there is even more debate as to which or which parts of recognized social welfare organizations are entitled to recognition as belonging to the social work profession. T h e problem of securing adequate representation on such a council from colleges and universities is equally though differently complicated. There are too many national organizations in both the fields of social welfare and higher education for each to be represented on a council, and they vary too much in size and interest in social work education to make representation on this basis feasible, even if each could be allotted one representative. Some grouping must be made, but it is

360

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

not recommended that representation be removed from "grass roots" organizations through inviting existing national coordinating bodies to nominate and finance a council on education. T h i s report has no more constructive suggestion to offer than that the profession correct, enlarge, and strengthen representation through a modification of criteria used in selecting personnel for the National Council on Social Work Education. T h e proposed council on social work education should not only represent the whole profession but be financed by it, and the support should be in terms of ability to pay rather than in terms of representation on the council. Conservative estimates place the cost of operating the proposed council and its commissions at from $150,000 to $200,000 per year, and some of the more experienced administrators of such agencies believe an additional $50,000 would be required for effective operation. T h e limited size of private welfare budgets and the limitations placed on the expenditure of tax funds for voluntary professional purposes would make the raising of the proposed sum annually a formidable undertaking. Nevertheless, this report has confidence that ways of supporting a council on social work education will be found as soon as the profession is convinced that value received will come from investing a part of its financial resources in the planning and coordination of educational activities.

A CONCLUDING

STATEMENT

This chapter has sketched the labyrinth of existing and potential interrelated educational functions of social work agencies, membership associations, and regulatory bodies. It also has tried to make evident that in order to serve the best interests of the public, the development and operation of standards in both education and practice must be recognized as an interrelated process that is irrevocably bound together. In other words, the development and operation of standards in, say, a professional school of social work cannot for long go forward in isolation from the evolution of standards for entrance to employment, for engaging in social work specializations, for the operation of civil service and merit systems, and for agency personnel administration.

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

)6i

It is essential for each organized segment of the social work profession, while keeping clearly in focus its distinctive educational role, to be aware of the relation of the educational work of other organizations to its own program, and vice versa. Each organization, moreover, should be informed on educational policy and program developments of the whole profession. In addition to strong local organizations, such an arrangement calls for the strengthening of flexible state and national machinery of the standing committee and work-conference type to deal with comprehensive long-range studies. A profession cannot safely follow the general public in its tendency to leave the essential operation of education to a specialized group of the population. All its organized components are under the necessity of being vigilant in keeping the public as consumer, taxpayer, and philanthropist educated as to the role the profession has in our society. It has an equally direct responsibility for seeing to it that practitioners have opportunity for continuing their education from the time they are identified as potential recruits, through the final years of their service as social workers. Only a part of these responsibilities can be delegated to undergraduate colleges and to schools of social work that function as parts of universities. Social work, more than most professions, is acutely aware of its need-to develop better public understanding and to improve professional education and practice. Almost every organized component of the profession is engaged in educational activities in one or more areas of professional responsibility, but their endeavors are too often limited to immediate objectives related to practice, and often are carried on by a few interested individuals who are given too little time or encouragement for the activity by the agency or organization in which they are employed. While there are notable exceptions to this generalization, educational work is something they do in addition to a full-time job. In its efforts to secure increased public understanding and recognition as a profession, the whole profession and its friends must invest more money, time, and talent in major profession-wide educational undertakings. T h e profession is in a stage of evolution that calls for translating patchwork efforts into a positive, comprehensive, and coordinated educational program. Social work educators,

162

EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES

university officials, and organized practitioners, working independently, cannot provide the leadership that is needed. They should provide a single organized educational agency to speak for the profession. The annual expenditure of the $150,000 to $250,000 suggested earlier for maintaining a national organization to give leadership and focus to a program of education in keeping with the ideals of the social work profession is a small sum for it to invest in the essences that make it a profession. College and university officials of a single state, who are not members of the profession, acting for the public, invest larger sums each year in education for social workers. Through strategic organization and planning, the social work profession could use the relatively small sum proposed to leaven this much larger lump of expenditures which taxpayers and philanthropists make annually for the education of social workers. It should be noted that the educational recommendations of this report, if followed in full, do not add up to one way of providing qualified staff for a rapidly growing profession. Neither do they promise an adequate supply of qualified social workers short of two or three decades. The development of a sound educational program promises to be a long and arduous undertaking which will require both foresight and fortitude.

C H A P T E R

VIII

,Accreditation of Social Work Education r

A U T H O R I T Y for the control of education in the United States has been established as the prerogative of the separate states rather than of the Federal Government. Nevertheless, aside from provisions for chartering institutions and licensing certain of their graduates, most of the states maintain very little continuing control or supervision over the character or quality of the programs of institutions they have chartered or support. American practice in this matter is in sharp contrast with that of most countries of the world which have central ministries of education that exercise direct and continuing control over all forms of higher education. T h e absence of any central educational authority and the disposition of most of the state governments to avoid the direct supervision of higher education have impelled the professions, as well as colleges and universities, to undertake accreditation as a form of voluntary self-regulation whereby they assure the public a high quality of educational program. T h i s activity, initiated by undergraduate colleges just before the beginning of the twentieth century, was first used in professional education by the field of medicine in 1912. T h e formal accreditation of schools of social work did not begin until 1932; however, the informal accrediting of some specializations dates from 1926, and there were announced school membership requirements as early as 1927. T h e accrediting problems the profession faces in 1951 go to the very roots of its capacity to exercise a high level of professional responsibility. T h e profession is expected to resolve a situation that has produced two school-wide and several specialized accrediting bodies, where university officials and ^VEGAL

364

ACCREDITATION

the interested public want a single comprehensive accrediting body that can speak for all the major segments of the organized profession of social work. Any valid system of voluntary professional accrediting involves at least four factors: (1) the formulation of standards and criteria which are believed to be significant indexes for use in appraising the character and quality of an educational institution or of one of its comprehensive programs; (2) a consensus as to the method and procedure for using agreed-upon criteria in determining whether an institution or program meets the minimum standards of acceptability; (3) the establishment and support of an agency which represents all interested parties and that is generally recognized as competent to develop standards and to apply them in appraising an individual institution or program; (4) a widespread willingness on the part of the profession and of college and university officials to accept the decisions of a selected group of competent persons who are expected to carry on the accrediting process with due regard for the traditions of democracy in education.

