Theoretical frameworks in social work education: a scoping review

Abstract

Social work education now operates within a complex array of higher education imperatives while the practice context has changed to adapt to a culture with an emphasis on technical and instrumental approaches. In response, one Australian social work program has embarked on a curriculum redesign project to incorporate a consistent theoretical framework across the whole program. This paper presents the results of a scoping review, which aimed to inform the redesign by the identification of theoretical orientations of other social work programs. Anti-oppressive, critical and postmodern, critical race, First Nations and eco-social work frames dominated the literature. Positive psychological theo..