Apprenticeship

Running head: APPRENTICESHIP FOR SOCIAL WORKERS

Is Apprenticeship an Appropriate Topic of Study for Social Workers?

Ray Woodcock Indiana University School of Social Work

Apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a means of training. As such, it may be an appropriate topic of study for educators. Apprenticeship can also be a part of an economic structure, as in the medieval European guilds, and as such may be a suitable topic of study for economists or historians. But in what sense, if any, should social workers become professionally familiar with it? Social Work, Economics, and Education Generally The seemingly simple question just asked would imply, as a starting assumption, that social work is intrinsically distinct from education and economics. But such as assumption would be indefensible. The first sentence of the NASW Code of Ethics states that the social work profession pays particular attention to . . . [people who are] living in poverty (NASW,

1999). Questions of wealth and poverty are, of course, at the core of economics. The Preamble of that Code also goes on to state, Social workers promote social justice and social change with and on behalf of clients through activities that specifically include education. But social change through education has been a fundamental goal of educators since the days of Durkheim and Dewey (Goldstein, 1976; Rogers & Oakes, 2005). It could be argued that social work is a profession as well as an ideal, and that, practically speaking, there are certain practical limits on the topics that may be considered central rather than peripheral to the profession. That, however, sounds like an argument in favor of reifying distinctions among topics or areas of practice as though they had concrete reality. They do not: over time, they will change. An effort to concretize things is not exactly what one would expect to hear from agents of change. Moreover, the argument from tradition cuts two ways: for most of human history, there has been no profession of social work. If one is to revert to classic distinctions among branches of knowledge, then it is social work, the relative newcomer, that would be considered a part of economics or education (cf. Danzig, 1955).

Apprenticeship Certainly one would expect present and future social work educators to be especially open to education as a social work intervention. Such, anyway, would seem to be the logic

behind the report of a proposed merger, in the 1990s, of the schools of education and social work at Ohio State University (Gerstner, 1994), as well as the actual existence of single schools or divisions of education and social work at Livingstone College in North Carolina, Northwest Nazarene University in Idaho, the University of Dundee in Scotland, and the University of Sydney in Australia, among others. The existence of a multifaceted interrelationship between social work and education also becomes evident upon consideration of the specialty of school social work, as epitomized by the School Social Work Association of America. That organization works not merely to help students cope with school but, in addition, to help them thrive in school and to obtain, from their educations, a better start in life. In a similar vein, the existence of an interdepartmental Ph.D. program in social work and economics at the University of Michigan would seem to attest to a belief, among some social work educators, that the study of economics-related issues can be of great value for purposes of research and policy development again, as contemplated in the NASW Code (Michigan, 2008). As Miriam Keeler (1931) observed at the start of the Great Depression, All that economics can tell of the economic resources in society, of budgeting, saving and investments, of national and municipal spending, taxation, and profits, is needed to answer the question, What Can a Community Afford? An understanding of contractual relationships, the peculiarities of the wage bargain and business combinations, the concentration of capital and the business cycle, as well as the workers attempts to exercise their combined power through trade

Apprenticeship unions, and the role of the State, is necessary for intelligent dealing with the problems of family income and the elusive road to plenty. (p. 609)

More recently, in a survey of fourth-year undergraduate social work students at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, Barns and Preston (2003) report finding that only 17% of respondents considered economics irrelevant to social work practice, and that large majorities of respondents saw links between economics and such areas of social work practice as unemployment, domestic violence, and child protection (p. 12). Brown (1939) cites a number of authorities in support of the proposition that, in his era, there had been a rather consistent and unchanging view that economics and other social sciences . . . should form the basis for the social work curriculum (p. 69). The relationship between economics and social work does seem to have been neglected since then (cf. Page, 1977). Much of that, however, may be due to the gradual dominance of capitalist notions in economic theory. Such notions have supported many of the most coldhearted and destructive features of contemporary economic life. That sort of thing can seem alien to social work practice. But one should not assume that traditional capitalism (with or without the longstanding counterpoint of traditional Marxism) holds a monopoly, so to speak, on the topic. For instance, very different perspectives on economics and human productive activity have been emerging, in recent years, in the economic research on happiness and subjective well-being (e.g., Frey & Stutzer, 2005) in connection with the positive psychology movement (e.g., Diener, 2000). Social Work and Apprenticeship Specifically Given that education, economics, and social work are inherently interrelated disciplines and professions, the social worker cannot defensibly begin by assuming that apprenticeship is extraneous to social work unless proven otherwise. The more plausible assumption is that

