The Routledge International Handbook of Social Work Education provides an authoritative overview of current understanding through coverage of key debates, exploring the state of play in particular social work education fields and reflecting on where the future might be taking us. The overall aim of the Handbook is to further develop pedagogic research and scholarship for social work education. Drawing on medical education as an exemplar, the contributions view social work education as a specialism and a field of expertise that counts in the same way as research programmes in more traditional areas of social work practice.

The chapters are concerned with the theory and practice of social work education at all levels; they are accessible, conceptually clear, research based where appropriate, critically reflective and ethically underpinned. The Handbook is organised into seven sections that reflect the proposed themes and sub-themes covering:

• Social work education in context: the western drivers
• Emerging and re-emerging social work education
• The scholarship of learning and teaching
• New insights into field education
• New directions in learning and teaching
• Future challenges in social work education

This handbook presents a contribution to the process of exchange and dialogue which is essential to global social work education. It brings together professional knowledge and lived experience, both universal and local, and will be an essential reference for social work educators, researchers, students and professionals.
About the Author:

Imogen Taylor is Emerita Professor of Social Work at the University of Sussex, England, where she was Head of the Department of Social Work for seven years. She worked previously at the Universities of Bristol and Toronto. Imogen has researched extensively into the pedagogy of professional social work education.

Marion Bogo is Professor at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto, Canada. She is the former Dean and first appointee to the first Endowed Chair in Social Work. Her research focuses on social work education, including field education and the conceptualization and assessment of professional competence.

Michelle Lefevre was, until recently, Head of the Department of Social Work at the University of Sussex, England. Michelle has practised as a social worker and arts psychotherapist in frontline child protection, in a specialist setting with children and families where there was abuse and neglect, and as an independent expert witness.

Barbra Teater is an Associate Professor at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York, USA, where she is Program Director of the Bachelor of Science in Social Work and the minor in Disability Studies. She spent eight years in UK social work education at the Universities of Bath and Bristol.