American Social Work Imperialism:
Consequences for Professional Education in Israel
EDWARD PRAGER, PH.D
Tel Aviv University, School of Social Work., Ramat Aviv,
Israel.
Since the establishment of Israel's first school of social work, Israeli social work
educators, for numerous reasons, have looked to the West for curriculum content and
structure. A distinctively Israeli organizing framework for social work education is lacking,
the absence of which has been detrimental to student and client alike. The author calls
for the indigenous development of an educational framework(s) answering to Israel's
unique needs and culturally diverse populations. One such model, based upon a cognitivehumanistic orientation to the study of man, is suggested.
Introduction
RITING in this Journal, Harris
Chaiklin made the observation
that the "continued imitation of the
content and pattern o f American social
work education has constrained Israelis
from striking out on their own and
developing Israeli social work."' O f
most concern to him was the failure
to develop a social work education
rooted in t h e j e w i s h ethic. While West­
ern oriented values, reflected in edu­
cation and practice, stress such con­
cepts as individualism and privacy, a
Jewish-oriented social worker (or for
that matter a social worker practicing
within a Middle Eastern setting) should
stress family, community, and openness.2 Four years before the Chaiklin
article Abraham Monk, then a Fulbright scholar at the University of Haifa
and observing the dominant Western
influence on Israeli social work, noted
that social work's macro interventions
are anchored in the realities of the
societies in which they have evolved.
T h e extent to which culture-bound in-
W
' Harris Chaiklin, "Social Work Education in
Israel: A n Analysis and S o m e Suggestions,"yournal of Jewish Cotnmunal Services, Vol. 5 9 , N o . 1
(Fall, 1982), p. 4 2 .
2 Ibid., p. 4 0 .
terventions have universal applicability,
he noted, is questionable and thus far
untested.'
As an American-born social work ed­
ucator teaching in Israel for the past
five years I read with considerable in­
terest both o f the above articles and
especially some of the more heated re­
actions and rejoinders to the Chaiklin
piece, also appearing in this Journal.
While o n e may argue with Chaiklin's
presentation and uncompromising style,
I cannot help but agree with his fun­
damental argument. As Israel closes
the chapter o n its fourth decade of
social work I submit that we have taken
the lock, the stock, and most of the
barrel of Western social work tradi­
tions and principles, grafted them o n t o
a social, cultural, religious, political, and
economic body considerably different
from that of the donor, and expected
the operation to succeed. T h e results
in most practice sectors have left a
great deal to be desired. T h o u g h it
may be convenient to rationalize the
marginality of Israeli social work's ef­
fectiveness by pointing to the "state of
' Abraham Monk, "Transcultural Social Work:
O n Serving as a Fulbright Scholar in Israel,"
Journal of Jewish Communal Services, Vol. 5 4 , N o .
3 (Spring, 1978).
129
SOCIAL WORK
the art" in the West, which seems to
still concern itself with such questions
as "what is social work?" and "does it
work?," it would perhaps be more ac­
curate, although less comforting to view
the profession's limited fulfillment of
goals in Israel as a function of its fail­
ure, to date, to create a truly indige­
nous, culturally and environmentally
specific model(s) o f education and prac­
tice.
If professional education in social
work can be viewed as being a form
of social technology transfer,* to what
extent can the norms which define the
accepted parameters of thought and
behavior, attitude and feeling o f o n e
civilization be adopted into the modus
operandi of another? T h e purpose of
this paper is to discuss several aspects
o f what this writer considers to be the
Western domination of Israeli social
work education and its implications for
Israeli students entering the profession.
Western Social Work Imperialism:
S o m e Observations
T h e tendency of the Israeli social
work student to shape a problem, its
assessment, and intervention strategies
in such a way as to fit traditional West­
ern models of interpersonal helping, a
p h e n o m e n o n referred to by o n e vet­
eran Israeli social worker as the "Europeanization of the Yemenite," re­
flects the extent to which we continue
to rely upon imported theories, con­
cepts, and guidelines for education and
practice. Little wonder that with such
Procrustean attempts at molding our
clients and our perceptions of their
problems so as to render them com­
patible with the culture-bound theo­
retical formulations o f another civili­
zation, the shoe doesn't always fit.
