Centenary Launch

Social Work Education – Looking Back, Looking Forward

26 September 2017 4:00pm-6:00pm

Playfair LibraryOld College

South Bridge Edinburgh

Briefing Paper

Programme

16.00 Welcome: Professor Viv Cree

16.15: Panel Discussion

Eight short presentations from key figures in Social Work in Scotland, chaired by Professor Charlie Jeffery, Senior Vice Principal, The University of Edinburgh with a Q and A session, followed by Reception at 17.15 and closing at 18.00.

Charlie Jeffery (Chair) Iona Colvin Anna Fowlie Alistair Gaw

Trisha Hall Professor Fiona Mackay Dr Trish McCulloch Mark McDonald

Charlie Jeffery is Professor of Politics and Senior Vice-Principal t the University of Edinburgh

Iona Colvin is the Scottish Government's Chief Social Work Adviser

Anna Fowlie is the Chief Executive of the Scottish Social Services Council

Alistair Gaw is the Executive Director of Communities and Families at the City of Edinburgh Council

Trisha Hall is the Scottish Association of Social Workers (SASW) Manager

Fiona Mackay is Head of the School of Social and Political Science, and Professor of Politics at the University of Edinburgh

Dr Trish McCulloch is a senior lecturer and Social Work lead in the School of Education and Social Work at the University of Dundee

Mark McDonald is the Minister for Childcare and Early Years in the Scottish Parliament

WHY IS THE HISTORY OF SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH IMPORTANT, FOR THE UNIVERSITY, FOR SCOTLAND AND THE UK, AND FOR THE WORLD?

IT IS AN EXAMPLE OF TOWN-AND-GOWN PARTNERSHIP, DEMONSTRATING THE UNIVERSITY’S ONGOING COMMITMENT TO BEING A GREAT CIVIC UNIVERSITY.

The University of Edinburgh was initially founded by the Town Council of Edinburgh as the ‘Toun’s College’ in 1583, under general powers granted by the Charter of King James VI. The university remained under the control and patronage of the Town Council until 1858 when, under the Universities' Act, all the universities of Scotland received new and autonomous constitutions.

Some 60 years later, the beginnings of social work education at the University of Edinburgh show that this town-and-gown partnership remained of great importance to both the university and its local community. Social work education’s roots lie in a joint conference convened by the university’s Senatus Academicus on 23 March 1917 to look into the setting up of a social work school, to be called the Edinburgh School of Social Study and Training. A draft constitution was developed (later approved on 5 June) and a provisional committee was formed, convened by Sir Richard Lodge (Professor of History and Chair of the University Settlement). The committee was made up of key academics (from History, Education, Economics, Philosophy and Divinity); prominent figures from the Edinburgh Town Council (the Provost and other councillors); and representatives from other civic organisations, including the Principal of the Edinburgh School of Domestic Science (formerly the Edinburgh School of Cookery).

The School operated as an independent organisation until its 10th AGM in December 1928, when Edinburgh University took over the management of the school ‘financially and otherwise for its future’. Since that time, town-and-gown partnership has remained a central feature of social work education at the university, demonstrated in different ways at different points in time. Most recently, it has been seen in shared commitments to learning (both classroom and practice learning), to research and knowledge exchange activities, and to the development of the social work profession more broadly.

This reflects the university’s fourth mission statement, which is ‘to make a significant, sustainable and socially responsible contribution to Scotland, the UK and the world, promoting health and economic and cultural wellbeing’. Furthermore, the university explains its commitment as a ‘great civic university’ as follows: ‘Edinburgh especially values its intellectual and economic relationship with the Scottish community that forms its base and provides the foundation from which it will continue to look to the widest international horizons, enriching both itself and Scotland’. With its strong connections with the policy and practice community, Social Work at Edinburgh today strives to embody this aspiration in all its activities.

IT IS AN UNTOLD PART OF THE HISTORY OF WOMEN’S EDUCATION.

