LESSON 7

THE DISCIPLINE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

7.1 to 7.5

Reported by Solaiman, Mariam A.

 7.1 DEFINITION OF SOCIAL WORK

The Social work profession promotes social change, problem

solving in human relationships and empowerment and liberation of
people to enhance well being.
Social Work- is a profession that fulfills the social welfare mandate
to promote well-being and quality of life.

Fundamentals of Social Work:

1.Principles of Human Right
2.Social Justice
 7.2 CONTEXT AND THE BASIC CONCEPTS OF
SOCIAL WORK
The aim of social work is to:
1. Help individuals to fit better into their environment and
2. Change the environment so that it works better for them.

Settlement Movement- the next movement that emerged as if to complement

the first wave of social work which began in 1887 (Segal, Gerdes, and Steiner
2005).
Context of Social Work- is a place that requires professionals to direct their
service on the needs and empowerment of people who experience some form of
vulnerability, oppression, and living in poverty.
 7.3 GOALS AND SCOPE OF SOCIAL WORK
Dubois and Miley (2008) highlights the following goals and scope of social work
calling them TENET.
1.Empowerment people, individually and collectively, to utilize their own
problem-solving and coping capabilities more effectively.
2.Support a proactive position with regard to social anf economic policy
development to prevent problems for individuals and society occurring.
3.Uphold the integrity of the profession in all aspects of social work practice
4.Establish linkages between people and societal resources to further social
functioning and enhance the quality of life.
5.Develop cooperative networks within the institutional resources system.
6.Facilitate the responsiveness of the institutional systems to meet health
and human service needs
7.Promote social justice and equality of all people with regard to
full participation in society.
8.Contribute to the development of knowledge for social work
profession through research and evaluation.
9.Encourage exchange of information in those institutional systems
in which both problems and resources opportunities and produced.
10. Enhance communication through an appreciation of diversity
and through ethnically sensitive, non-sexist social work practice.
11. Employ educational strategies for the prevention and resolution
of problems.
12. Embrace a world view of human issues and solutions to
problems.
 7.4 PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL WORK

Principles Relative to Respect for Human Rights

1.Upholding and promoting human dignity and well
being
2.Respecting the right to self-determination
3.Promoting the right to participation
4.Creating each person as a whole
5.Identifying and developing strengths
 Principles Relative to Social Justice
1.Challenging Discrimination
2.Recognizing diversity
3.Distributing resources
4.Challenging unjust policies and practices
5.Working in Solidarity
 Principles Relative to Social Justice
1.Challenging Discrimination
2.Recognizing diversity
3.Distributing resources
4.Challenging unjust policies and practices
5.Working in Solidarity
 7.5 CORE VALUES OF SOCIAL WORK
1) Compassion, can be considered as an important value for all
humankind but in social work,it occupies a special impetus to the
functioning of the profession.
2) Service,as a value, directs social workers to go beyond purely
performing a service for a pay and allow them to be generous with
their time.
3) Social Justice, as a value for social workers, is a basis of their
understanding of the need to ensure that everyone get serviced
and that everyone get a share of what the community possesses
in material and non-material assets.
4) Dignity and worth of the person, is a value that provides the
determination and drive for social workers to seek the
marginalized in all forms without much regard as to whether such
problem is self-inflicted or socially imposed.
5) Importance of Human Relationships, as a value, makes it
possible for social workers to do their job as most human
situations they seek to address require collaborating with so
many others professionals and individuals with a stake in the
issue.
6) Integrity, is necessary in all human endeavors. In social work,
nothing can be accomplished without integrity.
7) Competence, is a very important value for social work because
it separates social care-giving from social work professional
practice.