•* Pranab Chatterjee, " T e c h n o l o g y T r a n s f e r , "
International Social Worit, Vol. 2 4 , N o . 1 ( 1 9 8 1 ) .
130
EDUCATION
IN
ISRAEL
S t u d e n t - c l i e n t field e n c o u n t e r s a n d
simulations are reviewed in m e t h o d s
classrooms, couched in the j a r g o n of
micro systems theories, psychodynamic,
behavioral, gestalt configurations, per­
son-problem conceptualizations, and so
on. What is so often conspicuously ab­
sent from analytic reasoning are those
culturally and environmentally deter­
mined perceptions of reality which the
client manifests in distinctive ways o f
feeling, behaving, adapting to and re­
solving complex situations. A gradu­
ating Bedouin student of social work,
w h o commuted from his Bedouin vil­
lage in the Northern N e g e v to T e l Aviv
University for three years to obtain his
degree, observed that "if you don't
have some fundamental understanding
o f the social, cultural, and spiritual
world o f your client, trying to apply
personality, behavior, or most other
theories in the Bedouin tent or in the
Yemenite village will be as futile as
milking a rock." In the face of what
appears to this author to be a glaringly
obvious shortcoming in the content o f
Israeli social work education—with all
due consideration to the various meth­
ods, problem orientation, and other ac­
ademic frameworks within which curriculae are organized in Israel—why
the "aping" of Western originated ed­
ucational emphases, to the almost total
exclusion of, and insensitivity to the
cultural patterns and social systems o f
Israel's many p e o p l e s — t h e populations
we serve?
Part of the answer may be attrib­
utable to the very mystique of the West.
In his book Beyond Culture Edward Hall
writes that ". . . we in the West are
convinced that we have a corner on
reality—a pipe line to G o d — a n d that
other realities are superstitions or dis­
tortions brought about by inferior or
less developed systems of thought."^ As
' Edward Hall, Beyond Culture, N e w York: D o u ­
bleday & C o m p a n y , 1 9 7 7 , p. 2.
JOURNAL OF JEWISH COMMUNAL SERVICE
the nation which introduced profes­
sional social work to the world, which
still fundamentally clings to a meltingpot orientation to education and prac­
tice, America's message o f technology
transfer to "less developed" nations has
b e e n , h o w e v e r i n n o c e n t , that t h e
American way must be the best way.
For better or for worse we view the
West, and America in particular, as
having conceived and developed a sci­
entific social work view o f the world.
However valid or invalid this has been
for America, it has represented ways
of approaching questions and issues
which are distinctly in the American
grain. In attempting to transfer both
the content and rationale of the Amer­
ican scientific m e t h o d in social work to
Judaeo-Islamic, Middle-Eastern systems
of thought and belief, the inappropriateness of such models for our
unique realities are as obvious as what
o n e sociologist has referred to as the
warts on the face of theory. Our fas­
cination and almost orthodox adher­
ence to the "scientific truths" explored
in the West, when coupled with the
inescapable fact that a very high per­
centage of Israeli social work acade­
micians are Western trained, partially
explains why we have limited our ini­
tiative in developing truly Israeli social
work theory and practice paradigms.
W e have not yet, as a group, accepted
the challenge which a more humanistic
orientation to the science of man pre­
sents; an orientation which is rooted
in the understanding of man's phenomenological worlds; o n e which ar­
gues that the only certainty is that . . .
there are as many real worlds as there
are people.*
Another part of the answer may be
found in what we have long accepted
as an axiom of the profession and as
the cornerstone upon which practice is
* Carl Rogers, A Way of Being, Boston: H o u g h ­
ton-Mifflin Company, 1 9 8 0 , p. 102.
