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Social Work EducationPublication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t713447070
What Does Professionalization Mean?—Tracing the Trajectory of Social
Work Education in TaiwanWan-I. Lina; Kate Yeong-Tsyr Wangb
a National Taiwan University, Taiwan b National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan
Online publication date: 02 November 2010
To cite this Article Lin, Wan-I. and Yeong-Tsyr Wang, Kate(2010) 'What Does Professionalization Mean?—Tracing theTrajectory of Social Work Education in Taiwan', Social Work Education, 29: 8, 869 — 881
To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/02615479.2010.517015
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2010.517015
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What Does Professionalization
Mean?—Tracing the Trajectory ofSocial Work Education in TaiwanWan-I. Lin & Kate Yeong-Tsyr Wang
The purpose of this article is to review the history and recent developments of social work education in Taiwan. The influences from Taiwan’s political, economic and social changes
as well as the international diffusion of social work have led to the unique development of
social work education in Taiwan. In this paper, various factors that are relevant to the
status of social work education in Taiwan are discussed, including: (1) the origin of social
work education; (2) the subsequent development of social work education; (3) the rapid
expansion of social work education; (4) social work curricula before and after the late
1990s; and (5) teaching staff before and after the late 1990s. Finally, reflections on the
development of Taiwan’s social work education will be presented.
Keywords: Social Work Education; Professionalization; Taiwan
Introduction
As in most colonized countries, social work in Taiwan was influenced by the
colonizers, the Japanese. After the period of Japanese rule, social work knowledge was
further influenced by Western capitalist countries, mainly the US. Since the 1950s,
changing political, economic and social contexts have influenced Taiwan’s social work
development (which is mainly copied from the US model) and there has been a
gradual process of professionalization. The development of social work education hasreflected the progress of the social work profession and has also revealed its unique
features in Taiwan. This paper will discuss this development from the following five
aspects: (1) the origin of social work education; (2) the subsequent development of
social work education; (3) the rapid expansion of social work education; (4) social
work curricula before and after the late 1990s; and (5) teaching staff before and after
ISSN 0261-5479 print/1470-1227 online q 2010 Taylor & FrancisDOI: 10.1080/02615479.2010.517015
Wan-I. Lin, National Taiwan University, Taiwan & Kate Yeong-Tsyr Wang, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan.
Correspondence to: Wan-I. Lin, Department of Social Work, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road,Taipei County 10617, Taiwan. Email: [email protected]
Social Work EducationVol. 29, No. 8, December 2010, pp. 869–881
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the late 1990s. Finally, reflections on the historical development of social work
education in Taiwan will be presented.
The Origin of Social Work Education in Taiwan
Social work was introduced to Taiwan by Japan during the Japanese colonial period.
Since 1919, traditional Japanese social relief has been replaced by Westernized social
work, known as ‘shakai jigyo’. The original idea of ‘shakai jigyo’ came from the Charity
Organization Societies in the UK in the late 1800s. The idea of ‘shakai jigyo’ had also
been promoted in Taiwan. Mr Kinebuchi Yoshifusa, a Japanese philanthropist and
consultant to the Governor-General of Taiwan, established the Association of Shakai
Jigyo and published The Friend of Shakai Jigyo to introduce new concepts in the late
1920s (Lin, 2006). The promotion of social affairs in Taiwan could be regarded as a
way of enhancing social solidarity in the colonized country.
After the Japanese colonial period, the Chinese Nationalist Party assumed power inTaiwan. It started reorganizing governmental institutions and established the Bureau
of Social Affairs. On the one hand, social work was regarded as a measure to improve
people’s well-being; on the other, the major social service reform was used as an
instrument to eliminate the legacy of Japanese policy and to implement social policy
under the ideology of the Nationalist party (Shyu, 1948; Ku, 1948, p. 5).
The political context of the mid-1940s also influenced the development of social
work education. The first social work program in Taiwan was the ‘Social
Administrative Program of the Provincial Administrative Junior College’ (a public
college) in 1951 (Chang and Mo, 2007; Feng, 2008). The aim of the program was toinfluence the workers in the field of social assistance so that Taiwan’s social welfare
structures could be developed and prepared for the return to mainland China (Fu,
1952, pp. 36–38). In other words, social workers were considered to be part of the
labor force which could be mobilized when the Chinese Nationalist Party defeated the
Chinese Communist Party and regained sovereignty of mainland China (Du, 1952;
Shue, 1952). Social work education had been politicized to some extent after the mid-
1940s and this situation did not change until the early 1970s (Lin, 2006).
