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A Survey to assist with the development of a Curriculum on Social Work in the Context of Political Conflict
Political conflict, be it between warring factions within national borders or between different countries, can have a devastating impact on the lives of citizens, clients and social workers. Such effects are often in evidence as they struggle to defend themselves on a day-to-day level or to respond to the defensive measures often implemented by governments to regulate and monitor the behaviour of ‘undesirable’ groups, or to (re)move affected populations from particular geographical territories and to prevent others from entering. The physical and mental effects of political conflict on those affected by this can be significant and have real repercussions for social work, both to the nature of services provided and access to these, for groups such as internally displaced people, political and economic refugees and asylum seekers, as well as for national citizens generally. Despite the immeasurable impact of such conflicts, this concern has largely been ignored in social work education and in practice.
We are social work lecturers from different countries, some with experience of acute political conflict, while others bring experience of such impact through working with refugees, asylum seekers and immigrant families.
While the project is sponsored by the IASSW, we aim to address the educational needs of both social workers and students in social work education. The project is therefore focused on establishing an international curriculum in social work in the context of political conflict that needs to be flexible in terms of both content and mode of delivery to suit students and practitioners at different levels of their training.
The anonymous questionnaire we have developed reflects these aims, but its usefulness depends on receiving as many responses as possible from different countries representing different layers and interests in social work.
How will the results be used?
The results will be used to ascertain whether and how the respondents see:
- the need for education and training on social work in the context of political conflict
- the levels at which such training is perceived to be best situated in terms of existing social work programmes and modules
- the content
- the format
The results will then be further applied to not only developing a blueprint for the Values and Principles underlying such a training programme but also for mapping out an implementation strategy within international organisations such as the IFSW and the IASSW, as well as within local social work education and social workers’ associations.
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