Structured; the centrality o f the indi­
vidual. W e w h o have lived and studied
in the West have integrated into our
own professional baggage and brought
h o m e the emphasis upon an atomized
case conception as the sin qua n o n of
professional practice. W e have not
really addressed the fact that casework,
as we have c o m e to know it in the
West, and which in most circles is still
considered the primary building block
of education and practice, meets a dis­
tinct type o f cultural need. T h o u g h
many American social work educators
recognize the n e e d to broaden con­
cepts, models and techniques of inter­
vention so as to allow for a richer va­
riety of culture-relevant approaches to
interpersonal helping, the imported va­
riety of practice paradigms still bears
the unique stamp of Western inspired
social casework and the emphasis upon
the individual. I doubt that we have
taken any significant steps to explore
whether methods and techniques, as
well as their conceptual foundations,
are universally applicable? In a nation
characterized by its emphasis upon
family and community, in Moslem and
Jewish populations alike, o n e at least
must question the validity and wisdom
of a practice emphasis which tends to
isolate the individual from his or her
cultural and environmental context.
In questioning whether traditional
curriculum areas are relevant, Harold
Lewis' identifies three prevalent rub­
rics which organize curriculae: a meth­
ods orientation which is central to a
process rubric incorporating micro-ma­
cro practice formulations; a problem
orientation which organizes curriculum
in concentrations such as aging, retar­
dation, and so forth; and a program­
matic orientation, organizing curricu' Harold Lewis, " A r e the Tradidonal Curric­
ulum Areas Relevant?" Journal of Education for
Social Work, Vol. 17, N o . 1 (Winter, 1981).
131
SOCIAL WORK
lum into fields of service such as parole,
medical practice, ett:. Each of Israel's
five schools of social work can be iden­
tified as embracing brie of the three
orientations or, as is the case with the
writer's own school, Un admixture of
two or the three combined. Whether
we emphasize the context of practice,
problems in practice, or process in
practice we have attempted to incor­
porate the values of Western individ­
ualism, and the sacrosanct privacy of
the individual, into a family and com­
munity dominated culture calling for
the development of different but no
less valid, culturally sensitive rubrics of
practice and curriculum content.
Though we live, teach and practice in
a veritable social science laboratory we
have barely begun to consider what a
local social work reality should look
like. Lamenting this very issue, Hans
Nagpaul^ points out in his article deal­
ing with the problems and issues con­
fronting Indian social work: "The
teaching of professional social work in
India fails to take into curricular con­
sideration two indigenous cultural as­
sets for the protection and promotion
of better mental health: the therapeutic
value of Hindu religion and Hindu psy­
chology. . .
Though we may be
world leaders in other spheres of en­
deavor, in the social work arena we
appear, for the most part, to be content
to follow.
Still another factor contributing to
the non-selective importation of Amer­
ican social work technology seems to
be based upon the assumption that hu­
man beings everywhere have common
needs and motivations. Without ques-
' H a n s Nagpaul, " T h e Diffusion o f A m e r i c a n
Social W o r k Education to India: Problems and
Issues," International Social Work, Vol. 15, N o . 1
(1972).
9 Ibid., p. 7.
132
EDUCATION IN ISRAEL
tion sufficient food for sustenance and
some form of shelter from the elements
are perhaps the two most primary needs
which, if unmet, would lead to the
cessation of life. However, how is "ad­
equate" differentially defined from one
society to the next? How are other
needs, such as health care, education,
and the means of self-support, defined
and prioritized across cultures? Megacultures and sub-cultures determine
their own particular configurations of
stresses and human needs, both indi­
vidual and collective. Those "common
human needs" so often appearing in
our English-language texts most often
reflect Western conceptions of needs,
integrally related to Western culture
and grounded in middle-class orienta­
tions to life. The understanding by the
Israeli social work student of such need
conceptions is necessary but not suffi­
cient for the purpose of practicing sen­
sitively and effectively within the multi­
cultural environment which is Israel.