FUNDAMENTAL

FACTORS

IN

PROFESSIONAL

ACCREDITING

T h e accrediting of a professional school is normally undertaken only in colleges and universities where the basic undergraduate program is already accredited. Therefore consideration usually is limited to the inherent character and quality of the professional school, to the relevant support it has from the other graduate and professional schools of the university, and to the recognition accorded it by the profession and the interested public. But as the regimen of professional preparation, in the field of social work as elsewhere, moved from apprenticeship to formal education and became incorporated into the university, there was left unsettled the degree of program control to be exercised by the university, by the professional school, by other segments of the profession, and by the public at large. T h e issue has not yet been resolved and, consequently, it plagues every step of the voluntary accrediting process. There is a growing unwillingness on the part of the interested public to leave the accrediting of professional schools to small vested-interest groups either within or outside the profession. Some

ACCREDITATION

365

of the college and university administrators w h o declare that professional groups now engaged in accreditation are destroying institutional freedom of action and usurping powers vested in governing boards are themselves suspect in some quarters. School membership associations, such as the American Association of Schools of Social W o r k and the National Association of Schools of Social Administration, that engage in accreditation are increasingly looked upon as representing only a segment of a given profession and as having too great a vested interest in the outcomes of accrediting to do an objective job. As someone has put it, professional schools should not be permitted to "take in each other's washing." T h e near monopoly control of the supply of practitioners which some professions are alleged to have through controlling the accreditation of schools has raised a grave doubt as to whether a profession, acting alone, should exercise the controls implicit in accreditation. T h e emerging pattern of professional accreditation calls for cooperative study and action by all parties that have a stake in a given profession. In the field of social work, these include at least representatives of schools of social work, of university administration, of organized practitioners, of organized employers, and of the general public. If registration and licensure in the field of social work become widespread, representatives of these activities should be included. Some leaders in the field of social work education believe that advanced graduate students should also be included on accrediting bodies because they have such a large stake in the outcome as well as for the contribution they might make. T h i s would be feasible through the student associations that exist in a n u m b e r of schools and which have begun to join in the discussion of professional matters at national conferences. In professions like social work, where the state does not license practitioners, the primary protection the public has against incompetent professional service stems from a system of accredited schools. Accordingly, it is recommended that leaders from at least the areas indicated be constituted by the social work profession, in the manner set forth in a later section of this chapter, to devise a practical, democratic, and socially sound plan for accrediting social work education which will preserve and extend the achievements in accreditation that have been made to date.

366

ACCREDITATION

Relation of Accrediting to Other Controls T h e best assurance that accrediting controls will be salutary is to restrict them to essential purposes. T h e basic purpose of accreditation in social work education, as in other professional fields, is to increase the assurance that professional schools as a group operate at or above an agreed-upon floor of minimum essentials which are believed to characterize an acceptable graduate school of social work. It is not the function of an accrediting body to differentiate among accredited schools through establishing different grades of superior institutions, or to engage directly in encouraging them to undertake an upgrading process. At the undergraduate level of accreditation a single body often performs both the accrediting and the upgrading functions, but in professional education this study recommends that the function of assisting and encouraging the upgrading process, either before or after accreditation, be left to the several types of professional membership associations. It does not seem to be sound social or educational policy for a single professional organization to serve as lawmaker, judge, and advocate in matters related to the accreditation of a school of social work. T h e r e is, of course, no objection to separate and relatively independent bodies performing these several functions under the auspices of a comprehensive, nationwide coordinating council. A later section of this chapter, in fact, proposes such an arrangement. In determining its role, a voluntary accrediting body may also be expected to make some distinctions between the controls it should exercise through setting educational goals for professional schools or through the process involved in appraising the achievements of a single institution in terms of these goals, and the controls which the state through charter or otherwise has delegated to boards of trustees and administrative officers of individual colleges and universities. Failure to do this goes to the root of the opposition of college presidents to professional school accreditation as it is currently conducted. For nearly a score of years presidents have contended that many accreditation requirements take the center of gravity of the school or college outside the university and beyond the control of its legally constituted board of trustees. More than a decade ago this resentment was given organized expression

ACCREDITATION

367

through the creation of a Joint Committee on Accrediting, now known as the National Commission on Accrediting, which has in its membership the five national associations through which college presidents frequently express their group will. T h e public and interested agencies of government have come to expect bodies responsible for the accreditation of professional schools to exercise primary control over the nature, level, length, and specialization of curricula. They look to the accrediting body rather than to the university for a judgment as to whether a school's program is of a high enough quality to justify their patronage. Such a determination cannot be made without examining the character and quality of the faculty, students, curriculum, physical facilities, operating budget, and other items that indicate whether the school, the parent university, and the field of practice have sufficient resources to do a good job and are using them effectively in realizing the educational objectives the professional school has accepted as its own. A socially responsible accrediting body cannot make an appraisal of these factors without applying standards and criteria which experience and research findings show to be correlated with a strong professional school. Most of the conflicts between the officials of universities and of professional accrediting bodies have come from a lack of understanding or from an unwillingness to accept the principles implied in the preceding paragraph. Some of the conflicts, of course, have arisen from the predilections and capricious acts of either or both sets of officials. T h e i r own preconceptions rather than the requirements for an excellent professional program have, for example, led the accrediting officials of some professions to insist that the school be housed in a separate building, that a specified amount and schedule of field work be used, or that a specified percentage of the budget be raised from sources other than student fees. Accrediting officials have also been known to use indirect measures calculated to control in part the degree-granting privileges boards of control are authorized by charter to exercise. On the other hand, university officials who have undertaken more professional and graduate programs than they have funds to support adequately have been known to try to make ends meet by reducing or denying funds for essential services, while basing their actions on the ground that the standards

j68

ACCREDITATION

in question are arbitrary and without essential educational or professional justification. They sometimes amplify this argument by asking that the school be judged by the success of its graduates instead of by the quantity and quality of its instructional resources. Such points of conflict have been in evidence in professional education since 1 9 1 0 when Abraham Flexner, in cooperation with the profession, made his report on the status of medical education in the United States and Canada, a survey which was used effectively for two decades in accrediting and othenvise improving the quality of American medical schools. T h e points at issue in the accreditation of social work education are not likely to be resolved to the satisfaction of all contending parties at an early date. Nevertheless, it is important for those who are developing a more comprehensive program of accreditation for the field to take them into consideration. Unless university and accrediting officials voluntarily resolve their differences, the public, through legislative action, may present them with the alternative of widespread accreditation by governmental agencies. Purposes

of Professional

Accreditation

A look at the basic purposes of professional accreditation may be as good a focus as any for the officials of universities and of professional associations to use in attempting to reconcile the issues that separate them. Perhaps they could agree that the primary purpose of accrediting social work education is to assure the public that the schools conduct educational programs that prepare candidates who are qualified to begin or resume service as professional social workers. Such a purpose is of crucial importance in a profession that does not generally license, register, or otherwise certify individuals as qualified practitioners. Another important outcome of accreditation is to inform students, college counselors, employers, donors, legislators, and the public generally where an approved quality of professional preparation is offered. A concomitant purpose of professional accreditation is to facilitate the interchange or transfer of students among the graduate schools of social work. Those who want to achieve these ends often face difficult local situations where the requirements of the accrediting body are their most potent arguments in the battle for better education. Anyone who has been connected with a school that is seeking accreditatijn

ACCREDITATION

36g

knows that the requirements for this purpose constitute a powerful incentive for institutional improvement. Moreover, since it is expected that all organized elements of the social work profession will in the near future participate in the development of accreditation policies, it seems sound to assume that accreditation will come to have as an indirect but powerful purpose the continued stimulation of other forms of growth and self-regulation which increase the competence of the profession to work at a high level of professional and social responsibility. Types

of Professional

Accreditation

T h e accrediting of professional schools is carried on through three somewhat different types of administrative arrangements. Perhaps the most common arrangement is that whereby the presumably stronger schools of a profession join together in a membership arrangement, and later establish criteria other institutions must meet in order to become affiliated. At a later stage the conditions of membership are spoken of as accreditation. T h e American Association of Schools of Social Work has followed this pattern. T h e i r first affiliation in 1919, as the Association of T r a i n i n g Schools for Professional Social Work, was that of a group of equals associated "for the exchange of information." Membership remained informal until 1927. Apparently the Association did not consider itself a formal accrediting body prior to 1932. A second type of professional accrediting body is operated largely by practitioners, or is controlled by them, instead of by professional educators. Thus, the American Medical Association established and supports a Commission on Medical Education and Hospitals through which medical schools are accredited. T h e American Bar Association and the American Chemical Society also are among the professions that follow a similar arrangement for the development and administration of accrediting procedures. T h e third type of professional accrediting body consists of a joint council representing several of the interests that are involved in the maintenance of professional education standards. T h u s , accrediting in the field of dentistry is administered by a joint council which represents equally the association of dental practitioners, the association of dental schools, and the state boards of dental examiners. T h e Engineering Council for Professional Development is similarly

570

ACCREDITATION

constituted to serve that profession, and has the additional feature of being fiscally independent of any one segment of the engineering profession. It often is difficult to induce a profession as a whole to share in the responsibility and cost of accreditation, even when the segment currently controlling the process is willing. This change usually comes about only as the several organized segments of a profession understand the relation of accreditation to the other self-regulatory activities by which it achieves full professional responsibility. Those who are responsible for this study hope the social work profession is ready to take this eventful step. T h e final section of this chapter outlines a proposal for doing so.