The first social work program in Taiwan, as discussed above, was a two-year
program comprising 84 credit hours, and was known as the ‘Social Administrative
Program’. Most of the teaching staff did not come from a social work background. In1955, the government merged the college where the first social work program had been
established, with the other public college. It was renamed the Department of
Sociology. In 1958, the department was divided into two: sociology and social
administration. These changes reflected several features of early social work education
in Taiwan. The first feature was that social work education was designed as a four-year
program at university level. It was set up as an example for training social workers in
higher education in Taiwan. The second feature was that the inclusion of social
workers in the public sector, i.e. the staff of social administration, was to be fostered.
The third feature was that social work was a part of sociology and the social work program was only one division of the sociology department.
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From the mid-1950s to the early 1970s, sociology departments were founded at both
public and private universities. Private universities included Tunghai University (in
1956), Fu-Jen University (in 1969) and Soochow University (in 1973). Taiwan
Provincial Normal College, a public university, set up a branch of Social Affairs under
the Department of Social Education in 1955. (The term ‘Social Affairs’ is borrowedfrom the Japanese term ‘Shakai Jigyo’ as mentioned above.) In 1960, National Taiwan
University also established a sociology department with sponsorship from the Asia
Foundation (Lin, 2006). With the establishment of sociology departments, universities
started training potential social workers; this can be regarded as the first stage in the
education of professional social workers in Taiwan.
Due to the lack of qualified social work teaching staff, social work courses were
rather limited. During the abovementioned period, most of the courses were taught by
members of the sociology faculty. Core courses for the social work programs were not
standardized and courses dealing with methods of intervention as well as
specializations in fields of practice were also inadequate. For instance, if the socialwork courses at Taiwan Provincial Chun Shin University (reorganized from the
Provincial Administrative Junior College) and Taiwan Provincial Normal College are
compared, the number of required courses were 16 (72 credit hours) and 14 (54 credit
hours), respectively. The titles of the courses held in common at these two institutions
were: Sociology, Social Survey, Social Psychology, Social Work, Social Problems, Social
Thoughts, Social Casework and Social Insurance (Rung, 1963). Even though the titles
of the courses are similar, the contents of the courses were not necessarily alike. Taiwan
Provincial Normal University combined social administration and social work in the
Social Work course. The Social Problems course included topics related to social policy and the Social Casework course was titled ‘Case Study’.
These curricula indicate that the professional education of social workers was still
underdeveloped and that knowledge from sociology played a relatively important role in
social workers’ education. Social work was recognized as applied sociology during this
time (Lin, 2006). There are various reasons why social work was considered to be a sub-
discipline of sociology. (1) During the 1920s, in mainland China, Yenching University
founded the division of social work within the sociology department. Other universities
in China, such as the University of Nanking, Ginling Women’s University, Fudan
University, Cheeloo University and the University of Shanghai, followed suit. Not
surprisingly, Taiwan copied the same model in the 1950s. (2) The shortage of social work teaching staff was another limitation to establishing social work departments. (3) Neither
the Nationalist Party nor the government truly understood the discipline of social work
or sociology. The problem was compounded by some sociologists who believed that they
had expertise in social work or social administration, and so the distinction between
social work and sociology was easily overlooked (Yei, 1985; Hung, 1991; Lin, 1991).
The Subsequent Development of Social Work Education
In the 1960s, Taiwan began to transform from an agricultural to an industrial society.Poverty became a pressing social issue which the government needed to address;
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were established in 1983 and 1989, respectively. The development of medical social
work can be traced back to the 1950s; the organization of the association represented
the strong professional identity of medical social workers. The TASW is composed
mainly of social work practitioners and faculty members. The formation of this
association demonstrates the power of collective action; social workers joined togetherto lobby for the establishment of the Ministry of Social Welfare in the central
government and for the formalization of the government’s social work personnel
system in the late 1980s and 1990s.