Perhaps if we adopt a human needs
rubric as a strategic overriding schema
for curriculum,'" we may be able to
move considerably beyond merely iden­
tifying and talking about such basic
Israeli needs as those evidenced by
groups of immigrants of various age
and cultural cohorts, the very special
needs of an exclusively family—ori­
ented Arab population, the needs of
our rural poor, sick, and aged, as well
as the needs within many social strata
and culture groupings for help in al­
leviating or coping with the potentially
destructive consequences of chronic,
diffuse stress. Until such time as the
universality of human needs, in all their
ramifications, has been established, we
must begin to think of addressing oar
needs in ways relevant and appropriate
to our society.
'» H a r o l d Lewis, op cit., p . 7 9 .
JOURNAL OF JEWISH COMMUNAL SERVICE
Implications for the Israeli
Social Work Student
As a result of the dominant western
influence o f social work education it is
not surprising that so many of our stu­
dents relate to the subject o f culture
in general, and to their o w n cultural
origins in particular, in a perfunctory
fashion. W e have structured curricula
and helped shape practice in such a
way as to accentuate rather than mod­
ify the pervasive concern o f our stu­
dents for "methods," "skills," and
"techniques" as opposed to an empha­
sis upon an educational foundation em­
phasizing humanistic, culture-based
considerations. While our students will
typically be required to take several
introductory courses in sociology, an­
thropology, and psychology, the courses
m o r e often than not will be unrelated
to the context o f social work practice
in general, let alone to the nuances of
practice specifically in Israel. T h u s ,
while presuming to establish a social
and behavioral science foundation for
our students, the integrative value o f
such material for the social work
profession has been minimal. Formal
e x p o s u r e t o cultural diff"erentiation
within the framework of professional
studies takes place mostly within the
field placement. T h e student's caseload
will usually consist o f a mix of clients
born on several continents, speaking
an array of languages and dialects,
whose mores, customs, and beliefs are
equally diversified. T h e significance of
such cultural distinctiveness for profes­
sional understanding and intervention
receives, in most settings, little more
than passing mention, from intake
through termination of service. Can we
expect more from students whose field
instructors are products o f the same
educational system which, knowingly or
not, has adopted curricular models
leaning towards cultural fusion rather
than stressing cultural pluralism?
T h e ramifications of a Western mid­
dle-class, person-oriented and Protes­
tant ethic-based curriculum emphasis
for the Israeli student are keenly felt
in practice. T w o experiences, however
e x t r e m e in terms o f their situational
contexts, nevertheless illustrate some
of the undesirable effects o f the whole­
sale importation o f Western social work
education.
In the first instance students, meet­
ing with a cultural anthropologist, were
presented a situation with which she
had dealt in a Northern Israel border
town. A n elderly man was near death
due to fasting for several weeks. T h e
clinical team, including a psychiatrist
and psychologist, had b e e n unable to
prevail upon the man to stop his fast.
It was b e c o m i n g increasingly apparent
to them that their only, and last re­
course would be hospitalization, quite
possibly psychiatric. T h e students were
asked if they had any thoughts on the
case up to this point. T h e y responded
with such remarks as "mental aberra­
tion," "pathological behavior," and a
variety o f other pseudo-diagnostic and
descriptive labels. Curiously they asked
n o questions reflecting interest in the
man's personal, cultural, and religious
background. T h e y did ask about what
interventions had b e e n tried (methods),
which services had been involved and
for how long (context), as well as ques­
tions pertaining to the family network
of the elderly m a n . " T h e possibility o f
'' T h e areas o f information which students
requested, and the areas which w e r e o m i t t e d o r
o v e r l o o k e d closely paralleled the observations
m a d e o f social workers in two practice settings
working with Israeli aged. In a simulated p r o b ­
lem situation, w h e n p r e s e n t e d at t h e outset with
the face sheet information only, social workers
concentrated their requests for additional infor­
mation in such areas as medical c o n d i t i o n , family
resources, and available c o m m u n i t y resources.