STATUS

OF

ACCREDITATION

IN S O C I A L

WORK

Apparently, a practitioner group did the first informal accrediting of social work education. In 1918 the American Association of Hospital Social Workers, forerunner of the American Association of Medical Social Workers, was formed for the study of medical social practice and education. Its long-range and significant contributions to the development of professional standards were emphasized in Chapter I. In 1923 this body, with the cooperation of the American Hospital Association, completed a survey which established the need for a two-year course as the minimum requirement for preparing competent medical social workers. Prior to 1926, the Association established a roster of approved institutions to provide a basis for determining the eligibility of individuals for membership in the Association, and in that year approved the curriculum in medical social work in Simmons College and at the New York School of Social Work. Since 1940 the Association has used formal accrediting procedures by which it has, in cooperation with the American Association of Schools of Social Work, approved medical social curricula in 21 schools. Currently 2,200 qualified practitioners have taken advantage of membership in the American Association of Medical Social Workers. Until 1926 psychiatric social workers were affiliated with the American Association of Hospital Social Workers, at which time they formed the American Association of Psychiatric Social Work-

ACCREDITATION

371

ers. T h e Committee on Professional Education of this Association carried on a study of the field and was in touch with leading schools offering psychiatric social work programs. By 1929, the Association's basic requirements for membership included graduation from a two-year graduate course of professional education with a defined minimum for supervised psychiatric field work experience. It was not until 1939 that the Association agreed formally on a curriculum for preparing psychiatric social workers and, for purposes of its membership eligibility, approved six schools to offer it. Since 1939 this approval program has been carried on in close working relation with the American Association of Schools of Social Work. T h e Association now has 1 , 1 2 7 members and, through its Committee on Professional Education, has formulated criteria by which it has accredited the psychiatric curriculum in 21 schools of social work. If the 17 institutions that in 1919 formed the antecedent of the American Association of Schools of Social Work had taken active responsibility for the development and accreditation of specialized curricula, the history of medical and psychiatric social work education undoubtedly would show a different evolution. It was not until 1927 that the American Association of Schools of Social Work had formal requirements for admission to membership and not until 1932 that it undertook the systematic accreditation of schools of social work. By standards and procedures adapted largely from those used by the North Central Association of Colleges for accrediting undergraduate institutions, the Association up to 1950 had formally accredited 54 schools of social work. In its accrediting activities since 1945, the Association has regularly followed the plan of using consultants from the practitioner groups to serve with the Accrediting Committee in the determination and application of standards. Moreover, in the development of the generic curricula the Association has representative practitioners from social work specializations who serve as consultants to the Curriculum Committee, and who since 1949 have had full voting privileges. Lack of agreement with the accrediting policies and practices of the American Association of Schools of Social Work led a group of unaccredited academic departments and divisions of social work in 1942 to form the National Association of Schools of Social Ad-

372

ACCREDITATION

ministration, which in 1950 listed 39 institutions in its membership. Membership is given, without firsthand investigation, to any college that offers an organized sequence of undergraduate and graduate courses in social work. T h i s Association does not engage in formal accreditation, and the graduates of its member schools are not yet recognized as eligible for United States Civil Service Commission examinations which require one year of graduate work in an approved school. T h e fundamental cleavage between the two associations stems from differences in opinion on the amount of general education that should precede the professional program and on the nature of preprofessional courses. T h e National Association advocates beginning a professional program as early as the junior year and including considerable semiprofessional and professional content in the senior year of undergraduate study. T h e American Association, on the other hand, restricts professional courses to the postbachelor's degree level of study and recommends a less fixed sequence of preprofessional courses to undergraduate colleges. T h e inability of these two over-all accrediting associations to resolve their differences was a primary precipitating cause of the present study of social work education. T h e practitioners in three social work specializations other than medical and psychiatric have established national membership associations, and two of these have expressed an intention to accredit the curriculum in their fields. T h e American Association of G r o u p Workers, formed in 1936 and reconstituted in 1946, has developed recommendations covering the professional education essential to the practice of group work. T h i s Association for the time being is carrying on its accrediting activities through the American Association of Schools of Social Work. A curriculum in group work is currently offered at 24 colleges and universities, of which 22 are in schools of social work affiliated with the American Association of Schools of Social Work. T h e National Association of School Social Workers, incorporated in 1945, is the second of the three membership associations that has plans under way to engage in the accreditation of a special curriculum. T h e r e are 12 schools of social work currently offering specialized field practice in school social work. A joint review of

ACCREDITATION this program with the American Association of Schools of Social Work, completed in the spring of 1950, resulted in certifying 10 schools offering an approved specialization in this field. T h e Association for the Study of Community Organization, established in 1946, is a third group that is currently seeking to define a field of specialization. T h e Association characterizes itself as a study group which has no present intention of becoming a professional practitioner organization with accreditation as one of its objectives. Status Summary and a Look Ahead It seems a fair summary of the status of accreditation to say that as of 1951 the social work profession is not in a position to exercise adequate control of this area of its professional responsibility. T h e vital function of accrediting schools is left largely to social work educators, and that of accrediting specializations to the practitioners and teachers of each specialty. T h e differences between the two over-all accrediting organizations seem to be on the way to resolution. This is fortunate because college administrators are unwilling to deal with more than one accrediting organization in the field of social work education. T h e most encouraging sign on the horizon is the growing tendency of social work specializations to merge their accrediting activities with those of the American Association of Schools of Social Work, and the recent tendency of this Association to use qualified practitioners as consultants in carrying on the accrediting process. One of the major outcomes expected of this study is the development of an accreditation proposal on which all major segments of the profession can reach a working agreement and present a united front to the National Commission on Accrediting and to the general public. T h e remainder of the chapter is devoted to this task.

