Degree or examination: What is the foundation of the social work workforce in China?

Abstract

The current Chinese social work licensure program does not mandatorily require formal social work education. This compromised policy is contradictory to the mission of formal social work education and the trajectory of professionalization in other Western countries. This study examined whether social work graduates differ from those who do not have formal social work education in terms of competency, commitment, and turnover intention. Results described the struggles of social work graduates in their experiences in the field. The diminishing role of formal social education may affect the professional identity of social workers in social work development in China.

Keywords

China formal social work education licensure professionalization social work workforce

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abbott

(1988) The Systems of Professions: An Essay on the Division of Expert Labor. Chicago, IL; London: The University of Chicago Press.

Q.L.

Chapman

M.V.

(2014) ‘The Early Professional Experience of a New Social Worker in China’, Journal of Social Work Education 50(2): 322–33.

Chan

K.L.

Chan

C.L.W.

(2005) ‘Chinese Culture, Social Work Education and Research’, International Social Work 48(4): 381.

Chou

Y.C.

Haj-Yahia

M.M.

Wang

F.T.Y.

L.Y.

(2006) ‘Social Work in Taiwan: A Historical and Critical Review’, International Social Work 49(6): 767.

Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) (2015) ‘Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards for Baccalaureate and Master’s Social Work Programs’. Available online at: https://www.cswe.org/getattachment/Accreditation/Standards-and-Policies/2015-EPAS/2015EPASandGlossary.pdf.aspx

DeAngelis

Monahan

M.J.

(2012) ‘Professional Credentials and Professional Regulations’, in Dulmus

Sowers

K.M.

(eds) The Profession of Social Work: Guided by History, Led by Evidence, pp. 91–104. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Dyer

P.M.

(1977) ‘How Professional Is the BSW Worker?’, Social Work 22(6): 487.

Freidson

(1988) Professional Powers. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Gao

J.A.G.

Yan

M.C.

(2015) ‘Social Work in the Making: The State and Social Work Development in China’, International Journal of Social Welfare 24(1): 93–101.

10.

Geng

L.N.

S.S.

Zhou

W.J.

(2011) ‘The Relationships among Emotional Exhaustion, Emotional Intelligence, and Occupational Identity of Social Workers in China’, Social Behavior and Personality 39(3): 309–19.

11.

Gray

(2008) ‘Some Considerations on the Debate on Social Work in China: Who Speaks for Whom?’, International Journal of Social Welfare 17(4): 400–6.

12.

Hutchings

Taylor

(2007) ‘Defining the Profession? Exploring an International Definition of Social Work in the China Context’, International Journal of Social Welfare 16: 382–90.

13.

Kendall

K.A.

(2002) Council on Social Work Education: Its Antecedents and First Twenty Years. Alexandria, VA: Council on Social Work Education.

14.

Lei

(2012) ‘Professionalization or De-Professionalization?’, China Social Work Research 11: 25–40.

15.

Lei

Huang

W.Y.

(2017) ‘Pragmatic Professionalism: Definition of Professional Competence and Its Responsibility for Social Workers in Comprehensive Family Service, Guangzhou’, Society 1(37): 211–41 (in Chinese).

16.

Leighninger

(2000) Creating a New Profession: The Beginning of Social Work Education in the United States. Alexandria, VA: Council on Social Work Education.

17.

Leung

T.T.F.

(2012) ‘The Work Sites as Ground of Contest: Professionalisation of Social Work in China’, British Journal of Social Work 42(2): 335–52.

18.

C.P.

Shi

(2003) ‘The Influence of Distributive Justice and Procedural Justice on Job Burnout’, Acta Psychologica Sinica 35(5): 677–84.

19.

Y.S.

(2008) ‘The Promotion Strategy of Professionalization in China’, Social Science Research 5: 109–14 (in Chinese).

20.

Y.S.

Han

W.R.

Huang

J.Z.

(2011) ‘The Development of Social Work Education in China’, Social Sciences 5: 82–90 (in Chinese).

21.

Lin

W.I.

Wang

(2010) ‘What Does Professionalization Mean? Tracing the Trajectory of Social Work Education in Taiwan’, Social Work Education 29(8): 869–81.

22.

Liu

(2009) ‘Social Work Development in China: Current Status, Problems, and Resolutions’, Changshai Social Work College Journal 16(1): 14–25.

23.

Liu

H.L.

(2004) ‘The Concept and Important Terms of Professional Social Workers’, Journal of East China University of Science and Technology (Social Science) 2: 47–50 (in Chinese).

24.

Liu

Sun

Anderson

S.G.

(2013) ‘Challenges in Social Work Field Education in China: Lessons from the Western Experience’, Social Work Education 32(2): 179–96.

25.