Information relating to the client's u n i q u e self
in relation to his cultural b a c k g r o u n d , h o w e v e r .
133
SOCIAL WORK
the fasting being culturally influenced
had not been even remotely considered
by any of the students as an explanation
for the behavior. The anthropologist
continued by relating that upon her
examination the man was found to be
in a self-induced trance. The cultural
antecedents of his behavior were shared
with the students, beginning with the
information that the "patient" was a
native of the Atlas Mountains. It was
pointed out that a not uncommon
mechanism used by some from this re­
gion of the world for dealing with ex­
treme stress was the self-induced trance­
like state, however bizarre it may ap­
pear to the uninitiated. If one could
isolate and neutralize the source of
stress, one could most likely expect a
return to the pre-trance, pre-fast con­
dition.
What is significant here is not that
students were unfamiliar with the cus­
toms and behavioral patterns of Jews
from the Atlas Mountains. Of most con­
cern was that, though they were lis­
tening, they barely knew what to ask.
The readiness to categorize behavior
which eluded them in its culturally pre­
scribed meaning was striking. The pro­
clivities for labeling as pathological any
behavior which appears to deviate from
"universally accepted" norms are un­
fortunately alive and well and living as
much in the forefront of the Israeli
student's consciousness as they are in
the consciousness of their Western
counterparts. The students exhibited a
tunnel vision orientation to a situation
which we. as educators, at worst have
helped to create and, at best, have done
little to remedy.
EDUCATION IN ISRAEL
A second experience relates to client
behavior which is conditioned, or de­
termined, by the extent of the individ­
ual's religious identification. An Ortho­
dox psychologist presented a group of
social work students with a situation
involving the birth of a mentally im­
paired child to ultra-Orthodox Jewish
parents. Asked about early social work
strategies the students would consider
for the parents, the students for the
most part focused upon helping the
parents deal with what "must be" an
overwhelming guilt reaction. The psy­
chologist helped the students consider
the possibility that not all parents may
experience guilt, or at least not ex­
perience it as overwhelmingly as they
would expect. In a secular. Western
society, with its value emphases upon
control and responsibility resting with
the individual, guilt as a dimension of
feeling and as a reaction to a highly
emotional event such as the birth of a
mentally impaired child might well be
expected. For the Orthodox Jew, how­
ever, living within a highly traditional
and supportive community, for whom
all of life has a divine purpose, the
attribution of causality, a key element
in the originationof guilt, rests at least
as much with the will of God as it does
with the person. Control and respon­
sibility are largely external to the de­
vout Jew. To practice eff"ectively, as­
sessment and intervention strategies
must consider such elements as the
client's highly personal belief systems,
including an understanding of super­
natural elements in the spiritual life of
the client.
To the extent that reactions to crisis
as well as client data pertaining to the ways in or potential crisis situations, as well as
which he had dealt with problems in the past, the very perceptions of wellness and
were requested by less than V* of the social illness reflect a level and quality of
workers interviewed. (See Edward Prager. "Bu­ spiritual existence in our clients, this
reaucratic Determinants of Long-Term Care De­
cision-Making: An Observation of Two Israeli author questions whether our students
Public Welfare Offices," Health and Social Work,are sufficiently sensitive to those ele­
in press.).
ments of religion, whether Judaism or
134
J O U R N A L O FJEWISH C O M M U N A L SERVICE
Islam, so as to be able to begin to S t e r e o t y p e d t h i n k i n g r e f e r r e n t t o
understand and deal with the vast array groups o f diverse cultural, environ­
of forms and directions which spiri­ mental, and spiritual origins? In our
tuality takes in Israel's poly-cultural so­ concern with modelling the West we
ciety. It is this writer's impression that, have left largely unexplored vast areas
notwithstanding some attempts at ad­ of foundation or core content and clin­
dressing this area of content by o n e or ical preparation which may well differ­
two o f the schools, too little curriculum entiate the merely g o o d technician from
attention is devoted to the meaning of the highly effective professional, able
religion for practice in a distinctively to employ culturally responsive under­
Jewish society. While not advocating a standing and clinical j u d g e m e n t as an
necessarily O r t h o d o x indoctrination to interventive strategy.
