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1.st edition | December, 2020 © 2020 All rights reserved for Edições Esgotadas, Lda. Lisboa | Porto | Viseu | Aveiro www.edicoesesgotadas.com [email protected] Title: Social Work Education. Reflections and debate in the European context Editor: Jorge Ferreira Collection: Serviço Social (Social Work) | n.º 2 Text review: Ana Maria Oliveira | Edições Esgotadas, Lda. ISBN: 978-989-9015-61-6 ORCID: 0000-0001-9611-7390 Legal Deposit: 478459/20 Printing: Rainho & Neves, Lda. Design: Edições Esgotadas, Lda. Cover image: © Freepik Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education. The Project T@sk – Towards increased Awareness, responsibility and shared quality in Social Work (Project N. 585626-EPP-1-2017- 1-IT-EPPKA2- CBHE-JP – Erasmus+ KA2 – Capacity Building in Higher Education) has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION. REFLECTIONS AND DEBATE IN THE EUROPEAN CONTEXT Editor Jorge Ferreira ISCTE – Partner in T@sk project TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword 9 CHAPTER I “Social Work Education: ISCTE University Institute of Lisbon /Portugal” 13 1. Presentation of the ISCTE University Institute of Lisbon 13 2. Characterization of the cycles of studies in Social Work 14 2.1. First cycle of studies in Social Work (undergraduate) 14 2.2. Second cycle of studies in Social Work (Masters) 16 2.3. Third Cycle of Studies in Social Work (PhD) 18 3. Epistemology of Social Work Training 22 4. Socio-economic, political and cultural context 25 5. Formative profile 32 6. Innovation and future perspective for Social Work Education 34 CHAPTER II History, routes and new challenges of Social Work education in the University of Florence 41 1. Presentation of the university 41 2. Characteristics of the Social Work studies cycle 46 3. Epistemology of social work 50 3.1. Value-laden and hence dubious knowledge? 50 3.2. Applied and therefore epistemologically and ontologically inferior knowledge? 52 3.3. Epistemological autonomy of “applied” know-how 54 4. Socio-economic, political and cultural context 55 5. The formative profile 58 6. Innovation and future perspectives for Social Work education 61 CHAPTER III Context, characteristics and challenges of Social Work education at UCM 69 1. Presentation of the University 69 2. Characterization of the cycle of studies in Social Work 71 3. Epistemology of Social Work Training 78 4. Socio-economic, political and cultural context 81 5. Formative profile 84 6. Innovation and future perspective for Social Work Education 86 6.1. International Perspectives 86 6.2. Innovation 87 6.3. Digital transformation and ICT competences training 87 6.4. Collaboration with social organizations and active presence in projects 88 6.5. Development of Research 88 CHAPTER IV Social Work education through the lens of University of Tirana/ Albania 91 1. University of Tirana 91 2. Background of Social Work Program, in University of Tirana 92 3. Epistemology of Social Work Education in Tirana University 94 4. Socio-economic, political and cultural context of Tirana Municipality 96 5. Formative profile– a formative model of the social worker in Albania 101 5.1. A formative model of the Social Worker in Albania 101 6. Innovation and future perspective for social work education – an outlook from Albania 106 CHAPTER V “Social Work education through the lens of University of Shkodra/Albania” 113 1. Presentation of the University of Shkodra 113 2. Characterization of the cycle of studies in Social Work at University of Shkodra “Luigj Gurakuqi” 117 3. Epistemology of Social Work training 122 4. Social-economic, political and cultural context 123 5. Formative profile 129 CHAPTER VI “Social Work Education in University of Elbasan Aleksandër Xhuvani” 139 1. Presentation of the University 139 2. Characterization of the cycle of studies in Social Work 142 3. Epistemology of Social Work Training 147 4. Socio-economic, political and cultural context 150 5. Formative profile 154 6. Innovation and future prespective for Social Work Education 159 6.1. Challenges of social work at the University of Elbasan 161 6.2. Change management 162 CHAPTER VII “Social Work in Italy: Roots and Socio-cultural Context Ordine degli Assistenti Sociali della Regione Tosana” 167 1. The international dimension of social work 167 2. The relationship between University and profession 169 3. Ethics and deontology in Social Work 174 4. The professional autonomy in the exercise of the profession 176 4.1. The reference legislation 177 4.2. The limits of the autonomy of the social worke 179 5. Political, Educational, Cultural and Socio-organizational Recommendations 180 5.1. Developing Partnerships between Universities and Social Services 181 5.2. Building Community Welfare 