THE

WHAT

A N D HOW

OF

ACCREDITING

T h e character of a profession is largely determined by what it is willing to accredit as education. It can be too inclusive or too exclusive in scope. If, for example, a profession sets its bounds wide enough to include all related marginal programs, it will be thought

3J4

ACCREDITATION

of as lacking integrity and professional focus; if, on the other hand, it excludes all marginal developments and otherwise insulates itself from the major social forces of the times, it is likely to become a cult and lose its social utility. Every profession tries to steer a course between these extremes and inevitably makes some mistakes in so doing. Many students of professional education are of the opinion that the medical profession, for example, made serious mistakes in initially excluding public health and psychiatry from its specializations and largely from its regimen of nonspecialized training, but few of them condemn it for declining to take chiropody and chiropractic into the fold. What Should Not Be Accredited As a new and growing profession, social work faces many decisions on what to include and what to exclude from its educational program. Before focusing attention on what should be included and accredited as belonging in graduate professional programs of social work education, those who are concerned with accreditation should examine the concept, elaborated in Chapter IV, that education for social work, as is true of all professions, is really a whole and indivisible process which educators divide into undergraduate and graduate segments, largely for administrative convenience. In the second place, they should examine and reach a working consensus on the validity of the proposals made in Chapter IV for establishing a line of demarcation between undergraduate and graduate preparation for a career in social work, especially the idea that the nature and quality of undergraduate study should be the primary responsibility of those who manage and accredit undergraduate colleges. It is the position of this report that such an arrangement, carried on with the stimulation and counsel of social work educators and practitioners, would enlist the active participation of a greater number of liberal arts colleges and thereby provide the graduate schools of social work with more and better applicants and the field of practice with more and better workers from the group who must begin work on or before graduation from college. It is of course recognized that schools of social work might follow the theoretically sound but administratively costly alternative of operating an independent four-year school—as does the field of

ACCREDITATION

^75

medicine—two years of which are undergraduate and two of which are graduate professional. But it is not likely that social work education will undo its history to this extent, and it is only under such circumstances that this report would recommend the professional accrediting of undergraduate preparation for a career in social work. For reasons stated in Chapter IV, this report assumes that programs for the preparation of semiprofessional social work technicians are a thing of the foreseeable future but not of today. Nevertheless, if, as, and when social work practice identifies one or more of these positions—similar to those now widely used in medicine, dentistry, and engineering—and does enough of a job analysis to discover the technical training needed, it is assumed that the educational task might properly be undertaken by certain technical institutes, junior colleges, community colleges, and other institutions of higher education that offer programs of less than degree length. When such programs become a reality, the social work profession will have sufficient time to review the relative merits of guiding them through determining the curriculum patterns or through an informal accreditation which maintains an approved list of institutions. Importance of Working Consensus on Nature and Scope of Social Work After having determined what is not to be accredited, even though it is considered basic in the total preparation of social workers, extended consideration should be given to what is to be included in the graduate professional programs and how it is to be accredited. If the profession accepts the broader definition and boundaries advocated in discussing the future role of social work in Chapter III and the program implications of Chapter V which are based on them, so doing will have a profound effect on what is to be accredited and on who is to do it. Under a more inclusive concept of social work, the common core of social work education would need to have brought into it many more of the relevant concepts from fields such as genetics, physiology, medicine, psychiatry, psychology, economics, political science, and anthropology. It also would need to be extended and enriched through bringing into

3?6

ACCREDITATION

the basic program some of the fundamental concepts which were developed by, and are now taught in, the different social work specializations. And, what is perhaps more important for meaningful accreditation, the organized profession of social work would need to reach a working agreement similar to that suggested in Chapter V on the relation of a basic or generic program to education for the several specializations of social work and a way for this content to permeate all parts of professional preparation. Without such changes, schools of social work are not likely to prepare the kind of professional social workers needed in the social insurances, in vocational rehabilitation, in public health, and in the welfare activities of labor unions, correctional agencies, business corporations, and other fields now of negligible importance in the employment of professionally prepared social workers. T h e expanding concept of social work education should, in addition, be flexible enough to avoid distortion for hundreds of foreign students who are coming to the United States to engage in the professional study of social work. It is only within agreed-upon boundaries and understandings as to the nature of graduate professional social work education that a duly authorized accrediting commission can establish the criteria, norms, regulations, and procedures by which the program and facilities of a school can be evaluated. And such a commission ought to have this framework as a mandate from the profession, instead of as something it designed for itself. T h e current stalemates in accrediting social work education stem from insufficient understanding and consent among social work educators, practitioners, agency executives, university officials, and the general public as to what shall be accredited and who shall do it. In addition to the confusion within the profession of social work, stated and implied in preceding paragraphs, there is too little understanding among graduate and undergraduate deans and their faculties of the essential difference in the nature and goals of professional education as distinguished from those of nonprofessional programs of study. Professional education draws heavily on many fields of learning for the concepts it wishes to apply and is little concerned with whether these concepts are commonly taught within the discipline at the graduate or undergraduate level of instruction. Subject matter specialists who establish a series of prerequisites to assure

ACCREDITATION

377

the orderly acquisition of a systematic body of knowledge in their field often find themselves unwilling to accept the professional practice of throwing into juxtaposition concepts from several disciplines. W h e n , for example, a professional social work course in Human Growth and Change pulls together undergraduate and graduate concepts from genetics, anatomy, psychology, psychiatry, sociology, anthropology, and other fields and uses them for functional purposes without regard for their systematic contexts, the academically minded shudder at the thought of such a course being considered the equal of one for which they give credit in the graduate school. A professional school that has its own administrative structures and responsibility in the university, as is elaborated in Chapter VI, can avoid this type of academic bickering that is so harmful to the establishment and accreditation of a total professional program or an individual course. A comprehensive and flexible plan for developing and accrediting social work education, of whatever scope the profession approves, should indicate the major bench marks the authorized accrediting body is expected to follow in formulating its criteria and procedures. For example, this report assumes that as a matter of fundamental policy a school of social work would be examined for accreditation as an articulated functioning unit and not by segments such as basic program, medical social work specialization, psychiatric social work specialization, and the like. T h e concept of comprehensive program development and accreditation would leave each school free to determine the limits and direction of its growth in terms of local needs and resources, and would save it from the current hazards of weakening the basic or generic program through diverting limited resources to meet the separately stated and enforced requirements of the several social work specializations. A t the same time, this policy would strengthen the specializations included in the program through making them an organic part of the whole school instead of self-contained entities grafted on unarticulated basic or generic courses. Only the profession as an organized whole, perhaps using a structure like the National Council on Social W o r k Education or its equivalent to express its legislative will, should decide whether this policy with its inherent bench marks for accrediting is to prevail.

ACCREDITATION Criteria and Procedures for the What and How of Accrediting Accreditation policies might encourage a university to enter the field of social work education through offering a one-year basic program, but it is the position of this report that a university should not do so unless it has the resources and the desire to offer a second year of graduate professional study within a reasonable period. T h e university should of course be free to decide how complex and costly a program beyond the minimum it can afford to maintain. It would be unusual to find a university that offered programs leading to the master's degree in all social work specializations, and certainly all such schools should not, in addition, offer the doctorate in social work. Accrediting policies should encourage university and school officials jointly to decide, after consultation with appropriate professional organizations, what social work education functions their institution should undertake. School and professional membership associations should encourage the institution to state clearly the functions it has chosen and should help it to pursue them with integrity. It follows that each school of social work should be appraised in terms of its own purposes, resources, and clientele—but with due regard for professional requirements. T h e norms in any area of work by which one school of social work would be differentiated from another should be those derived from superior practice. It is more important, for example, to judge a field work program by its quality than by its quantity. There is no experimental or empirical evidence, for instance, to justify the psychiatric social work specialization in requiring for accreditation a larger number of clock hours—arranged on a three-day schedule —of supervised field work experience each week in specified types of agencies, as compared to a lesser requirement by the medical social work specialization. This quantitative difference, nevertheless, causes deans of schools of social work many administrative difficulties and often causes them to appear to university officials and social work agencies as being in charge of an educational program that is only secondarily their own. The idea of normative appraisal in lieu of fixed standards is especially applicable in setting bench marks to guide an accrediting body in such matters as physical facilities, salaries, qualifications of

