Call For Abstract For APASWE Book Series

 Invitation to Authors 
APASWE Book Series No. 3

Social Work Scholarship in Education and Practice Innovations from the Asia-Pacific

Edited By Dr. Bala Raju Nikku, Nepal School of Social Work and Universiti Sains Malaysia
&
Associate Professor Dr. Zulkarnain Hatta, Universiti Sains Malaysia

In an ever changing social landscape, social work educators and practitioner activists are challenged to be researchers and educators. Our main role as social work educators and practitioners is to prepare new generation of social work students at every level (diploma, undergraduate, post graduate and doctoral) to address the societal challenges of the present and future.

In this book we shall explore social work scholarship and how it can be further developed by simple innovative practices in schools of social work in the Asia - Pacific region. We do this by asking simple questions such as: What it means to be a social work scholar? How can social work teachings that use innovative ideas contribute to social work scholarship? What institutional incentives and visions trigger innovations in the work place? How can the creativity of a social work educator be fully tapped? How can a school of social work vision appropriately shared and defined by all the stakeholders alike?

To quote Cwikel, Savaya, Munford, and Desai (2010:199), “Innovation in schools of social work is a new or adapted reflection of professional social work values in social work education; through curricular, pedagogical, technical and structural strategy that is field-based and student-centered; to sequentially benefit: 1) the stakeholders of the academic institutions – students, faculty members, and field instructors; 2) the stakeholders of the field of social work practice – practitioners, voluntary organizations and the clients; and 3) the community and the society at large.”

Successful innovation requires organizations and individuals to engage in positive risk-taking, which in many public service arenas, particularly a social work context, could present significant barriers. Risk is a central component of innovation and innovation is seen as essential to the improvement of public services (Brown, 2010; Boyer 1990).

Xenitidou and Gilbert (2009) acknowledged that defining ‘innovation’ within social science research methods is not evident. Innovation is the creation of better or more effective processes, services, products, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society. The term can mean ‘to make changes in something established,’ to alter and renew, and has even been used in the context of revolution. Innovation differs from invention; in that innovation refers to the use of a new idea or method, whereas invention refers more directly to the creation of the idea or method itself.

More than a century of social work knowledge definitely has led to innovations and scholarship in the Asia-Pacific region. Hence, this book is a humble effort to document scholarship in social work in the region that is not fully explored, documented, recognized and diffused. This book is an invitation to prospective authors to trigger their ideas and take the first step to submit manuscripts that capture their rich experiences and research evidence. We look forward to working with you in this endeavor.

Guiding Framework for Your Chapter Introduction: Describe the innovation - factors that triggered the particular innovation, highlight the challenges, reactions encountered on introduction of the innovation. Why do you think it is in fact an innovation and not an imitation? Argue with evidence that it is an innovation in the chosen field of social work. Level at which the innovation was introduced. Institutional and other support mechanisms for innovation. Who benefited from the innovation and how? Conclusion/Discussion - link the innovation leading to building of social work scholarship

Submission Details:
The editors invite you to send abstracts (500 words maximum) of proposed papers to them by 31 May 2012 for their consideration. Please email your abstracts to: brnikku@usm.my & haqqani@usm.my with a subject line ‘abstract for APASWE book.’ Notification of abstract acceptance will be made by the early Jun 2012. Full chapters (with a maximum word limit of 10,000 including end note, references) are to be submitted by the end of November 2012 for review prior to decision on publication of acceptance. For referencing please use APA referencing style. The book is expected to be ready by the end of March 2013.

References

• Boyer, E. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
  
• Brown, L. (2010). Balancing risk and innovation to improve social work practice, special issue on risk and social work: Critical perspectives, British Journal of Social Work, 40 (4), 1211-1228.
• Cwikel, J., Savaya, R., Munford, R., and Desai, M. (2010). Innovation in schools of social work: An international exploration, International Social Work, 53 (2), 187-201.
• Rogers, E.M. (1993) Diffusion of innovations. New York: Free Press.
• Xenitidou, M. and Gilbert, N. (2009). Innovations in social science research methods. Guildford: University of Surrey.