182 5.3. Spreading an Anti-oppressive Approach 182 Presentation of the authors 187 FOREWORD 9 Giorgia Bulli University of Florence Teaching and learning social work in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Albania: a self-reflection exercise All over the world, the current pandemic is showing the crucial role of structured and efficient social services in contemporary societies. Unfortunately, this statement does not always go along with successful stories. Efficient welfare systems are an exception and not the rule in contemporary democracies (Hemerijck 2017, Hemerijck, Huguenot-Noel 2020), not to mention non-democratic regimes. As stated by the International Federation of Social Workers, “change in the delivery of social services normally takes years. There are exceptions, where political direction coincides with the aspirations of the communities and social services workforce, but these are rare” (Truel and Crompton 2020, 11). The precondition for efficient social services lies in the education of well-trained, professional and ethically responsible social workers. It is in this framework that the book “Social Work Education. Reflections and debate in the European context” offers a unique insight into different – yet converging on some aspects – models of social work education in four countries: Portugal, Spain, Italy and Albania. The Higher Education Institutions of these four countries have been sharing theoretical and empirical views regarding the teaching of social work over the past three years in the frame of the Erasmus+ Project T@sk – Towards increased Awareness, responsibility and shared quality in Social Work (2017-2020) 1. 1 Project N. 585626-EPP-1-2017-1-IT-EPPKA2- CBHE-JP – Erasmus+ KA2 – Capacity Building in Higher Education. The T@sk consortium includes: the Department of Political and Social Sciences, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Florence, Italy; the Faculty of social work and social services, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain; the Instituto Universitário de Lisboa ISCTE-IUL, Lisbon, Portugal; the Department of Social work and Social Policy of the University of Tirana; the Department of Psychology and social work of the University of Shkoder Luigj Gurakuqi; the Department of social sciences of the Aleksander Xhuvani University of Elbasan, the Professional Order of social workers of the Tuscany Region. CONTEXT THE EUROPEAN IN AND DEBATE REFLECTIONS EDUCATION. WORK SOCIAL 10 The initial aim of the project consisted in the modernization and professionalization of the teaching and learning of social work in Albania under the assumption that the process of European integration could play a key role for the improvement of social services in Albania, a candidate country since 2014. 2 However, since the first meetings of the members of the consortium in Albania, the focus on Albania as a “beneficiary country” was soon replaced by a more appropriate self-reflection on the teaching and learning process of social work developed in the participating countries. Starting from a comparative analysis of the organization of the Bachelor and Master’s degrees in social work at the Universities of Lisbon, Madrid, Florence, Tirana, Shkoder and Elbasan, remarkable differences emerged. The homogeneity of patterns that should have characterized the Portuguese, Spanish and Italian academic programs revealed an unexpected level of intra-country variation. The Mediterranean model of social service delivery (De Lucas 2020; Campanini, Frost 2004) did not serve as a unifying point of reference. The exploration of the Albanian academic teaching program in social work also evidenced a high level of differentiation amongst the three Albanian universities involved. These initial findings opened up the terrain for further elaborations that can be summarized into the following questions: What are the main reasons for such a differentiation in terms of institutional approach to the teaching of social work? Do different approaches result in different practices of social work and social service delivery? Starting from these two main questions, the representatives of the six universities and the professional order of Social Workers of the Tuscany region carried out an intensive investigation of the background, the principles and the practices of social work teaching in the four countries. The reconstruction of the background is a key issue, when one considers that all the countries involved have experienced a long phase of authoritarian regimes and a difficult transition to democracy. The book considers the influence of the background from three main points of view: the historical background; the institutional background; the

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