ACCREDITATION

)j9

staff members, admissions policies, and similar items. Of course more data, rather than less, will be required for comparing institutions with one another instead of with some abstract mathematical average. At the moment, social work educators do not know for the nation as a whole or for their region or type of university the per student or the gross amount of space available, much less what the norm ought to be. Indeed, like other divisions of the university, most of them do not have these facts for their own school or for comparable schools of the university. There is a similar lack of normative data on the annual cost of educating a prospective social worker, despite the fact that this information, compiled by types of support and location of institutions, would provide a realistic index for judging the effort of a school being reviewed for accreditation. In the matter of salaries of professors of social work, it would be realistic to judge adequacy by comparing them with salaries paid in similar schools of the region and by salaries paid other professional and graduate professors of the same institution—but information for this purpose is not now available. In most other aspects of social work education, adequacy also could be judged much more effectively by relative than by absolute standards. T h e adequacy of the organization of a school of social work within the university structure is, for example, in part a matter of how favorably it compares with other professional schools of that university as well as how it meets the idealized standard for an administratively independent unit. Structural soundness cannot be disregarded in accrediting a school of social work, but neither can the matter of how it functions in the setting under review. It would, however, be a mistake for an accrediting agency to ignore an unsound administrative arrangement merely because it is at the moment functioning satisfactorily in the hands of men of good will. T h e same principles are applicable to library facilities. It is more meaningful to state strengths and weaknesses in terms of use—even though it is more difficult to do so—than to state them in terms of status alone. Granted a substantial minimum library, it probably is more important to know the use to which books and periodicals are put than to know the number owned; likewise, it is more important to know how effectively the library is administered than whether it is housed separately or as part of the general library.

)8o

ACCREDITATION

Unfortunately, there is no conclusive evidence to show the correlation between effective use and the size of the collection, or between these factors and a good educational program. Educators and the general public, however, subscribe to the relatively untested assumption that there is a close correlation in both matters. These observations are equally applicable to provisions used for recruiting, admitting, orienting, counseling, and placing students; to criteria for selecting and promoting members of the faculty; and to other areas in which chief reliance has heretofore been placed on quantitative measures. In general, what is being suggested is the importance of encouraging the establishment of qualitative measures to replace or supplement some of the comparatively meaningless quantitative standards that have heretofore been used in the accrediting process. T h e development of practical qualitative criteria is a long and tedious process which this report assumes to be the responsibility of the social work accrediting commission and its professional consultants.

ORGANIZING A N D A D M I N I S T E R I N G

ACCREDITATION

If the social work profession decides to develop and adopt a more comprehensive, representative, and qualitative arrangement for accrediting schools of social work, it thereby faces the necessity for devising a workable plan for administering the project. A later section will present for the consideration of the profession what is believed to be a feasible plan for selecting, organizing, and financing an accrediting commission, but it seems important first to see the proposed commission in relation to the other structural arrangements used by different segments of the profession in administering their undertakings. Structural Relationships within the Profession Individuals and organizations of laymen and professionals in the field of social welfare have a widely recognized public forum in the National Conference of Social Work, but they do not look to it for the over-all coordination of their operational activities. T h e social work agencies that employ the bulk of the practitioners look to the National Social Welfare Assembly as their national coordi-

ACCREDITATION

381

nating council, but some of these agencies—the American Public Welfare Association, for example—simultaneously serve as nationwide coordinators for an affiliated group of employing agencies. T h e social work practitioners have several uncoordinated nationwide professional membership associations, and as of 1951 were trying to devise an over-all professional membership body that could speak for them authoritatively. T h e social work educators, as already has been made abundantly evident, have a variety of conflicting national organizations that engage in a function in which all segments of the organized profession have a considerable stake. In 1946, the social work profession organized the National Council on Social Work Education with the expectation in some circles that it would become the profession's voice in education. It of course has not yet achieved this status. There is, then, no one certain voice that can speak for the organized social work profession. T h e same is true, but to a lesser degree, of most professions, especially of the large, variegated, and sprawling ones like teaching. Accordingly, it is difficult to find suitable auspices under which an accrediting commission can function as the representative of the social work profession as it is organized. In order to provide such an aegis for accreditation, plus the customary research and promotion functions of educational organizations, the concluding section of Chapter V I I proposed strengthening the National Council on Social Work Education, or its equivalent, so that it might serve as the national auspices for all the profession-wide educational activities of the field of social work. T h e proposed Commission on Accreditation of Social Work Education would be one of the constituent bodies of the Council (or whatever organization the profession devises to take its place) and would derive its authority from the profession through that channel. Policies Governing an Accrediting Commission In lieu of the several school and practitioner associations that now carry on one or another phase of accreditation in the field of social work education, this report proposes that the accrediting functions of all such organizations be delegated to a single commission, on which all the organized major segments of the profession

382

ACCREDITATION

would be represented. T h i s commission should operate under the auspices of the National Council on Social Work Education or its equivalent. T h e profession, through the Council, should adopt a framework of basic principles to guide the work of the commission. Within this framework, the commission should be authorized to establish, maintain, and administer criteria and procedures for the accreditation of all programs in the graduate schools of social work. T h e first principle to be observed in establishing an accrediting commission is that it shall not be administratively and fiscally dependent on any one school, practitioner, or agency membership association. Instead, it should derive its authority and funds from the profession through the Council or its equivalent. A second bedrock principle would require the accrediting commission to be representative of all organized major segments of the field of social work, of university administration, and of the public as user of social work services. It is equally important for the profession to accept, as a third principle, that decisions of the accrediting commission are final and not subject to review by the Council. T h e Council should, however, from time to time review the policies which constitute the mandate under which the commission works. As a fourth principle, to extend the list no further, the profession should expect the accrediting commission per se to perform the policy-forming and judicial functions required for making and enforcing accrediting policies and procedures. T h e commission should be expected to carry on its day-to-day work through a professional secretariat which it employs and directs. T h e services the secretariat would perform for the commission might include: the staff work required for developing or improving criteria and standards to be used in accrediting schools or programs of social work; the handling of arrangements for panels of especially competent persons (selected by the commission and not of its membership) to inspect schools and programs of social work education in terms of criteria authorized by the commission; the detailed work of preparing the accreditation report of a panel and other pertinent information for review by the commission as part of the procedure by which it is to accredit or not accredit; the preparation of a report of the inspection panel which officials of the school seeking accreditation may use in preparing a written

ACCREDITATION or oral rejoinder for the consideration of the commission in making its decision; the conducting of correspondence and office visits with anyone interested in any phase of the accreditation of social work education. Selecting, Organizing, and Financing an Accrediting Commission It is hoped that the comments which follow will stimulate and give some direction to the deliberations required for selecting, organizing, and financing an accrediting commission, but they should not be thought of as attempts to resolve the issues involved. That task is necessarily left to the educational statesmen of the profession who are adept in the processes of democratic compromise. T h e more nearly unified a profession is, the easier it is to select a group to represent it in vital matters. T h e dental profession, for example, is closely enough knit to have formed an accrediting body of nine persons—three from the association of dental schools, three from the practitioner association, and three from the association of state dental examiners. T h e variegated nature of the field of social work would make it difficult to get a representative accrediting commission if it were limited to nine members. In view of this diversity it is likely that representatives cannot be secured with fewer than twenty persons, and certainly more than thirty persons would make an unwieldy and expensive policy-forming and judicial body for accrediting social work education. T h e task of selecting these individuals, as has already been indicated, is made difficult by the amorphous nature of the profession and by the multiplicity of associations and agencies that carry on its work. T h e task also is complicated by the lack of good channels for selecting representatives from university administration and from the public as user of social work services. Moreover, no one knows what the distribution of the twenty to thirty persons should be among social work educators, university officials, social work practitioners, agency executives, and representatives of the lay public. It should be clear, nevertheless, that these people acting as an accrediting body represent the total social work profession, university administration, and the general public—and not the organizations or specializations wherein their own professional interests lie. If the social work profession accepts the recommendation that

