From Social Welfare to Social Work, the Broad View Versus the Narrow View
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University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2014-09-30 From Social Welfare to Social Work, the Broad View versus the Narrow View Kuiken, Jacob Kuiken, J. (2014). From Social Welfare to Social Work, the Broad View versus the Narrow View (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/26237 http://hdl.handle.net/11023/1885 doctoral thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY From Social Welfare to Social Work, the Broad View versus the Narrow View by Jacob Kuiken A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN SOCIAL WORK CALGARY, ALBERTA SEPTEMBER, 2014 © JACOB KUIKEN 2014 Abstract This dissertation looks back through the lens of a conflict that emerged during the development of social work education in Alberta, and captured by a dispute about the name of the school. The difference of a single word – welfare versus work – led through selected events in the history of social work where similar differences led to disputes about important matters. The themes of the dispute are embedded in the Western Tradition with the emergence of social work and its development at the focal point for addressing the consequences described as a ‘painful disorientation generated at the intersections where cultural values clash.’ In early 1966, the University of Calgary was selected as the site for Alberta’s graduate level social work program following a grant and volunteers from the Calgary Junior League. Initiated in the early 1960s by the AASW, social agencies, representatives from Calgary and Edmonton and the University of Alberta, to conduct a study led by the Alberta Social Work Education Research Committee. The Study completed in 1965 concluded with a recommendation to establish a school of social work in Alberta; the University of Alberta, Board of Governors assigned the school to the new University of Calgary. The Study examines the history of the School of Social Welfare and the controversy surrounding the name associated with the broad view of social work. The critique led to a narrative that its graduates were not prepared for practice. Several efforts were made to change the name; however, AASW aligned itself with the School’s critics to oppose the name change. Following the appointment of a new Dean in the early 1980s, the direction and vision of the program changed. Although the program increasingly reflected a narrow view of social work, its scholarly work in the form of research and publications established its legitimacy and credibility particularly within the University and created the condition for changing the name to the Faculty ii of Social Work. The role of ideology and the theoretical framework of new institutionalism include a discussion of agency and structure, emergence, philosophical anthropology and the development of the tendency toward isomorphism as the predictor and explanation for organizations in the same field adopting similar organizational forms. iii Acknowledgements Having arrived at this point in my professional development, Keenie I am profoundly indebted to you for this project. We began our life-journey together well before I knew much about social work. As it unfolded and took unexpected turns you supported, encouraged and offered your love and affection. In time, our children Michael and Michelle joined the journey. In turn, they brought Emi and Alastair. Sophia you joined the journey in 2011 and for six weeks during a hot Washington DC summer, you gave me cause and time for the internal conversation reserved for grandparents as we shared the experience of exploring the streets of historic Capitol Hill. Samuel, happily you joined this journey in August 2014, as this project concluded. On a Friday afternoon, Alison MacDonald and John te Linde prompted my curiosity and encouraged me to take this journey. I am indebted to Pam Miller for helping to identify this project over lunch and good wine in Montreal; she did that with her customary intelligence, wit, her endless sense of humour and most of all her support. Michael Rothery is the explanation for this journey. Mostly out of curiosity, I took his course, History and Philosophy of Social Work. A genuine scholar he challenged and rekindled a long held interest in history and philosophy that in the rush of practice was often dormant. Ann Marie McLaughlin, a colleague and friend with genuine passion for social justice took on the role of co-supervisor and supported this project to completion. Many colleagues contributed to my thinking about social work, most notably Margot Herbert and John Mould. Our dinners at Earls on the Whitemud are part of the conversations I treasure most. The late Gayle Gilchrist-James encouraged this journey during the last years of her life because as she knew better than most; our history is important. iv Thanks to the archivists who patiently helped me understand the meaning of Stuart McLean’s November 19, 2011, story about Dave’s search for ‘the lost cup’ and his discovery that archivists and librarians “are keepers of our collective past.” Thankfully, Dick Ramsay is ‘a keeper of the past.’ Especially when this project seemed impossible, he located the key to its success on a bookcase behind a couch in his basement. In moments of doubt, his knowledge of social work’s history in Alberta provided the hope to believe this was possible. Many thanks are due to the Calgary Junior League, a remarkable group of women who on June 5, 1962 decided to fund a Study that led to the establishment of the School of Social Welfare. In 2011, they gave me access to the story of their contribution to social work education in Alberta. All who attended the School they helped establish are grateful for their good work. Writing history is a collective effort. Relationships create memory and it is where memory resides. Its exposition is inherently a collective effort. My thanks to those who sat through long interviews as part of my efforts to have them recall events of 30, 40 and sometimes more than 50 years ago by daring them to think of those experiences as if they happened yesterday. I am especially grateful to Tim Tyler, Derek Baker and Ray Thomlison; without the time they devoted to my questions, this project would not have been possible. For six of the more than 60 who responded with patience and grace to my questions: Walter Coombs, James Leiby, Hilda Houlding, Gerald Way, Frank Bach and Mari MacDonald; their journey ended before this project was completed. To all, some of whom are noted and a larger number who are not but also contributed, thank you very much! Jake Kuiken September 2014 v DEDICATION I dedicate this work to Keenie and My three sisters, only one of whom I knew Aukje, Anneke and Grietje vi Table of Contents ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iv DEDICATION ....................................................................................................................vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................. vii ABBREVIATIONS ......................................................................................................... xii EPIGRAPH ...................................................................................................................... xiv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................1 A PERSONAL DECLARATION........................................................................................2 THE SCHOOL’S VISION ...................................................................................................6 THE QUESTIONS.............................................................................................................10 FROM ‘SOCIAL WELFARE’ TO ‘SOCIAL WORK’.....................................................12 TRADITION AND REVOLUTION .................................................................................13 The Western Tradition and Idea of Progress .................................................................15 Canada’s Indigenous Peoples – in Conflict with Progress ............................................18 THE ENLIGHTENMENT .................................................................................................19 Immanuel Kant (1728 – 1804) .......................................................................................20 George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770 – 1831) ...........................................................22 Auguste Comte (1798 – 1859) .......................................................................................23 Comte’s Influence on English Social Reformers .....................................................25 Karl Marx (1818 - 1883) ................................................................................................27