Abstract
M.A.
An acceptance of a developmental paradigm is now gaining support in South Africa.
This notion has been supported by the new welfare policy introduced by the Government. The White Paper for Social Welfare is a policy document which clearly initiated an understanding towards a comprehensive, integrated, equitable, multidisciplinary and developmental approach. This document provides a framework for developmental social welfare in South Africa. Social work as a profession needs to undergo a paradigm shift so that it can adopt to new challenges. Previous intervention strategies which were more therapeutic and remedial need to be used with other strategies which are preventative and developmental.
The challenge of undergoing a paradigm shift should start with higher education
institutions. They should design curriculums which are aimed at equipping students with
skills which are relevant for the challenges in the environment. The goal of this research was to do a quantitative study to assess student social workers' attitudes towards developmental social work. Data collection method used for the study was the Attitude Towards New Trends in Social Work (ATNT). This instrument was developed by Faul and Nel (1997). Three aspects are measured by this instrument, namely:
The attitude towards community development;
The attitude towards cross-cultural work;
The attitude towards developmental issues versus therapeutic work.
The instrument was administered to 152 social work students from RAU, University of
Pretoria and Potchefstroom University. Three quarters of the sample were
predominantly white students. The results of the study showed that students generally
had a positive attitude towards developmental social work.
Students felt more competitive with community development and developmental social
work as compared to working cross-culturally. Some felt that they could not work crossculturally because they are still afraid to go into some areas, especially those that are
still dominated by one culture group. This showed a need for the University to include
cross-cultural aspects in their curriculum from first year level.