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 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE This article was downloaded by: On: 27 November 2010 Access details: Access Details: Free Access Publisher Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37- 41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Social Work Education Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www. informaworld.co m/smpp/title~con tent=t713447070 What Does Professionalization Mean?—Tracing the Trajectory of Social Work Education in Taiwan Wan-I. Lin a ; Kate Yeong-Tsyr Wang b 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 the Trajectory 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 Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.

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PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

This article was downloaded by:

On: 27 November 2010 

Access details: Access Details: Free Access 

Publisher Routledge 

Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-

41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

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

Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdf

This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial orsystematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply ordistribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.

The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contentswill be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug dosesshould be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss,actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directlyor indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.

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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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Social Affairs Bureau of Taiwan Province (1983) The Report on the Implementation the System of 

Social Workers in Taiwan (in Chinese).

Weiss-Gal, I. & Welbourne, P. (2008) ‘The professionalization of social work: a cross-national

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Wilensky, H. (1964) ‘The professionalization of everyone?’, The American Journal of Sociology ,

vol. LXX, no. 2, pp. 137–158.Yei, Chi-Cheng (1985) ‘Reflections on the development of sociology during forty years in Taiwan’,

China Forum, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 88–105 (in Chinese).

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