Abstract
It is widely accepted that a social development paradigm is both appropriate and necessary for the African context, and social development has significantly influenced social work theory, policy and practice on the continent (Cox and Pawar, 2005, Patel, 2005a, Gray and Fook, 2004). However, it is not always clear exactly what is being
referred to with this term. What is also unknown is how much of this debate has positively influenced the training of new social workers across the region. Further, no data exists on how the social development approach is actually being used by the individual schools of social work in the region. In fact, very little is known about social work education in Africa at all. This research project therefore aimed to contribute to knowledge development in this field in Southern and East Africa through primary empirical research.