Training global awareness and local engagement in Social Work: a case of good educational practice

Abstract

We analyze a learning experience that has been considered by the IASSW as an example of good practice international in social work education. It is a postgraduate online training program for social workers and other practitioners of social intervention, based on the critical analysis of implicit models (non-conscious and often ethnocentric) and the development of intercultural skills (mindset and skill set). The program train professionals globally aware and locally committed to the advocacy of minorities and vulnerable groups, able to implement processes of empowerment at individual and collective level program. The Model of Intercultural Social Intervention (MISI) is the central axis (theoretical and practical) of the educational program. The MISI is used and is inspired by other practice theoretical models, theories and perspectives from the South (mainly) and the North: consciousness raising model, antioppressive, empowerment and advocacy, transformative mediation model, etc.; though adapted to multicultural realities with major complexity and diversity than those in which the mentioned models developed, and with an applied component clearer than the previous ones. Academically, the program is innovative as it is for international students (so far have involved people from 21 countries), including graduate and postgraduate students, and teachers have different training profiles with different origin and practical experience in several countries of the North and of the South (Europe and Latin America). Practices are held in different countries, always in multiethnic and culturally diverse contexts. It is the only social work education program in Spanish of these characteristics, and our graduates and the graduates have a very high percentage of employment. Relevant theoretical and pedagogic aspects that can be applied in other contexts are described in this text.