The story of social work education’s past is, in many ways, a story of women’s history: women have made up the greater percentage of staff and students over the years, although not, as we might expect, all the senior positions. When the first lecture series began in Edinburgh in January 1918, it was still relatively early days for women in Edinburgh University. While men had been students since the university was founded in 1583, women had had to wait another 400 years for this privilege, until 1893 when they were allowed to graduate from for the first time. This followed on from a Scottish Ordinance passed in 1892, which first made provision for women to study at Scottish universities.

Much of the attention on the history of women in higher education has, to date, been focused on the trials and achievements of women medics; there has also been some interest in the story of the entrance of women to higher education via schools of cookery and what was later called ‘domestic science’ (the Edinburgh School of Cookery, for example, was founded in 1875). The place of women in social work education has been commented on frequently, but little research interest has been paid up to it up to now. There is much to be done. We are already funding one PhD studentship on this topic, through the MacLean legacy and Social Work at Edinburgh has been successful in securing funding from the Carnegie UK Trust for a research study entitled, ‘Women in the Academy: A Case-Study of Social Work Education in Scotland’.

IT HAS A STRONG HISTORICAL CONNECTION WITH THE UNIVERSITY SETTLEMENT MOVEMENT.

Because practical training was such a central part of social work education from its outset, social work education history is inextricably connected with the history of university settlements. Edinburgh University Settlement began in 1905, the last of the Scottish university settlements to be established. Social studies’ students went on practice placements either through or at the settlement from the beginning. Additionally, for a number of years (between 1919 and 1925), the School of Social Study and Training took over the management of the settlement, later handing it back to run as an independent enterprise again.

The connections between the settlement and social work over the years since then have not yet been researched. While social work students continue to spend 50% of their time in practice learning, the Edinburgh University Settlement closed in 2010, following financial difficulties. There is, however, significant interest in settlement histories worldwide. As illustration of this, the History Special Interest Group that will meet at the European Social Work Research Conference to be held in Edinburgh in April 2018 will focus on the history of university settlements. Furthermore, Edinburgh University’s archive is likely to be of considerable research interest going forward.

IT DEMONSTRATES THE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES IN THE UNIVERSITY.

At the time social work education appeared in universities, there was no ‘social science’ as such; on the contrary, the social study departments and schools that grew up were social science. It should, therefore, be no surprise that it was the School of Social Study and Training at Edinburgh University that initiated a Social Environment Research Unit in 1949; this later became the Research Centre for Social Sciences. Similarly, it makes total sense that the School of Social Study and Training employed Tom Burns as an early career researcher in 1949; he went on to become the first Professor of Sociology at the University of Edinburgh in 1965. Similar points can be made about the development of social science, social administration and sociology at the London School of Economics, Liverpool University, Birmingham University, the Chicago School of Sociology, New York’s Columbia University, and so the list goes on.

One of the interesting, and again relatively under-researched aspects of this, is the story of the gradual separation of social work education from social administration (or social policy as it became) and sociology. This merits further investigation; subject-areas that have much in common have increasingly sought to carve out their distinctive contributions in the academy. At the same time, there is another story to be told here – just as social work today seeks to integrate theory and practice better, so social sciences are keen to strengthen the practical application of their theoretical insights.

IT IS A UK AND GLOBAL STORY.

Social work education emerged in universities across the UK in the early years of the 20 th century; in April 1918, this growth was consolidated by the creation of the Joint University Council for Social Studies as part of ‘post war reconstruction’ to consider standards of training and encourage the provision of opportunities for social work training. Social work education also began at the same time in the US and Canada, and for many years, it was North American literature (with some UK contributions) that led the field in the development of the theory and knowledge-base of social work. In more recent times, social work education has developed in different countries of the world, with (it must be acknowledged), UK and US knowledge and theories often transported to very different social and cultural contexts without sufficient regard to indigenous knowledges.

The journal Practice: Social Work in Action (published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Association of Social Workers) will publish a special issue in summer 2018 entitled ‘Social Work Education – a Local and Global History’, edited by Sarah Vicary (Open University), Jill Manthorpe (King’s College London) and Viviene Cree (The University of Edinburgh). It is anticipated that this will be a springboard to further research interest in this history across the world.

Professor Viviene E. Cree

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