The critical achievement of these two professional organizations was the enactment
of the Social Worker Act. The first draft of the Social Worker Act was initiated and
proposed by the first author of this paper and a group of social workers in 1991, the
purpose of which was to promote the professional status and protect the rights of
social workers; social work organizations continued lobbying parliamentarians for the
Act to be implemented. It was finally passed in 1997, another turning point in the
development of social work. The Act specifies the certification and licensing systemwhich individuals need to pass the certification examination to become certified social
workers.
A code of ethics has been developed for regulating social workers. At this stage, social
work in Taiwan has experienced the following five characteristics of professional
development as suggested by Wilensky (1964): the demands of the social work
workforce, the need for social work education and training, the emergence of
professionalorganizations,passing laws to protect the profession and the self-regulatory
mechanism of social work ethics.
The Rapid Expansion of Social Work Education
After martial law was lifted in 1987, various civil groups were organized and developed.
During the late 1980s and the 1990s, many issue-specific welfare organizations were
established and they devoted a great deal of time and effort to lobbying for laws and
policies such as The Child and Youth Sexual Transaction Prevention Act, Gender
Equality in Employment Act, and Domestic Violence Prevention Act. The pressure
from these groups and the new social problems of the post-industrial society, including
unemployment, poverty, single parenthood and an aging population, forced the
government to pass or amend social welfare laws. Social welfare expenditure and thenumber of social welfare services began to mount in the public sector. At the same time,
the government began contracting out social service programs to non-profit
organizations in order to meet the rapid growth of people’s welfare needs. The demand
for social workers in both public and private sectors increased rapidly.
The abovementioned social, economic and political changes led to the rapid
expansion of social work departments at universities during the late 1990s. When the
Social Worker Act was passed, the professional status of certified social workers was
legitimized and social work became a relatively popular career choice for young
people. Many universities instituted social work departments, with the approval of theMinistry of Education. Students are attracted to these universities with the result that
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these departments ensure a steady supply of potential social workers. Until 1996, there
were 14 social work/social welfare undergraduate programs with an annual enrollment
of about 1,100. There were 10 master’s programs with an annual enrollment of about
140 and two PhD programs with 11 students enrolled for each year (Lin, 2000).
However, from 1997 to 2010, 13 undergraduate programs, 14 master’s programs andtwo PhD programs were established. Currently in 2010, there are 26 undergraduate
programs, 24 master’s programs and four PhD programs. The annual enrollment at
these three levels is 2,650, 347, and 19, respectively. If six other programs related to
social services for the elderly are included, the total number of students will be greater
than the above figures.
In considering changing trends in the last 15 years, six characteristics of social work
education in Taiwan are evident and can be summarized as follows. (1) Since the Social
Worker Act was passed in 1997, the number of social programs has doubled and the
number of students enrolled has almost trebled. (2) Since 1996, universities of science
and technology have also provided social work training, and currently there are fivesocial work departments at universities of science and technology. (3) There are more
social work programs in private universities than in public ones. Before 1997, there
were eight social work programs at public universities, which accounted for 50% of the
total professional programs. However, when the Ministry of Education implemented
the education reform policy, the establishment of private universities was encouraged
to give more high school graduates an opportunity for further study. Hence, not only
did the number of private universities increase, but also the number of social work
programs. Among these newly established programs, nine are private and only two are
public. (4) The number of social work students has grown rapidly with most of thestudents coming from private universities. The enrollment at private universities is 1.5
times larger than at public ones. Therefore, the increase of private universities has had
an impact on the number of social work students. (5) The role of master’s degree
programs in social work has become relatively important in terms of supplying future
social workers. All, except four universities with social work undergraduate programs,
have master’s degree programs. Compared with individuals who have bachelor degrees
in social work, those who receive master’s degrees are more willing to choose social
work for their careers. Therefore, although master’s students comprise only 13% of the
total number of social work students, their greater motivation and the demands of the
labor market will ensure that more graduates with master’s degrees enter thisprofession. It is expected that social workers with master’s degrees will become a major
part of the labor force in the future. (6) Four-year undergraduate programs and
two-year master’s programs have gradually been recognized as the standard model for
social work education. Although, in the past, several universities offered special
training programs for practitioners/students without social work degrees, many of
these courses have now been closed. To enhance the quality of professional education,
the formal and standardized course models have been accepted by the social work
community.
