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R.J. Lawrence

John Lawrence was born in 1931 and was educated in Adelaide. Later, as a Rhodes Scholar in Magdalen College, Oxford, he completed a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. After a period of employment in the social work section of the Commonwealth Department of Social Services, he studied at The Australian National University and received his PhD. In 1961, he was appointed to the University of Sydney in the first Australian academic post in social administration. In 1964, he became a member of the Federal Council of the Australian Association of Social Workers.

Professional Social Work in Australia »

Authored by: R.J. Lawrence

Publication date: February 2016

This is an unchanged republication of the first historical account of the social work profession in Australia. It traces the development of social work education and professional social work in the larger, more industrialised societies overseas before the same developments began in Australia in the late 1920s, and it notes the part played by overseas influence in the subsequent 30-odd years. The book concentrates on the development of training bodies and their courses, the spread of qualified social workers into various fields of employment in Australia’s expanding health and welfare services, and the growth of professional associations and their programmes. The author assesses the occupational group in terms of accepted attitudes towards the established professions. He concludes with a discussion of major contemporary issues facing the Australian social work profession.

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