The NASW Teach-In: Contextualizing Social Work Reform

In recent years social work scholars have argued that emphasis on teaching clinical social work skills is overshadowing and in some cases replacing course content on how social workers can become agents for social change (Figueira-McDonough, 1993; Specht & Courtney, 1994; Sullivan, 1993). Strategies to promote community practice abound (Cox, Erlich, Rothman, & Tropman, 1987; Kirst-Ashman & Hull, 1993; Rubin & Rubin, 1992), but the transformation of social workers from clinicians to agents for peace and social justice has yet to take place. Are there ways for champions of community practice to transmit knowledge and help social workers embrace peace and justice? What will it take to diffuse a reformist vision into the agencies and organizations of today's social workers? Knowledge Diffusion Model Well-established processes for disseminating knowledge may offer new insights for champions of reform. In a recent issue of Social Work, Martinez-Brawley (1995) examined the basic premises of diffusing innovative knowledge into the human services. An innovation is any way of looking at an issue that differs from the current routine. If the routine is teaching clinical interventions, how can social work reframe education and training to focus on the skills needed by community activists and social reformers? Social work reformers who wish to diffuse innovative knowledge can improve their chances for success by using established guidelines: * transmit key themes and ideas through enthusiastic champions * establish a dialogue to let local differences and resistance shape and transform new knowledge to fit local contexts * facilitate continuous information exchange among leader-innovators and local knowledge implementers * emphasize broad concepts of new knowledge, encouraging locally negotiated differences within the framework of key themes * use locally generated knowledge to reshape original concepts and themes (Martinez-Brawley, 1995). NASW has been engaged in a multiyear project designed to disseminate knowledge about violence and development throughout the social work community. The teach-in and videoconferences entitled "Social Workers and the Challenge of Violence Worldwide" were held from February 5 to February 9, 1996, and reached over 300 sites across the United States, including schools of social work and human services agencies. Moderated by noted broadcast journalist Charles Kuralt, the teach-in focused attention on the ubiquitous problem of violence in human society and the role social work can play in promoting peace and justice. Although social workers typically seek to transform other social institutions, the NASW teach-in was an attempt to change social work beliefs about the profession's role in abating violence. Social workers turned reform efforts on social workers. Did the NASW teach-in use established guidelines for innovative knowledge diffusion? Did the teach-in fit the Martinez-Brawley (1995) diffusion of knowledge model? Conceptualization of Knowledge Knowledge as conceptualized for the teach-in was the exploration of worldwide violence and the role of social work in local and global solutions. Two nationally produced live satellite videoconferences; printed guidelines and resource information; and the interactive use of e-mail, fax, and television were the vehicles used to transmit the knowledge. The innovator - leaders were the teach-in cosponsors: NASW, the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), the Benton Foundation, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The innovator - implementers were more than 300 host sites, including college and university schools of social work, Veterans Affairs medical centers, and other human services agencies. Case Example At Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (SIUC), a rural state university with a student enrollment of 23,000, 26 full-time and part-time faculty in the School of Social Work teach 318 bachelor's- and 79 master's-level students. …