Empowering Social Work Faculty: Alternative Paradigms for Teaching and Learning

Based upon the emergence of alternative paradigms both inside and outside of social work education, four paradigms representing the most traditional to the most radical are presented. Each paradigm is discussed in terms of its ontological and epistemological assumptions as well as other pedagogical issues including role of the teacher, methods of evaluation and course structure. Educators are urged to use these paradigms to better understand legitimate differences between faculty, to become more conscious and deliberate in their choice of methods, to identify areas of incongruence, and to push themselves and the profession towards philosophies and methods most congruent with social work values an ethics.