Abstract—In light of continuous social change and the
uniqueness of social problems faced by the clients of
professional social workers, practice innovations are constantly
needed to better address problems, strategies are needed to
deal with emerging and challenging problems, and a
commitment to innovate in the midst of ongoing treatment
interventions due to changing client situations is necessary.
Social work educators, in a unique position of preparing
students for professional practice that focuses on knowledge,
skills and values, can effectively teach innovation as a
necessary facet of practice. Seeing innovation through its
intellectual, affective, ethical, and societal and client drivers,
social work educators can pose questions to students that can
be creatively answered, at least in part, through both academic
and field experiences.
Index Terms—Emerging practice, social work education,
social work innovation.
Cynthia L. Garthwait is with the University of Montana, Missoula,
Montana, CO 59812 USA (e-mail: cynthia.garthwait@umontana.edu).
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Cite: Cynthia L. Garthwait, " Social Work Education: A Vehicle for Innovative Practice," International Journal of Social Science and Humanity vol. 5, no. 9, pp. 798-803, 2015.