Introduction to Social Work

LEONORA SERAFICA-DE GUZMAN was trained to be a writer, but she pursued fulltime career as a social worker instead. Her last position was dean, College of Social Work, Centro Escolar University which she held for more than 15 years. Prior to her becoming an educator she served a term as a member of the very first Board of Examiners for Social Work, Professional Regulation Commission, 1966-1968.

As an educator she realized early on the need for social work teaching materials indigenous to the Philippines. The hooks and references then being used were foreign, mostly American. As a long-time chairman of a Schools of Social Work Committee on Teaching Resources, she became deeply involved in the production of local social work literature. Her own contribution consisted of the writing of seminar and workshop reports as teaching resources, the authorship and co-authorship of social workbooks, and the editorship of the 1971 and 1977 issues of the Philippine Encyclopedia of Social Work. Her Dictionary of Social Work, Philippine Setting was published in 1988 by New Day Publishers.

In 1980 she was named Social Worker of the Year by the Professional Regulation Commission; in 1982 she was cited as an Eminent Filipino Woman Educator by the Pi Lambda Theta, Philippine Chapter; in 1986 she received the Contributing, Achieving, Participating Alumni (CAPA) award from the Philippine Women’s University. Mrs. de Guzman received her Bachelor of Literature degree from the University of Santo Tomas, a Master of Arts in Social Administration from the Philippine Women’s University, and her Master of Social Work from the University of Southern California, U.S.A.

This book was written for students taking up a beginning course in social work at the undergraduate or graduate level as a base for effective social work practice. It is also in partial fulfillment of a commitment made to seasoned practioners for a fresh, unifying, and renewed perspective in their work especially during these times when we are facing so many challenges in the form of social problems resulting from national and international events. Whereas before the amelioration of poverty was the major concern of social workers, today we find this coupled with the problem of increasing psychosocial dysfunctioning. As a result, social workers have had to resort to rapid adaptations and readaptations in their tasks and activities, and even in their professional roles. Hence the need for a common frame of reference.
-Leonora Serafica-De Guzman

Description: 225 pages ; 22.8 x 15.1 cm

Language: English

ISBN: 978-971-10-1375-2