Risks and Benefits of Convergences in Social Work Education: A Post-colonial Analysis of Malaysia and the UK

Abstract

This chapter presents the organisational sociology model of isomorphic convergences and suggests it is a useful mode of analysis for understanding developments in contemporary social work education including the work of the International Association of Schools of Social Work in promoting shared understandings and global standards. Some of the benefits and some of the risks that standardisation and convergence offer social work education will be considered whilst a critique of the model and ways in which it can be challenged and moulded towards positive change will also be presented. Subsequently, social work education in the UK and Malaysia will be introduced. The UK has a long history of social work education and, in colonial days, initiated social work/welfare in Malaya (the former colonial name for Malaysia). The chapter concludes by exploring potential futures for social work education drawing on the complex and somewhat contested definitions and practices of social work. The importance of (re)developing and (re)imagining social work education futures and recognising shared relationships will be emphasised as part of this analysis.