Education for Social Development: Curricular Models and Issues

Education for social development is emerging as an important component of professional education in the human services. This paper identifies the underlying assumptions, knowledge base, and goals of social devel­opment practice. The paper also identifies four models of social devel­opment practice of rele­vance to the educa­tion of social workers for social develop­ment: the Person­al Social Ser­vices Model; the Social Welfare Model; the Social Develop­ment Model; and, the New World Order Model. Eight levels of social develop­ment prac­tice are identi­fied as are the dominant insti­tu­tional sec­tors within which development practice occurs. The paper also discuss­es organi­zation­al issues associ­ated with the introduc­tion of varying degrees of social develop­ment con­tent into individual educational pro­grams

Global Change and Indicators of Social Development

Knowledge-based intervention has been a hallmark of community practice since the turn of the last century. Indeed, the social survey movement of the 1900s was a direct outgrowth of efforts on the part of community practitioners to systematically: 1) identify the nature, extent and severity of new and emerging social needs in their communities; 2) organize people and institutions to respond more effectively to those needs; and 3) establish baseline measures against which intervention successes and failures could be assessed (Zimbalist, 1977). Even the renaming of one of the profession’s leading journals of the day, Charities and Commons, to The Survey illustrates the importance that practitioners assigned to the role of scientific inquiry for advancing practice. Mary Richmond’s Social Diagnosis (1917) offered further reinforcement of the powerful relationship that practitioners recognized to exist between knowledge-based intervention and the realization of more effective outcomes. Today, of course, community practitioners all over the world seek to incorporate rigorous approaches to needs assessment, planning, program development and evaluation in their work with communities and other social collectivities (Andrews, 1996; Balaswamy & Dabelko, 2002;Chow & Coulton, 1996; Conner et al., 1999; Drummond, 1995; Johnson, 2002; Sawicki & Flynn, 1996; Schultz et al., 2000; Telfair & Mulvihill, 2000; Wong & Hillier, 2001; Zackary, 1995)

The World Social Situation: Development Challenges at the Outset of a New Century

World social development has arrived at a critical turning point. Economically advanced nations have made significant progress toward meeting the basic needs of their populations; however, the majority of developing countries have not. Problems of rapid population growth, failing economies, famine, environmental devastation, majority-minority group conflicts, increasing militarization, among others, are pushing many developing nations toward the brink of social chaos. This paper focuses on worldwide development trends for the 40-year period 1970-2009. Particular attention is given to the disparities in development that exist between the world’s “rich” and “poor” countries as well as the global forces that sustain these disparities. The paper also discusses more recent positive trends occurring within the world’s “socially least developed countries” (SLDCs), especially those located in Africa and Asia, in reducing poverty and in promoting improved quality of life for increasing numbers of their populations

The Sexual Exploitation of Children: A Guide to the Empirical Literature

The bibliography that follow was designed to introduce readers to the very rich theoretical and empirical literatures relating to child abuse, child sexual abuse, child sexual exploitation, and the commercial sexual exploitation of children. The bibliography also contains introductory references to the international child rights movement, including worldwide efforts to protect children from sexual exploitation. Throughout, the bibliography contains references to research of an international and comparative nature. Charts 1 & 2 define the major concepts used in preparing the bibliography

United States-Based Conceptualization of International Social Work Education

The paper introduces readers to the nature and variety of American-based international practice at seven levels of analysis. The paper provides a historical backdrop for contemporary practice and suggests options available to American social workers in integrating the international dimensions of social work in their day-to-day practice both at home and when working in other countries. A generous bibliography is included in the papers as are references to libraries of widely available electronic resources

Health and Development in Asia: Regional Priorities for a New Century

Asia is one of the world’s most rapidly developing regions. Even so, the majority of Asian countries continue to experience slow-moderate rates of economic growth, high inflation, rapid population growth, and comparatively high levels of ethnic tension and civil unrest. Poverty, ill-health, and broad-based maldevelopment also continue to be major features of Asian social development. In general, the absence of strong intra-regional cooperation on a broad range of social, political, economic, and health issues compounds Asia’s asynchronous development patterns