384

ACCREDITATION

the accrediting commission be established as one of what may be several commissions that operate under the auspices of the National Council on Social Work Education or its equivalent, members of the commission would be chosen by the Council through a nomination and selection procedure of its own devising. It is assumed that nominees would be selected for their capacity and interest in accrediting, that due care would be exercised in maintaining a balance among viewpoints, and that the term in office would be staggered so as to assure both continuity of policy and the orderly introduction of new ideas. In short, the multiplicity of educational and professional interests in social work should resolve the matter of representation while recreating a strong and representative National Council on Social Work Education, and should trust that body to act for it in selecting a competent accrediting commission. Once formed, the accrediting commission should select its own officers and committees, adopt a meaningful set of by-laws, employ a professional secretariat, and otherwise organize to discharge the responsibility entrusted to it. As long as the commission stays within the mandate and policies given it by the Council, its acts should not be subject to review or veto by any other body. While funds for its work might be granted or paid as dues through the Council and be disbursed by it, they should be kept in a separate account which is controlled by officers of the commission. T h e amount of money required annually for the effective operation of an accrediting commission in the field of social work education would depend on the mandate given it by the Council. It is assumed that the mandate would include the study and research required to develop suitable quantitative and qualitative criteria for evaluating a school of social work in terms of a basic and one or more specialized programs. T h e accumulation of normative data on the selected criteria would, in addition, require a lot of trialand-error appraisals of schools which competent social work educators estimate to have superior, average, and minimum qualities of program. Developing accrediting criteria should of course begin with an appraisal and adaptation of what the American Association of Schools of Social Work, the National Association of Schools of Social Administration, and the several social work specializations

ACCREDITATION

385

have learned about the accreditation of entire schools and of individual social work education specializations. While it is developing and perfecting a set of evaluative criteria, the commission must decide how it will dispose of the considerable backlog of accreditation requests that have accumulated incident to World War II and as a result of the moratorium declared by the university administrators who operate through the successor to the Joint Committee on Accrediting, the National Commission on Accrediting. At a conservative estimate, the effective operation of a minimum program would require an expenditure of $25,000 per year. In addition, all graduate schools of social work having a program at least one year in length, whether affiliated with the American Association of Schools of Social Work or the National Association of Schools of Social Administration, should be reappraised as rapidly as staff and more pressing commitments permit. The reappraisal of from fifty-five to sixty schools could not be done for less than $35,000. In the interim these schools should continue to operate as tentatively accredited institutions. If the organized social work profession clearly indicates that it is willing to support the work of accreditation, the commission, through the Council, would have a strong case to present to some philanthropic foundation for a grant of $50,000 or more to be used over a period of years for research, development, and reappraisal purposes. Where is the money for such a program coming from? It is not a function of this study to propose a specific answer, but a review of the section of Chapter V I I which sketches a proposal for the national coordination and financing of social work education—including accreditation—will foreshadow the views of this report. If the social work profession considers the proposed undertakings as important as other professions have considered similar problems in their fields, it will provide the funds. T h e expense of accreditation is now largely borne by those most interested but financially least able: the associations of schools of social work and the individual schools seeking accreditation. If those who are now indifferent or dissident do not see that the basic right to be considered a profession is at stake, then fragmented self-accreditation is likely to continue, to the detriment of the entire field of social work. If the profession decides to inaugurate one comprehensive program of

}86

ACCREDITATION

accreditation, a formula for allocating the cost should be based on ability to pay and on the relevancy of accreditation to the individual and collective membership of the several social work organizations and agencies. There is, of course, no implication that segments of the profession should be represented on either the Council or the accrediting commission in proportion to their payments. In connection with the proposal to establish an accrediting commission, perhaps the Council should develop a formula to indicate roughly the relative annual sums its members should pay to support the accrediting and other commissions it proposes to establish.

Some Next Steps T h e crucial nature of the situation should cause the statesmen of the profession to develop and inaugurate a sound plan of accreditation, and the emergency need for it should impel them to act promptly. A first major step in the venture requires that the relatively inactive segments of the profession, the university, and the public come to see the social significance of investing some of their time, talent, and money in the accreditation of social work education. They also must be convinced that they have an important stake in the outcomes of accrediting Social work education. If the National Council on Social Work Education is to be used as their vehicle, social work statesmen should give first consideration to strengthening it organizationally and to encouraging the selection of personnel for capacity to make the far-reaching decisions implicit for all aspects of social work education. Members of the Council should be empowered to legislate for the profession on all educational matters, and its decisions should be final. If the Council cannot be constituted for such a task and is to be replaced, the change should be made before the specifics of accreditation are considered. As this study sees it, there must be an acknowledged over-all coordinating body for education in which the whole field of social work participates and has confidence. Some of the characteristics of such a body, by whatever name it may be called, are sketched toward the end of Chapter VII.

ACCREDITATION

A CONCLUDING

)8j

STATEMENT

Most of the philosophy, premises, and practices of accreditation that have been recommended for the consideration of the social work profession underlie accreditation arrangements now being used by one or another of the well-established professions. Each proposal has of course been modified to fit what are believed to be the needs of social work education, and as a totality they do constitute what is believed to be a progressive but not radical plan of professional accreditation. T h e proposal, however, does differ substantially in philosophy and practice from the accrediting arrangement now being used in the field of social work. T h e proposal for all major segments of the social work profession to join as equals with school officials in carrying on accreditation is an elaboration of an idea now in use in the Council on Dental Education. Because of differences in degree of professionalization in the several segments of social work, a substantial number of social work educators fear this proposal would result in a lowering of standards. Some professional leaders are even more uneasy about the extension of representativeness which brings university administrators into professional accrediting, and others reject altogether the idea of including representatives of the lay public on such a body. Apparently, this minority does not accept the principle that to deny the public a voice in accreditation is one way to invest a profession with the potential powers of a monopoly which is not subject to democratic checks against the abuse of power. Of course, more discerning social work leaders see public representation as the surest way for the profession to avoid the cause of criticisms that have been aimed at the medical profession for alleged unsocial uses of its semimonopoly powers. T h e proposal that the employers of social workers and the practitioners themselves should join with schools of social work in paying the costs of accrediting is an adaptation of long-standing practice in medicine, dentistry, and engineering. In the first two professions named, the practitioners pay all the costs of accreditation, and in engineering they are shared by associations that include educators, practitioners, and employers who are also engineers.

j88

ACCREDITATION

Unlike physicians and dentists, social workers usually are not selfemployed professional practitioners. T h e agencies where they are employed have a substantial stake in the outcomes of accrediting, and it is therefore recommended that they help finance this voluntary professional activity. T h e advocacy of a substantial degree of administrative and financial independence for an accrediting commission, provided it works under a mandate from a council on education that is responsible to the organized profession of social work, constitutes a proposal whereby social work might avoid some of the organizational mistakes attributed to other professions. Critics of medical education, for example, believe the Council on Medical Education and Hospitals, which does the actual accrediting of medical schools, lacks essential freedom for its work by virtue of being both created and financed by the practitioners who constitute the American Medical Association. T h e engineering profession has resolved a similar issue by getting its various professional engineering societies to create and support as an administratively independent accrediting body the Engineering Council for Professional Development. T h e proposal to supplement or replace absolute quantitative standards through extending the use of qualitative criteria and normative standards derived from superior social work practice would bring methods and procedures to the accreditation of social work that are quite generally used in medical and dental accreditation, and which have been used in undergraduate college accreditation for more than two decades by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. Finally, it should be noted that there is room within the outline of proposals and suggestions made in this chapter for alternative or modified ways of working. T h e aim has been to establish a framework of policies and organization to guide the field of social work in devising its own specific plan of accreditation.

