Should social workers (learn to) care? How educational reforms affect the social work profession

The professional jurisdiction of social workers is subject to continuous change. Such changes are often assumed to be based on actions taken by the profession; an assumption that downplays the influence of external factors. This paper investigates the influence of educational reforms on jurisdictional change by examining the addition of social care to the professional jurisdiction of social workers. The paper is based on an analysis of public reports and the curricula of all social work programmes in Sweden. The findings show that only one curriculum has mandatory courses in social care, while most other curricula have non-mandatory courses on ageing. The findings support the hypothesis that educational reforms can drive changes in professional jurisdiction. However, the path-dependent nature of higher education institutions may lead to gaps between the intention and embodiment of such reforms, which is shown in the empirical analysis. Finally, there are tensions between the idea of a generalist social work programme and ensuring that newly qualified social workers are prepared to work in the specialized sectors of social work.