Another point worth mentioning has to do with the reason why private universitiesare more likely to institute social work departments, namely cost. Relatively speaking,
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the cost of facilities and equipment for training social work students is not very high.
The more students that enroll in the programs, the more revenue universities will
receive. Although the Ministry of Education sets the standard for the student-to-
teacher ratio (i.e. 25:1) for daytime classes, universities cannot necessarily meet this
standard. By recruiting fewer teaching staff, universities can reduce the financialburden of personnel costs. However, the consequences of the shortage of teaching staff
will negatively affect both students and faculty members. Students’ right to study
would be compromised and faculty members’ teaching loads would become
unreasonable. In order to improve the quality of higher education, the Ministry of
Education implemented a system of higher education evaluation and accreditation in
the mid-2000s.
Furthermore, with the rapid expansion of social work departments at the
undergraduate level, nearly 3,000 students graduate from social work programs every
year, but there are fewer than 10,000 job opportunities. It is apparent that most social
work graduates do not choose their profession as their occupation. From the
perspective of professional education, the large gap between supply and demand
indicates, to some extent, that educational resources are not being allocated effectively,
particularly for the undergraduate programs.
Social Work Curricula Before and After the Late 1990s
As discussed above, the social work community had reached consensus about the
required courses for social work education in the early 1970s. These requirements,copied from the policy of the Council of Social Work Education in the US, have been
approved by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan. By 1990, the government
deregulated the course design of higher education; hence, universities had more
autonomy regarding their academic development and could use their own discretion.
Most social work programs still followed the previous course requirements, although
the number of credit hours was perhaps adjusted. However, this was not the case for
some social work programs which were established during the 1990s. For example,
some programs did not offer the foundation course in human behavior and social
environment or the basic intervention methods of social work and others. This
indicates that one of the unintended consequences of the deregulation policy was thelowering of the bar for social work education. Thus social work graduates might not be
competent to provide social services at a professional standard (Lin, 2000).
In order to standardize the minimum criteria for social work education, another
regulatory mechanism was developed: the professional certification system. According
to the Social Worker Act passed in 1997, as well as the Chinese language test, there are
six courses with written tests for screening certified social workers: Social Work;
Human Behavior and Social Environment; Direct Practice; Social Work Research
Methods; Social Work Administration; and Social Policy and Legislation. The
requirements of these tests have led to academic institutions once more standardizingtheir course structures.
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Practitioners without formal social work education can also take the certification
examination on condition that they complete the required 20 credit courses. This
flexible policy led to the emergence of special training programs for such practitioners.
However, the introduction of special programs is contradictory to the development of
formal social work education. Hence, a stricter criterion has been proposed which willcome into effect in 2013. According to the new rule, in order to be eligible for the
certification examinations, the candidate needs to complete 15 required courses. The
maximum credit for each course is three hours. Again, this change has a direct impact
on the structure of social work courses required by universities.
In addition to the required courses, the following will present the changing patterns
of elective courses. Lin et al. (1999) pointed out that some undergraduate social work
programs instituted the course framework of ‘direct practice’ and ‘indirect practice’ in
the late 1990s. Other programs classified elective courses into several groups, based on
the purpose of the program or the expertise of the teaching staff, e.g. family social
work, medical social work, social welfare or children and youth services etc. At themaster’s level, most of the programs used the framework of ‘direct/indirect practice’
and students were required to decide on the direction of their studies.
The above course designs have been revised during the last 10 years. About 40% (10
programs) of the undergraduate programs have set up course modules. The
conceptual framework of course modules is based on the fields of social work practice.
In the various fields of practice, work with children and the family is the most popular,
social work management is second, and health and social care is the third most
popular. Course modules are not very common in master’s programs: only nine
programs have this kind of course design.Further analysis of social work programs that include module designs at both the
undergraduate and master’s levels indicates that most programs have different course
modules for undergraduate and master’s students. In fact, there are many obstacles in
operating the kind of system that incorporates different course modules at different
levels. A limited number of teaching staff members cannot offer diverse courses at both
the basic and advanced levels. Also, at present, master’s programs have about 10–20
students each year and the minimum class size required by universities is about five.