PART

Implications

THREE

CHAPTER

IX

Zreinstating Zhis Report into Action T

V^HE

ANALYSES, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS o f

the

re-

port on social work education are now before its audience. Some useful purpose may be served, nevertheless, by a concluding statement which reviews major proposals against the resources and the readiness for change of the profession and its allies. T h e profession has not yet realized its own strength or capacity to enlist the cooperation of social service organizations and the general public, but with the increasing responsibilities placed on social work by society, with an impelling grass-roots movement within the profession toward unity, and with a strong leadership pressing for scientific study and evaluation, the profession seems destined to come into the full use of its powers at an accelerating rate. While the whole of the measures proposed to the profession for strengthening, enriching, and extending educational programs are formidable, they are not beyond its effective capacity to surmount in a carefully devised plan which permits an attack sector by sector instead of on all fronts simultaneously. As important as money and other tangible resources are in such a campaign, what is needed much more is a considerable body of leaders in social work and higher education who have the vision, courage, resourcefulness, zeal, and determination to work continuously for the ends envisioned. T h e human resources required to produce readiness for professional change in a plurality of a profession are much scarcer and much harder to marshal than is the indispensable financial support for such a project. But unless the effective and latent potentialities of the whole profession can be aroused and focused

392

TRANSLATING

INTO

ACTION

on the major educational undertakings it accepts, this report will do little more than gather dust on a library shelf. T o the complacent or the fainthearted, any change is formidable and fraught with danger. Those unacquainted with the dynamics of educational reform are likely to conclude from a casual reading of the report that it is more concerned with social work theory and practice than with professional education as a process. T o correct this impression it is noted here that education usually follows at a respectful distance in the wake of the growing edge of research or of practice and that the soundest way to bring about desirable change is to modify the framework in which education operates. Only theorists and visionaries believe that educators alone can build a profession or change the social order. T h e public and the profession as a whole, not just the educators, really determine the scope and character of social work education through determining the functions to be undertaken and the conditions under which the profession operates. All of which is a way of saying that basic educational change usually comes with significant shifts in the theory and practice of a profession, which in turn are normally produced by research and experimentation. Perhaps the most far-reaching recommendation of the report, for example, is one that calls on the profession to devise and use a more inclusive concept of social work. T h e continuous effort of social workers during the last three or four decades to raise their services to the status of a profession has led to a more restricted character and scope of social work than was conceived by the early leaders of the movement. Due to a variety of causes set forth at different places in the body of the report, general and specialized social casework was the first aspect of social work to be generally recognized as having attained professional status—a fact that soon gave it numerical dominance and, for all practical purposes, caused it to be widely considered as synonymous with social work. In turn, this development led to social work being practiced for the most part in "protected settings" suited to casework, thus limiting the scope as well as the nature of social work practice and, consequently, of the kind of education provided. About a decade ago, social work educators recognized that with

TRANSLATING

INTO

ACTION

393

the exception of a few schools, their curricula were chiefly preparing specialists rather than broadly educated social workers. In 1944, in response to shifts in the field toward public welfare, group work, and administration, they sought to remedy the situation by adopting a generic curriculum which required study in eight basic areas of social work. But what they apparently did not realize, and would have been unable to change if they had, is the fact that there is little use in changing a program of education unless the profession changes more extensively the way professional social work is practiced. By and large, education must prepare workers for the field as it is organized and administered. That is why the thesis of this report holds that, aside from untoward lags in school programs, progress in social work education is geared to the stage and rate of evolution of social work theory and practice. The report, accordingly, advocates broadening and clarifying concepts of what social work is and what social workers should do, because it is not feasible to plan a comprehensive and articulated program of education in the absence of data and a consensus on these fundamentals. Schools of social work are not likely, for example, to prepare professional practitioners suited to the needs of large public welfare agencies until the voluntary and tax-supported components of the profession join in genuinely accepting these functions as being within the scope of professional social work. And such a consensus cannot be reached short of an acceptable job analysis of social work practice. The report also maintains, to cite a final illustration of the premise, that schools cannot make the necessary distinctions between basic (generic) and specialized curriculum offerings until the profession as a whole determines the differences in the major functions performed by general and by specialized practitioners. Those closely associated with the study on which this report is based are of the opinion that, with adequate leadership, a majority of the profession have the readiness and can secure the resources for a thorough study of social work practice which would show the major functions that are and that ought to be performed by general and specialized social workers. Without such information, it is not feasible to chart a sound course for social work education.

394

TRANSLATING

ALLOCATION

INTO

ACTION

OF EDUCATIONAL

RESPONSIBILITY

One of the major assets of the vigorous young profession of social work is its receptiveness to new ideas concerning education. Individual agencies, all geographical levels of general and specialized professional organizations, and of course the schools of social work, actively engage in one or another type of educational activity. Each of these segments of the profession has heretofore tended to promote its own concept of education and training without sufficient concern or regard for the educational work which others were doing. There is little evidence to show that the social work profession has ever seen its educational responsibility steadily and whole, or that some segments of it have sufficient awareness of their financial and moral responsibility for helping with the development and accreditation of a comprehensive program of social work education. There is considerable evidence to show that as leaders of agencies, organizations, and schools agree on a profession-wide program of education, most social work and nonsocial work educators will be ready to exercise the educational functions that are allotted to them. It is the position of this report that all organized segments of the social work profession should join in the development and equitable support of an organization (see Chapter VII) through which they and the public can have an effective voice in shaping and maintaining educational and accrediting policies and procedures. After seeing the educational function "steadily and whole," such an organization would be in a sound position to allocate and coordinate an educational program that is comprehensive and flexible enough to stimulate and release new potential talent and energy, use those already available, and coordinate those that are now dissipated in fragmented and sometimes poorly conceived educational undertakings. Unless the profession finds a more appropriate title, the planning and coordinating organization might be a strengthened and more representative National Council on Social Work Education which would carry out its functions through a series of commissions to be created as they are needed. It is suggested that consideration

