Globalization challenges social work with constant social change, making a social worker's job and the task of social work education more complex and uncertain. Post-modern thinking suggests that social workers must learn to cope with complexity in ways that are in tension with the increasingly managerialist organization of the social services. The authors explore and question the concepts of 'postmodern', 'international' and 'global' in light of growing interest in international social work in the early 21st century. Emphasizing the importance of critical reflection, they argue that educational colonization can be challenged and effective anti-discriminatory and pro-equality practice and education promoted. Each chapter provides direct examples of how students and academics can apply these ideas in practice and in their learning, and how they can respond to and influence the challenges and changes that are taking place. The authors also examine educational and practice issues arising from attempts to incorporate international understanding into national practice and education systems. The book is designed to be stimulating to academics interested in international social work while remaining accessible to practitioners and students without international experience.

Globalization challenges social work with constant social change, making a social worker's job and the task of social work education more complex and uncertain. Post-modern thinking suggests that social workers must learn to cope with complexity in ways that are in tension with the increasingly managerialist organization of the social services. The authors' explore and question the concepts of 'postmodern', 'international' and 'global' in light of growing interest in international social work in the early 21st century. Emphasizing the importance of critical reflection, they argue that educational colonization can be challenged and effective anti-discriminatory and pro-equality practice and education promoted.Each chapter provides direct examples of how students and academics can apply these ideas in practice and in their learning, and how they can respond to and influence the challenges and changes that are taking place. The authors' also examine educational and practice issues arising from attempts to incorporate international understanding into national practice and education systems. The book is designed to be stimulating to academics interested in international social work while remaining accessible to practitioners and students without international experience.

Social work education has developed internationally over the past 50 years as part of wider processes of economic and cultural globalization. Diverse political and social events across the world have shaped social work and its education, leading to aims and methods that are shared and contested. This book brings together, through 13 interviews and biographies, the lives, experiences and contributions of leading social work educators from Comoros, the Caribbean, India, Mexico, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States and the United Kingdom. Their receipt of IASSW's Katherine Kendall Award recognized that they were at the forefront of establishing and securing social work education during this period of internationalization. Exploring the aims and priorities of these leading social work educators, Askeland and Payne draw out a historical and contextual account of how social work education became widely adopted in different national and cultural environments. The Awardees' diverse lives and professional experiences reveal the issues they faced, the paths they travelled and the prospects and threats confronting social work and its education more widely.