Social Work Education in Italy: Light and Shadows

The process of institutionalisation of social work education dates from the end of the Second World War, and the Tremezzo Conference (1946) can be defined as its foundation. The academisation process of social work education in Italy has been long and challenging, with lights and shadows. The book chapter will describe this journey by analysing, in particular, the current situation: degree courses structure, with reference to the Bologna process; the effects of the non-autonomy of the social work discipline; the internship with some peculiarities and criticisms; the teaching methodologies and some problems arising from the traditional ways of looking at the education process by the Italian university; and the opportunities offered by the EU Erasmus-Socrates programmes. An analysis of the principal aspects of the of social work theorisation, through the work done both by individual scholars and thanks to the Association of Italian Teachers in Social Work, will be described with reference to some publications that are considered as essential for the education of social workers in Italy. Research-related developments in social work will be presented, with particular reference to essential initiatives undertaken by the SOCISS (Italian Society for Social Work).