Hence, it is not possible for universities to provide a variety of courses in each module,
and students often need to take courses across modules. It is clear that in the current
learning environment, it is very difficult to develop students with expertise in onespecial area of practice.
According to the amended Social Work Act of 2008, there will be two levels of
certified social workers. Certified social workers who have passed the first level of the
certification examination can take another advanced examination in one special area
of practice. Five areas of practice have been classified: (1) medical social work; (2)
mental health and social work; (3) children, youth, women, and family social work; (4)
social work with the elderly; and (5) social work with the disabled. It is apparent that,
with the changing requirements of the certification examination, the next challenge we
have to face is how to provide adequate training for students to specialize in one areaof practice, particularly at the master’s level.
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Finally, the social work practicum has been one of the required courses since the
1970s. The Social Work Act also stipulates that examinees of the certification
examination have to take the practicum courses at school. There are two types of
fieldwork placements: a concurrent placement and a block placement. For the
concurrent placement, junior/senior students work as interns for 12 hours a week for aperiod of 16 weeks, constituting not less than 192 hours. For the block placement,
junior students do little or no classroom work during the summer and spend 40 hours
per week for eight weeks in agencies. In total, the minimum hours for fieldwork are
around 512. In Taiwan, students undertake their summer block placements in private
non-profit agencies, public agencies, or hospitals, but for concurrent placements, it is
not necessarily an agency-based practicum. Some social work departments arrange for
students to learn how to plan social service programs for agencies or communities on a
simulation basis. Usually, this kind of arrangement is made when there is a shortage of
fieldwork placements during academic semesters, especially in the central or southern
part of Taiwan.In addition to practicum placements, freshman or sophomore students will usually
do agency visits to get a better understanding of social work practice. Some programs
provide an introductory course to prepare students for their fieldwork placements.
According to the requirement of the Social Work Act, social workers who provide on-
site supervision at the practicum site must have a social work background with at least
three years practical experience. Furthermore, faculty members at universities who
oversee the students’ experience in practicum, visit students at the placement sites and
award the students’ grades. As discussed above, some social work programs do not
have teaching staff with social work degrees. If these members of staff are supervisors,students’ learning opportunities will be affected as well as the collaboration between
agencies and universities.
Teaching Staff Before and After the Late 1990s
The global norms for the education and training of social workers recognizes the
standards for professional staff (IASSW and IFSW, 2004; Weiss-Gal and Welbourne,
2008). Standard 5.1 states that an institution needs enough professional members
of staff who all have an adequate range of expertise and who have appropriate
qualifications, as determined by the development status of the social work profession inany given country. As far as possible, a master’s degree in social work, or a related
discipline (in countries where social work is an emerging discipline), should be
required. Considering that Taiwan’s social work education program has been
developing for over 50 years, the teaching faculty members should at least have master’s
degrees in social work.
Besides the international standards, the personnel regulations of the Ministry of
Education stipulate that at least two thirds of teaching staff in each department must
hold PhD degrees. Moreover, the educational background of professional staff must
match the educational goals of the department. Hence, most social work teachersshould have a social work background and a doctoral degree. The following section
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will analyze the educational backgrounds of teachers in Taiwan on the basis of their
highest academic degrees. A limitation of using the highest academic degrees is that
one teacher may have a master’s degree rather than a doctoral degree in social work.
By 1998, there were 158 faculty members in 21 social work programs. Among them,
65% had received PhD degrees and 34% had master’s degrees. Only 51% had abackground in social work, social welfare or social policy. Of the remainder, 15% had a
background in sociology, 12% in education, 10% in psychology/counseling, 4% in
family studies, 2% in studies in Sun Yat-Sen’s thoughts/national development/liberal
arts/other social sciences, and 6% in other areas. These figures indicate that 10 years
ago, the expertise of social work teaching staff was inadequate. Further analyses
indicate that the problem of under-qualified teaching staff was even more serious in
newly-established social work programs (Lin, 2000).