practice, the Jewish social work stu­
On Israelizing Social Work
dent, irrespective o f his or her religious
Education
preferences or ultimate career objec­
tives, should at the very least have an
T w o major theoretical orientations
understanding of those principles o f have typified the organization of West­
the Jewish faith which guide and sup­ ern social work education. T h e psy­
port us in times o f adversity (" crisis chological framework incorporates per­
as challenge," "self-acceptance,"'^ etc.). ceptions o f the client based upon
Such principles are n o less valid as concepts of mind, personality and be­
"tools of the trade" than those which havior. T h e sociological, or societal
we currently stress in our methods paradigm views the individual as a being
courses. T h e introduction of such con­ interactive with the social institutions
tent would surely constitute o n e step (family, work, school, etc.) o f his en­
towards the Israelization of social work vironment. A d h e r e n c e to o n e or the
education and practice.
other conceptual framework, or both
As educators we have been com­ for that matter, reflects the conviction
municating a mixed message to our that an individual's way o f life can be
students; a contradiction if you will. conveniently categorized according to
O n the o n e hand we communicate with the theoretical predilections o f the be­
a passion the cardinal tenet of the holder. T o the extent that Western
profession, namely that each and every social work, to which we subscribe, has
o n e of our clients is truly a unique embraced o n e or another or a com­
being. W e then proceed, o n the other bination of both organizing frame­
hand, to concentrate and accentuate works, the tacit assumption has b e e n
the centrality of methods, problems, that the professional, not the client, is
and contexts for practice, blurring the the expert about the client's life and
very sources of cultural, spiritual, and circumstances; that the professional,
environmental uniqueness of people in more so than the client, is able to de­
general, and clients in particular. With cipher and d e c o d e behaviors, motiva­
their predominant "melting pot" ori­ tions, thoughts and feelings; that in
entations, might the present content order to help, professional "truths,"
and structure of our curriculae be rein­ empirically defended, must prevail over
forcing rather than removing shallow, the subjective realities of the client.
However "imperialistic" Western val­
' 2 Richard C. W o o l f s o n , "Judaism as a Support
ues and social work orientations are;
System for O r t h o d o x Jewish Parents o f Mentally
however much they have e m b e d d e d
Retarded C h i l d r e n , " Journal of Jewish Communal
themselves in Israeli social work, the
Service, Vol. 6 1 , N o . 3 (Spring, 1985).
135
SOCIAL WORK
country(ies) from which the ideas and
trained people flow cannot be held to
blame for the lack of an indigenously
inspired and innovated approach to ed­
ucation for the profession. If helping,
in all its nuances, is to be securely
rooted in the cultural patterns and sys­
tems o f the people to be helped, then
education for the profession, in order
to be meaningful, should be developed
from within our borders. W e would d o
well to sever the umbilicus with the
West and consider adopting an organ­
izing framework(s) which permits and
promotes a concept o f interpersonal
helping which is not bound by tradi­
tional curriculum rubrics but rather is
structured around the sociocultural
uniqueness o f the individual, his com­
munity, his perceptions o f his situa­
tional reality, and the tools at his dis­
posal w i t h w h i c h t o r e s o l v e his
difficulties.
O n e such model, among others which
might accomplish a similar purpose, is
what G o l d s t e i n " refers to as a cogni­
tive-humanistic perspective o f social
work practice. Briefly defined, cogni­
tive humanism is an "active attempt to
apply certain principles of cognitive and
moral theory to our work with human
problems of living in a way that re­
spects the patterns, belief systems, and
practices o f our clients' nation and cul­
ture."'* Such a philosophy is predi­
cated upon the assumption that, what­
ever other diff"erences may exist a m o n g
people, and wherever they may be
found, they share the ability not only
to think but to reflect on their thoughts
and actions. "Knowing more about how
people perceive and think would pro­
vide a substantial basis for practice—
o n e that would be flexible and respon­
" Howard Goldstein, "Crossing Cultural
Boundaries in Education for Social W o r k Prac­
tice," Social Work, (in press).
