Social Work - Theses
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ItemThe predominance of American influences on the establishment of social work education at the University of Melbourne 1920-1960( 2015)This dissertation examines the period 1920-1960 during which social work education in Melbourne, the capital city of Victoria , was first established outside its local university, the University of Melbourne, then later adopted by the University when judged to have reached a suitable academic standard. It explores the extent to which its founders drew on British and American expertise using Everett Rogers' theory of diffusion of innovations through communication in networks as its theoretical underpinning. There is a widely held belief , among older social work alumni, that the course at the University of Melbourne originated from British medical social work. An examination of archival material both in the city of Melbourne and internationally has found that from the outset Victoria's social work proponents actively chose to follow American social work educational models, while drawing to a lesser degree on British expertise. The dissertation traces the emergence of social work education in America and Britain and discusses the reasons for their divergence in the early twentieth century. It outlines the parallel development of social work education in three Australian capital cities, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide in all of which social work education commenced outside the local universities. The influence of the traditional precursors of social work education, particularly the Charity Organisation Society, are investigated. The role of Jocelyn Hyslop, the founding Director of the Melbourne social work programme (which began outside the University in 1933) and her Melbourne employers and supporters who achieved success in 1940 in having the University take over social work education from the inaugural voluntary management committee is documented. The dissertation then traces the Department of Social Studies' fortunes throughout World War II and the period of post-war reconstruction tracking the way in which the standards of the course were guarded and an increasingly American approach was adopted. It shows how despite the subsequent University of Melbourne course losing some impetus in the 1950s the establishment of a range of national Australian networks and the emergence of new opinion leaders saw social work education continue to flourish. This American influenced Melbourne course made a crucial contribution to the establishment of social work education in Melbourne and nationally.