The problem of inadequately qualified social work teachers has not shown
significant change since the late 1990s until 2010. The percentage of teaching
staff with a social work background remains at 50% and those with a sociology background at 14%. The percentage of staff with backgrounds in education (6%)
or psychology/counseling (9%) has decreased. The group that showed the biggest
increase was that of teaching staff who had received degrees in studies in Sun Yat-Sen’s
thoughts/national development/liberal arts/other social sciences (7%). In effect, this
means that even with the rapid development of social work education, and although
the number of job opportunities in the field has increased, the shortage of qualified
teaching staff still exists.
The negative impact of the shortage of qualified teaching staff on students is evident.
Without a solid professional training, students’ ability to provide quality services toclients, who are usually the most vulnerable people, would be compromised.
Furthermore, it is difficult for students to cultivate a professional identity from
the social work community. Their professional status, job opportunities or
employment security cannot be improved because a large amount of social work
graduates enter into the labor market annually whose professional abilities cannot be
guaranteed.
Barretta-Herman (2008) conducted a survey on the IASSW members to establish
the percentage of teaching staff with social work degrees in various countries. He
found that North America had the highest percentage (83%) and Africa had 74%,
while the Asia–Pacific and European regions had lower percentages (54% and 48%,respectively). Barretta-Herman (2008) pointed out that in the Asia– Pacific and
European regions, staff members held degrees in a wide range of disciplines, including:
sociology, social policy and education. For this paper, a broader definition of social
work was used, which includes the field of social policy. Hence, if one uses Barretta-
Herman’s definition, the percentage of teachers in Taiwan with social work degrees
would be even lower.
The shortage of qualified teaching staff is due to the fact that there are four PhD
programs in social work/social welfare in Taiwan. On average, only about 19 students
are enrolled each year. There are about three graduates with foreign PhD degrees insocial work each year. With the rapid expansion of social work education after the late
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1990s, the demand for teaching staff totally outstripped supply. Therefore, universities
recruited teaching staff from disciplines other than social work. Most of these staff
members are only in their 30s and will remain in their positions until they retire.
Another phenomenon related to social work doctoral programs in Taiwan is that the
job market for PhD students remains quite limited, due to the fact that most of theteaching positions in universities have been filled. Owing to the low birthrates and the
slow population growth, the possibility of establishing new universities is gradually
declining. Even if there were pressure from the higher education evaluation to require
schools to offer more positions, the job opportunities would still be limited. If PhD
programs in social work/social welfare are to survive, full-time practitioners may
become the major enrollment source of PhD programs, as they do not need to worry
about unemployment after graduation. However, this will constitute a change of
direction from the main education goals of doctoral programs: cultivating potential
researchers or teaching staff for higher education. This would create another problem.
Postgraduate students in Taiwan need more opportunities to be exposed to the
international academic community (Shek et al., 2007). The change of direction will
restrict the PhD programs from going global. This will be another challenge Taiwan
has to face in the near future.
Concluding Remarks
Social work education has developed for over 50 years in Taiwan. In addition to
international influences, political, economic and social developments have also had animpact on the process of professionalization in social work education. Some of the
developments can be seen as the driving forces. From the political perspective, the
process of political democratization since the late 1980s facilitated the rise of social
movements and the formation of non-profit social welfare organizations. This, in
turn, led to an increased demand for social workers. Universities also responded to the
changes in the labor market. The enactment of the Social Work Act in 1997 facilitated
the greater standardization of the social work curricula. Moreover, the promotion of
higher education evaluation and accreditation by the government from the mid-2000s
put more pressure on universities to redesign professional courses and recruit more
qualified teaching staff.From the economic perspective, the transformation from an agricultural to an
industrial society which began in the 1960s brought about new social problems and
created a demand for more social workers. The emergence of a post-industrial society
in the late 1980s has meant that Taiwan is again facing different social problems. These
have helped to promote the expansion of social welfare and led to an increase in social
work job opportunities. These trends have had a profound impact on the expansion of
social work education. From the social perspective, the merging of the professional
social work organizations in the late 1980s has resulted in a strong professional
identity and the enhancement of professional status, with more students choosingsocial work as a career.
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8/4/2019 SWE 2908 1210 SWE in Taiwan
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8/4/2019 SWE 2908 1210 SWE in Taiwan
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