Apprenticeship

apprenticeship, like other forms of training and socialization of young people, may be amenable to use on behalf of disadvantaged populations that, indeed, if apprenticeship were as commonly available as primary and secondary education, there would likely be a subfield known as apprenticeship social work, just as there is the subfield of school social work. (There is no intent, here, to imply that apprenticeship is relevant to social work only through its economic and educational dimensions. There is also a cultural dimension, insofar as apprenticeship is familiar in some cultures (e.g., Stoller & Olkes, 1989); there is a legal dimension, in that young apprentices are easily oppressed (e.g., Herring, 1926) to the point of constitutionally impermissible servitude; and there is a historical dimension, since apprenticeship has a history within social work education itself (Hsu, 2006, p. 218). The restriction to economic and educational dimensions seems sufficient, however, to make the general point that there are multiple good reasons to include some familiarity with apprenticeship (among other kinds of economic relations) within the sphere of social work education and practice.) The more specific question, then, is not whether social workers can or should explore dimensions of apprenticeship, but how. Multiple possibilities present themselves. Taylor (2004), for example, discusses the complex relationship between social work and developmental psychology in the context of child nurturance. In doing so, she implicitly draws attention to the question of whether a one-on-one relationship with a mentor, in an apprenticeship situation, would also have greater potential for addressing the needs of children or, more to the point, teenagers as they become socialized to adult life. The question arises especially for those whose development has been hindered by adverse conditions due to deprivation or disability. Another possibility derives from the social workers commitment to certain values that may be more compatible with apprenticeship than with public education. Social workers trained

Apprenticeship in todays high schools and colleges may find it easy to assume that a college education is the

best path to socialization and training. But that would be an odd assumption for a social worker to entertain. Universities are power- and wealth-driven institutions, displaying the very implacability and abusiveness that institutions do display from time to time. Moreover, universities tend to be elitist and exclusionary, generally conveying the highest rewards to the most fortunate, and constantly affirming and amplifying divisions of all sorts between good students and poor ones, between students and professors, between more successful professors and less successful ones, between professors and administrators, between university people and locals, and so forth. University educations often sever young people from families, friends, and home neighborhoods, such that many who would be capable of helping to improve those places never go back. Persons in developed nations who unquestioningly accept higher education as a model may also unwittingly help to create conditions in developing countries that can yield increased social instability when education loses touch with traditional culture and with employability, as in Calvs and Schoumakers (2004) study of youth in Burkina Faso, or in Kovachevas (2006) finding that, In the course of Bulgarias transition from the centrally planned to a market economy young people as a whole turned to be a vulnerable group in the newly formed labor market (p. 320). Social workers themselves typically go through multiple apprenticeships while earning undergraduate and graduate degrees in their field, not to mention clinical licenses. It is not immediately obvious that they should hold strong opinions about the value of apprenticeship for their own purposes, but should profess neutrality (or worse) regarding the value of apprenticeships for others who cannot afford or do not thrive in traditional educational settings. To the contrary, social workers should be prepared to advocate on behalf of others whose need for

Apprenticeship training is ill-served by available educational institutions. Indeed, social workers could find themselves in the position of opposing the views of some professional educators, given Winkelmanns (2003) suggestion that the mere existence of an educational system helped to undermine the development of apprenticeships in America unlike Britain, say, where an apprenticeship system has served as a means of training lower-income children for centuries (Jones, 2003; Siegel, Welsh, & Senna, 2005). It is not difficult to identify specific regards in which apprenticeships could play a meaningful role in social work. Apprenticeships, when available, offer meaningful

employment of the type that Karabanow (2003, p. 377) found conspicuously absent in the set of structural social deficiencies confronting street children; apprenticeships would fall into what Karabanow and Clement (2004) characterize as a skill building (p. 98) type of service for street children. An apprenticeship designed to be rewarding could provide a response to the problem of nonattendance at school (e.g., Kendrick, 1996). In the German system, apprenticeships provide a highly successful career training system in which young people, aged 16 to 20, acquire a sense of orientation and meaning to their lives and thus dont feel hopeless or drop out of society (Kinzer, 1993, quoting Bernhard Jenschke, an administrator of vocational programs in Berlin). Thus Walther (2005) speaks of a young man who succeeds in completing an apprenticeship instead of getting stuck in a criminal career (p. 122). Whether any one study can contemplate all of these aspects of apprenticeship, and more, is not clear. What is clear is that social workers have powerful reasons to ask questions and learn about apprenticeship and its possibilities for persons who cannot or will not obtain high school or college educations, for those who have obtained such educations but remain unemployed and must struggle with heavy liabilities incurred during their years of education, and for those who

Apprenticeship

would consider obtaining a higher education but for the example of those whose educations have not paid off. Introductory social work research to learn more about young peoples attitudes toward apprenticeships, within the context of what may be pressing financial realities, seems both appropriate and timely.