" Ibid.
136
EDUCATION
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sive e n o u g h to m e e t the requirements
o f diverse cultures."'*
A cognitive-humanistic approach to
the individual is also anchored in the
belief that not only is the customer
right; not only does the client and only
the client know where it hurts most,
but that the client is not an object to
be dealt with: rather a subject to be
learned from. In contrast to psycho­
dynamic, sociological, or other theo­
retical underpinnings of our educa­
tional process, "the cognitive helper
welcomes the client . . . as a colleague
and, in a way, as a participant observer.
T h e worker meets the c l i e n t . . . within
the client's own subjective world of
meaning, reality, value and purpose."'*
T h e worker's intent is not to evaluate
and diagnose, but to be e n g a g e d in
what Swaine and B a i r d " refer to as
"meaning-making," a partnership of
student and teacher (client) in a process
of experiential learning; the premise
being that it is the client w h o is the
expert about his life and circumstances,
not the worker. T o borrow from the
terminology of single case design, a
"meaning-making" orientation to so­
cial work education and practice would
be structured on the basis o f "single
case theory design." Rather than forc­
ing a fit between client facts and sci­
entific theories or conceptual frame­
works, an entry into the world of the
individual, through relationship build­
ing and empathic understanding, would
provide the student practitioner with
the knowledge needed to maximally
individualize the helping effort.
It would be presumptuous to attempt
to explicate, within the limitations of
this paper, a distinctively Israeli frame'Ubid.
16 Op cit.
" Richard Swaine and Virginia Baird, " A n
Existentially Based A p p r o a c h to T e a c h i n g Social
W o r k Practice," Journal of Education for Social
Work, Vol. 1 3 , N o . 3 (Fall, 1977).
JOURNAL OF JEWISH COMMUNAL SERVICE
work for sociai work education based
upon a humanistic-phenomenological
approach to interpersonal helping. Such
a task cannot be left to a single indi­
vidual. N o r is such an approach, as
mentioned above, the only valid o n e
answering to Israel's needs. Whatever
approach(es) may eventually be devel­
oped and a d o p t e d — a n d I certainly
h o p e that we may very soon begin to
address the issue seriously—it seems to
m e that a truly Israeli curriculum
should incorporate those shifts in e m ­
phasis, of which the following are rep­
resentative:
A. Sensitization of the student to his or
her psychosocial and cultural self
Innovative and diversified peda­
gogical approaches geared to
helping the student understand
his or her self within the context
of the culural environment; ex­
perientially discovering those
personality, cultural and social
determinants o f behavior and
their manifestations in the stu­
dent's orientation to, and per­
ception of self and others; height­
ening the student's awareness of
how he or she processes impres­
sions and external stimuli and ul­
timately attributes sense and gives
meaning to them; emphasizing
and illustrating the idea that stu­
dents' very identity, like that of
their clients, is secured through
the medium o f the reference cul­
ture in which they first learned
about themselves.
B. Introduction of curriculum content
uniquely Israeli, with emphases upon:
1) material and experiences pro­
viding for extensive and intensive
understanding o f Israel's politi­
cal, social, economic, religious,
cultural, and environmental sys­
tems, especially with respect to
how they shape, determine, and
delimit the nature of social work
practice in this country;
2 ) such c o n c e p t s as " c o m m u ­
nity," "individual," "family,"
"charity," "social action," "citi­
zen participation," etc. as they
are differentially defined and en­
countered in the various cultural,
religious, and environmental sec­
tors which comprise the society;
3) spiritually and culturally an­
chored belief systems (religious/
secular; Eastern/European; Jew­
ish/Moslem): their qualitative and
quantitative determinants of client
behavior, thought and feeling.
