Internationalizing Social Work Education: Models, Methods, and Meanings

Abstract

Education abroad program designers who wish to work with colleagues interested in internationalizing social work education need to be concerned with both general and discipline-specific issues. Social work students resemble many other adults and professional students in their need for short term programs that meet specific requirements, resulting in the frequency of faculty-led summer programs. In order to understand the options that are available for internationalizing social work education, and, in particular, internationalizing its field work placements through education abroad, one first must examine the requirements of the field in the U.S., definitions of international social work, and the rationales that have been advanced for internationalizing the field. This article presents a discussion that focuses on the models for international student learning that have been proposed and practiced.