Ministry of Civil Affairs (2006) ‘Temporary Instruction of Assessing Social Work Professional Level’.Available online at: http://www.mohrss.gov.cn/gkml/xxgk/201407/t20140717_136341.htm

26.

Ministry of Civil Affairs (2012) ‘The Plan for Long-Term Social Work Workforce Development (2011–2020)’. Available online at: http://www.mca.gov.cn/article/zwgk/jhgh/201204/20120400302325.shtml (accessed 4 September 2017).

27.

Ministry of Education (2004) Basic Requirement for Social Work Main Courses. Beijing: Higher Education Press.

28.

National Association of Social Workers (NASW) (2016) ‘Assuring the Sufficiency of a Frontline Workforce’. Available online at: http://workforce.socialworkers.org/studies/nasw_06_execsummary.pdf

29.

Pan

(2013) ‘The Dilemma of Applying Social Work Knowledge into Use: The Issue of Social Work Education and Employment’, China Social Welfare 7: 2–6 (in Chinese).

30.

Peng

S.M.

(2009) ‘A Decade of Professionalization Research in Mainland China’, Social Work 1: 4–8 (in Chinese).

31.

Rubin

Parrish

D.E.

(2012) ‘Comparing Social Worker and Non-Social Worker Outcomes: A Research Review’, Social Work 57(4): 309–20.

32.

Schaufeli

W.B.

Leiter

M.P.

Maslach

Jackson

S.E.

(1996) ‘Maslach Burnout Inventory – General Survey’, in Maslach

Jackson

S.E.

Leiter

M.P.

(eds) The Maslach Burnout Inventory: Test Manual, pp. 22–6. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.

33.

Tsang

A.K.T.

Yan

M.C.

(2001) ‘Chinese Corpus, Western Application – The Chinese Strategy of Engagement with Western Social Work Discourse’, International Social Work 44(4): 433.

34.

Tsui

M.-s.

Yan

M. C.

(2010) ‘Developing social work in developing countries: Experiences in the Asia Pacific region’, International Social Work 53(3): 307–310.

35.

Wang

S.B.

(2006) ‘Social Work Professionalization in System Transformation’, Beijing University of Science and Technology Journal (Social Science) 1: 1–5 (in Chinese).

36.

Wang

S.B.

Chen

W.K.

(2007) ‘China’s New Orientation of Social Work Development’, Xuexi yu Shijian (Learning and Practice) 3007(3): 5–6 (in Chinese).

37.

Ward

(2004) ‘Review of Law for Social Workers, 8th edn, by H. Braine and H. Carr, 2003’, British Journal of Social Work 34(5): 761–2.

38.

Watkins

J.M.

Holmes

(2012) ‘Educating for Social Work’, in Dulums

C.N.

Sowers

K.M.

(eds) The Profession of Social Work: Guided by History, Led by Evidence, pp. 35–50. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Son.

39.

Xia

X.L.

Guo

(2002) ‘Historical Development Characteristics of Social Work in Today’s China’, International Journal of Social Welfare 11(3): 254–62.

40.

Xinhua News (2006) ‘Chinese Communist Party Central Committee Decisions about Some Major Issues of Building Socialist Harmonious Society’. Available online at: http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2006-10/18/content_5218639.htm

41.

Xinhua News (2016) ‘Ministry of Civil Affairs: Train Nearly One Million Professional Social Workers in Five Years’. Available online at: http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2016-03/14/c_128798986.htm

42.

Yan

M.C.

Gao

J.G.

Lam

C.M.

(2012) ‘The Dawn is Too Distant: The Experience of 28 Social Work Graduates Entering the Social Work Field in China’, Social Work Education 32(4): 538–51.

43.

Yin

M.Z.

(2012) ‘Professionalization, Science and Indigenization: Three Myths in a Decade of Social Work Development in China’, Social Science 1: 63–71.

44.

Yip

K.S.

(2007a) ‘Professionalization of Social Work Practice in the People’s Republic of China: A Tri-Tensional Analysis’, Asia Pacific Journal of Social Work and Development 17(2): 56–69.

45.

Yip

K.S.

(2007b) ‘Tensions and Dilemmas of Social Work Education in China’, International Social Work 50(1): 93.

46.

Yuen-Tsang

A.W.K.

Wang

S.B.

(2002) ‘Tensions Confronting the Development of Social Work Education in China – Challenges and Opportunities’, International Social Work 45(3): 375.

47.

Zeng

S.C.

Cheung

Leung

X.S.

(2016) ‘Voices from Social Work Graduates in China: Reasons for Not Choosing Social Work as a Career’, Social Work 61(1): 69–78.

48.

Zeng

S.C.

Huang

(2014) ‘Bachelor Social Work Graduate Employment Research: A Critical Review’, East University of Science and Technology Journal (Social Science) 29(6): 45–52 (in Chinese).