Any model should provide for ex­
posure to Jewish philosophy in
general, and in particular to the
system of Jewish ethics and mor­
ality which are both prescriptive
and proscriptive in governing in­
terpersonal relationships with
family and community, and which
establish the parameters o f help­
ing;
4) examining needs which are
both universal or uniquely Israeli:
differential responses to individ­
ual, c o m m u n a l , a n d n a t i o n a l
crises; patterns o f coping with ter­
ritorial relocation, and needs per­
taining to acculturation a m o n g
immigrant groups of varying ages
and cultural backgrounds; com­
m u n i t y - b u i l d i n g , e s p e c i a l l y in
those neighborhoods in which in­
tergroup tensions run high, to
mention but a few.
C. Integration of social science. Judaic
studies, humanities, and social work
practice content. Calling for an ap­
proach to curriculum content and
structure which:
1) p r o v i d e s t h e s t u d e n t w i t h
broad-based foundations in the
social and behavioral sciences, in­
cluding cultural and applied an­
thropology and environmental
psychology, as well as with con137
SOCIAL
tent in other areas, such as Jewish
ethics and moraUty, for example;
2) accentuates, through struc­
tured linkages with methods
courses, the relevance of such
foundation or core course con­
tent for the student practitioner;
3) enables and expects of the stu­
dent, through field and other
learning experiences, to question,
critique, and suggest modifica­
tions and alternatives to existing
scientific
"truths," largely
through a single case theory ap­
proach to practice. Such integra­
tion of content can be actualized
through the practice of co-teach­
ing, in which sociai work, social
science, and other faculty are
coupled in the teaching of core
material, providing for a much
more dynamic educational expe­
rience than is currently being of­
fered by most Israeli schools.
D. Methods and field work content
WORK E D U C A T I O N I N ISRAEL
through the development of the
art of empathic listening, under­
standing, and response. By relat­
ing to the client, not merely as
an object and recipient of service,
but rather as an equal participant
in a relationship. A home visit,
for example becomes a learning
experience in which the client ex­
plains the meaning of what is con­
tained and what goes on in the
personal life space called "home."
Such an approach does not call
for "treating" a client but rather
helping him or her to acquire
that level of understanding into
the meaning of problems and sit­
uations necessary for the estab­
lishment, or reestablishment of
equilibrium between the self and
the significant surrounding.
In conclusion, as we contemplate the
development of Israeli social work ed­
ucation in the next decade, we need
to begin facing east. We would do well
to consider, as an organizing frame­
work, the adoption of a sociocultural
construction of our own being, getting
back to people's life events and the
understanding of their meaning rather
than clinging to the assumption that
true professionalism must be built upon
theoretically grounded scientism. As in
the social sciences, in which there has
been growing interest in recent years
in the subjective, in meaning, in inter­
pretation; in the conviction that "there
is no single way of conceptualizing real­
ity," that "no single interpretation can
be complete,"'* we in the social work
profession in general, and in Israel in
particular, would do well to become
more actively and meaningfully in­
volved as participants in the lives of
those whom we serve.
Emphases should be less upon
traditional process approaches in­
volving case study, assessment and
diagnosis, and intervention and
evaluation models. Attention
should instead be given to an approach(es) which emphasizes the
exploration of those life themes
which give meaning and purpose
for the client; which reveal the
increasingly subtle and intimate
dimensions of problems and sit­
uations. The focus here is not
upon cause (what lead to what
and why?) but upon purpose (what
meaning does the behavior have
for the client within the context
of his or her cultural, religious,
and environmental identifica­
tion?). A humanistic-phenomenologically anchored methods
Karen J. Winkler, "Questioning the Science
framework, while offering train­
in Social Science, Scholars Signal a 'Turn to
ing in the basics of interviewing, Interpretation,' " The Chronicle of Higher Educa­
stresses relationship building tion, June 26, 1985, p. 6.
138