Apprenticeship References

Barns, A., & Preston, A. (2003). Putting the economic back into the social (work curriculum). Curtin Business School Women's Economic Policy Analysis Unit Working Paper No. 29. Retrieved January 2, 2008 from http://business.curtin.edu.au/files/WEPAU_WP29_May_2003.pdf Brown, R. M. (1939). Education for public welfare and social work: II. From the point of view of the state university. Social Forces, 18(1), 65-70. Calvs, A. E., & Schoumaker, B. (2004). Deteriorating economic context and changing patterns of youth employment in urban Burkina Faso: 1980-2000. World Development, 32(8), 1341-1354. Abstract retrieved January 3, 2008 from ScienceDirect database. Danzig, M. E. (1955). Bridging the gaps between social work and education. Journal of Educational Sociology, 28(8), 343-352. Diener, E. (2000). Subjective well-being: The science of happiness and a proposal for a national index. American Psychologist, 55(1), 34-43. Frey, B. S., & Stutzer, A. (2005). Happiness research: State and prospects. Review of Social Economy, 62(2), 207-228). Gerstner, ___. (1994, April 22). Merger of social work and education. Retrieved January 2, 2008 from http://www.osu.edu/osu/newsrel/Archive/94-0422_Merger_of_Social_Work_and_Education Goldstein, M. A. (1976). Durkheim's sociology of education: Interpretations of social change Through education. Educational Theory, 26(3), 289297. Herring, H. L. (1926). The beginnings of industrial social work. Social Forces, 5(2), 317-324.

Apprenticeship Hsu, K. S. (2006). Information critical for social work practitioners in the decision making process: An empirical study of implicit knowledge using naturalistic decision making

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perspective. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University. Retrieved January 2, 2008 from http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/send-pdf.cgi?osu1150473379 Jones, J. M. (2003). External environmental forces and organizational behavior: A study of managed care and child welfare organizations. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Florida State University. Retrieved January 3, 2007 from http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses/available/etd-04112003-220231/ Kahneman, D. (2003). Maps of bounded reality: Psychology for behavioral economics. The American Economic Review, 93(5), 1449-1475. Karabanow, J. (2003). Creating a culture of hope. International Social Work, 46(3), 369-386. Karabanow, J., & Clement, P. (2004). Interventions with street youth: A commentary on the practice-based research literature. Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention, 4(1), 93-108. Keeler, M. (1931). [Review of the book The contribution of economics to social work by Amy Hewes.] Social Forces, 9(4), 609. Kendrick, A. (1996). Social work and education working together? SCRE Newsletter, 59, 8-9. Kinzer, S. (1993, February 6). Germans apprentice system supports economic vitality. New York Times. Retrieved January 3, 2008 from http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CEFD7103DF935A35751C0A96595 8260 Michigan. (2008). Prospective students webpage on special programs and resources. Retrieved January 2, 2008 from the website of the University of Michigan, Department of

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Apprenticeship Economics, at http://www.lsa.umich.edu/econ/detail/0,2484,11898%255Farticle%255F17293,00.html NASW. (1999). Code of ethics. Retrieved January 2, 2008 from http://www.naswdc.org/pubs/code/code.asp Page, A. N. (1977). Economics and social work: A neglected relationship. Social Work, 22(1), 48-53. Abstract retrieved January 2, 2008 from the ERIC database. Rogers, J., & Oakes, J. (2005). John Dewey speaks to Brown: Research, democratic social movement strategies, and the struggle for education on equal terms. Teachers College Record, 107(9), 2178-2203. Siegel, L. J., Welsh, B.C., & Senna, J. J. (2005). Juvenile delinquency: Theory, practice, and law. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth. Stoller, P., & Olkes, C. (1989). In sorcerys shadow: A memoir of apprenticeship among the Songhay of Niger. Chicago: University of Chicago. Taylor, C. (2004). Underpinning knowledge for child care practice: Reconsidering child development theory. Child and Family Social Work, 9, 225-235.

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Walther, A. (2005). Risks and responsibilities? The individualisation of youth transitions and the ambivalence between participation and activation in Europe. Social Work & Society, 3(1), 116-127. Winkelmann, R. (2002). [Review of the book The economics of the apprenticeship system by W. Smits & T. Stromback.] Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 55(4), 750-752.

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