The Public-Private Mix in National and International Development

Social welfare is a complex, multi-dimensional, field of practice that seeks to promote the well-being of people everywhere. But national responses to social welfare differ dramatically from one society to the next and, often, valid comparisons between different nations and systems of social welfare are difficult to undertake. This paper addresses that issue by introducing an innovative approach to welfare policy analysis using a Private-Public Development Mix (PPDM) model. The PPDM draws on all four of social welfare’s core institutions—the State, the family & household, the Market, and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs)—as well as four sets of social challenges for which national and international policy responses are needed. The utility of the model is demonstrated through analyses of public-private responses to poverty alleviation efforts in the United States and to advancing compulsory primary and middle school education among rural children living in two of China’s poorest regions

Accreditation insights and the next body of knowledge

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) published the second edition of the Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge (BOK2) in 2008 expanding the knowledge, skills and attitudes required of future civil engineers. There were major changes to the BOK2 as the number of expected outcomes increased from 15 to 24 and the cognitive level of attainment was more precisely defined. A major implementation and enforcement mechanism for the BOK is the ABET accreditation criteria which includes both general criteria 3 and 5 and the discipline-specific program criteria. Of those, the program criteria are the easiest to change. In 2013, ASCE created the Civil Engineering Program Criteria Task Committee (CEPCTC) whose charge was to determine if the current CEPC should be changed to reflect an additional one or more of the 24 outcomes of BOK2. After two years of meetings, conference calls, draft criteria, constituency input, and associated revisions, a proposed change to the CEPC was approved by ASCE and submitted to ABET for approval. The CEPC was supplemented with an associated commentary. The proposed CEPC are currently going through the two-year ABET approval process and are expected to go into effect in September 2016. The results of the committee’s work were presented in papers at the 2014 and 2015 ASEE Annual Conferences in Indianapolis and Seattle.1,2 The Body of Knowledge is a living document that will continue to be updated and revised. ASCE has developed an eight year cycle of change that will make future iterations of the BOK and CEPC both systematic and predictable.3 As such, a Body of Knowledge Task Committee (BOKTC) is scheduled to be formed in October 2016. The BOKTC could recommend no revisions, minor revisions, or extensive revisions to BOK2. If substantive changes are recommended to BOK2, the master plan calls for the completion of the third edition of the Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge for the 21st Century (BOK3) before October 2018. Because the CEPC was created to be compatible with the BOK2 outcomes, the CEPCTC studied the BOK2 in depth. The BOK2 is an aspirational and visionary document which only partially accounts for the real-world constraints faced by engineering programs in terms of mandated maximum units in an undergraduate program and additional requirements imposed by a state government or a university. Conversely, the ABET accreditation criteria (general plus program) define the minimum requirements for a program to receive accreditation. There will naturally be a gap between those two standards. For the cycle of change to be successful, the insights and lessons learned from the development of the CEPC should be communicated with the BOKTC and vice versa. This paper attempts to do that. The paper will define the gap between (1) the BOK2 and (2) EAC/ABET accreditation criteria (general plus proposed CEPC) and make recommendations for closing the gap. During their work, the CEPCTC encountered issues with the BOK2 that suggest potential revisions for the BOK3. This paper is a mechanism for sharing CEPCTC insights, lessons learned, suggestions and recommendations with the rest of the academic and professional community

Editor's Introduction : First year writing special issue

First-Year Composition at the University of Missouri--English 1000-- is characterized above all by its diversity. While broad guidelines and goals underwrite what a phalanx of instructors implement in nearly 200 sections each year, the freedom instructors possess to teach to their strengths and interests is a hallmark that, if the essays in this issue are any indication, is a boon to MU students