Globalising social work education : the relevance of global standards in Australasia

Abstract

The Global Standards for the Education and Training of the Social Work Profession (IASSW & IFSW, 2004) were established to promote quality social work education and included benchmarking opportunities for national or local level social work education providers. David’s PhD research has included a qualitative content analysis to explore the alignment of the Global Standards with the national standards of the Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia regulatory bodies – in ANZ the programme recognition standards, and in Australia the accreditation standards. This research raised a number of equity related issues: service user and student participation; student representativeness; indigenous rights and political action; gender and cultural equity; and equitable access. This presentation will consider the implications of this research for social work education internationally and in Australasia.