TRANSLATING

INTO

ACTION

m

be given at the moment to establishing a commission on undergraduate education to stimulate the activities suggested in Chapter IV, a commission on graduate professional education to develop and coordinate the programs proposed in Chapter V, a commission on personnel standards and agency-based education to coordinate the educational undertakings of professional organizations and social agencies advocated in Chapter VII, and a commission on the accreditation of social work education to function in the manner elaborated in Chapter V I I I . Some such arrangement would give focus and direction to the educational undertakings of the profession and would enlist and release the potentialities of its members, of educational administrators, and of lay leaders who represent it before the public generally. Functions of the Undergraduate College In the view of this report, seeing social work education "steadily and whole" would lead to an allocation of three functions to the undergraduate college. In the first place, this potentially powerful but as yet little used ally could, as a part of general education, teach the fundamental social welfare concepts to students who will become city and county officials, legislators, governors, educators, doctors, businessmen, lawyers, labor leaders, clergymen, and citizens in hundreds of other occupations. Until the general public understands more of the purpose and operation of public and private welfare programs, it will not give them the support commonly accorded education, health, and similar community services. T h e type of general education this report recommends for prospective social workers does not differ significantly from that advocated for any other group of college students. In each case what is wanted is a broad and rich understanding of the biological, social, and spiritual nature of mankind, and this may be secured from various course combinations of the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. T h e concluding major section of Chapter IV provides some illustrations of concepts and teaching materials recommended for inclusion in a program of general education suitable for all occupational groups of college students. T h e second function proposed for the undergraduate college in providing social work education is less well understood. T h e r e

)96

TRANSLATING

INTO

ACTION

has been little recognition of the fact that professional education for social work is in reality a four-year or longer program, the first two years of which are given in the junior and senior years of colleges. Heretofore, social work educators have concentrated their attention on developing the upper two or more years of the sequence in graduate professional schools which they control and operate under a general franchise from a university. Those responsible for this report do not believe social work is likely to reverse its whole history or that it would necessarily be wise to follow the practice of professions such as medicine, which maintains occupationally oriented undergraduate courses as a part of the professional program. Therefore, it is recommended that the social work profession work more closely with undergraduate colleges in developing a concentration in the arts and sciences basic to the more advanced study of social work. T h e character of the program under such a plan should be the same whether administered independently by an undergraduate college, or cooperatively by the college and the graduate professional school of social work. T h e crucial importance of closer cooperation between the undergraduate college and the profession of social work in developing the undergraduate foundation program is made evident by the fact that the profession simply cannot provide a suitable regimen of preparation in two graduate years that are based on a largely unspecified program of the course offerings of accredited arts and science colleges. Moreover, the graduate professional school is now being forced by such an admissions policy to offer in these two overcrowded graduate years considerable curriculum content that in a well-articulated program would be offered in the freshman and sophomore years as general education or in the junior and senior years as beginning the foundation of professional education. T h e importance of closer cooperation is also illustrated by the fact that an estimated one fourth of the persons now occupying social work positions classified as professional have not graduated from college and therefore are not eligible to enroll in a graduate professional school of social work. If approved concentrations in the upper two years of the undergraduate college were recognized as an integral part of professional social work education, larger numbers of undergraduates would be recruited to the profession.

TRANSLATING

INTO

ACTION

J97

Also, more of the young people who enter the social welfare field with only a bachelor's degree would give better service to the agency, would be more responsive to growth through supervision, and, if they remain in the field, would be more apt to continue formal professional study. T h e r e is widespread and substantial evidence to show that eight hundred or more colleges might use this new occupational outlet for their students, and there are equally compelling reasons for believing that the rank and file of social workers would welcome such a development. What is needed is vigorous, informed, and tenacious professional leadership. In the third place, two- or four-year colleges that maintain terminal programs of less than degree length might undertake in the more distant future the preparation of semiprofessional and technical workers for such areas as the profession may eventually identify and by such programs as it may approve. Semiprofessional programs should be undertaken only after a survey of social work practice has identified and distinguished between professional and semiprofessional functions in social work. Unless there is an adequate supply of professionally qualified social workers, those with only semiprofessional and technical qualifications are too likely to be promoted to fill the vacuum. Functions of the Graduate School of Social Work Aside from the over-all leadership expected of faculties in all phases of social work education, the school itself has two major functions allocated to it by this report. Its first and most indispensable function is to provide a one- or two-year undifferentiated basic (generic) program in social work for qualified full-time and part-time students. T h e second function of the graduate school of social work is to provide social workers who have the requisite basic education and experience with curricula that prepare for service in the several specializations of advanced practice and for such specializations as administration, supervision, teaching, and research. Social work educators have been trying for nearly a decade to develop a two-year basic or generic program. T h e results have been less than satisfactory for two reasons. In the first place, the j o b specifications of social work agencies still call for caseworkers, group

jgS

TRANSLATING

INTO

ACTION

workers, child welfare workers, psychiatric social caseworkers, and the like instead of for broadly and basically prepared unspecialized social workers. T h e desired shift will begin when employers begin to write job specifications more in terms of what most social workers do. T h e second reason for limited success lies in the fact that social work educators have tried to develop a generic graduate program without developing concurrently the still more basic undergraduate foundation on which it rests. T h e process has also been hindered by the lack of adequate criteria for determining what is basic and what is specialized in social work. T h e position of this report is that recurring analyses of social work practice, based on stated philosophical assumptions acceptable to a majority of the profession, would show the functions to be performed, and thus would enable social work educators to select the goals, concepts, and content of both basic and specialized programs of social work education. While there appears to be a widespread willingness to accept programs that may be developed in keeping with these ideas, there is only sporadic evidence of professional readiness and competence to begin curriculum reconstruction along these lines. Social work educators, however, correctly appraise the task as tremendous in size, long in duration, and requiring a high level of skills in curriculum development. T h e development of a graduate basic or generic program of the kind advocated in this report would inevitably lead to a reappraisal of social work specializations. Considerable of what is now practiced and taught in specializations would appear in new contexts in the basic social work program which is aimed at producing well-equipped general social work practitioners comparable to general practitioners in the field of medicine. In some of the recognized and budding specializations of advanced practice there might not be enough function and content left to sustain a specialty. In such areas of administration, teaching, and research the realignment might accelerate and focus the development of heretofore vaporous specializations and stimulate a wider reciprocal use of university resources among related graduate departments and professional schools. T h e vested interest of most active professional social workers lies in one or another of the specializations of advanced practice.

TRANSLATING

INTO

ACTION

399

They therefore may be expected to exhibit uneasiness and distrust of proposals that might adversely affect their accustomed way of professional life. Nevertheless, it should be recognized from the beginning that fundamental curriculum modifications at the undergraduate and beginning graduate levels are predicated on farreaching modifications of practice which inevitably affect the status of social work specializations. Until the profession is willing to modify at the top, it cannot modify significantly at the bottom. Evidence that segments of the profession are moving in this direction is illustrated in the readiness demonstrated by the Committee on Education of the American Association of Medical Social Workers at its Biennial Meeting in January, 1951, to share with the profession the results of two decades of professional study and curriculum planning. The problems incident to organizing, administering, and financing a graduate school of social work are as largely a responsibility of the university as of the social work profession. This report holds that, with notable exceptions, the trustees and administrative officials of universities have not yet accepted the degree of responsibility for preparing social workers that they accept as a matter of course in theology, medicine, law, education, engineering, and other professions. Chapter VI is devoted to analyses and recommendations on the points of cooperation and conflict between social work and university officials. Educational Functions of Agencies and Organizations Directly and through their national associations, social work agencies have a responsibility for helping to develop and regulate social work education which they have not generally accepted. The council and commissions proposed in this report for giving the program direction and accreditation require, for example, considerable funds that must be supplied by the profession. Nevertheless, despite the fact that the personnel being educated is for their use, the associations of social work agencies have been lukewarm to the idea of sharing these costs in proportion to their ability to pay. Some operating agencies have limited their participation in formal education to critical comment on the character and scope of the offerings. But a far larger number participate effec-