Recent evidence: Developmental social work training programmes in the Global South

Cite as: Erasmus, L., & Bloem, C. H. M. (2024). Developmental social work training programmes in the Global South: A scoping review. International Social Work, 67(3), 664-679. https://doi.org/10.1177/00208728231209476

The problem

In moving away from South Africa’s colonial past, social work training needs to embrace indigenised content and empower social workers to move towards practising from a developmental social work perspective. This requires a paradigm shift towards developmental social work training in South Africa.

The research gap

This study was conducted to look at the characteristics and challenges of developmental social work training in the Global South in order for South African social work training institutions to learn from the data and implement more an effective developmental social work training programme.

Methodology

The study was conducted through a scoping review. The five-step scoping review methodology was used to investigate and select recent literature on developmental social work training in the Global South. A thematic analysis was then used to scrutinise selected articles to extract core conclusions and recommendations made by authors to answer research questions.

Findings

In addition to answering the research question about the characteristics and challenges to teaching developmental social work in the Global South, six main themes that should be highlighted when teaching developmental social work in the Global South were identified and are discussed in the article.

1. Critical thinking and reflective practice
2. Political social work;
3. Field placement programmes
4. Indigenisation; de-colonisation and historical context
5. Economic development
6. Empowerment and theoretical course content

Conclusion

For social work to stay relevant in the Global South, it is important for governments to provide universities with resources to enable them to implement effective developmental social work training.

The full article can be bought from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00208728231209476, or accessed from your library. Also you can request the authors to share their copy: Leandi Erasmus, Community Psychosocial Research, Faculty of Health Sciences, 11 Hoffman Street, Potchefstroom, South Africa. Email: Leandi.email@gmail.com