social work undergraduate students in Beijing and Shanghai Humanitarian welfare values in a changing social environment: A survey of

Abstract Summary: Internationally accepted social work values are based on ideas aboutrights, social justice and equitable resource distribution. Does social work educationin China embody similar values? Are these values influenced by culture and the currentpolitical/economic environment? The research posed three questions. Do social workstudents studying in metropolitan China support humanitarian welfare values? Arevalues affected by demographic backgrounds? Does social work education enhancehumanitarian values? A self-administered, standardized questionnaire was distributedin 26 classes of social work students studying in seven universities in Beijing andShanghai (n¼1328). Findings: Students do not support humanitarian welfare values strongly; and a decreasein these values was observed in senior students. Significant differences in values werefound based on gender and on rural/urban origins. Female students were more likely toagree with humanitarian value statements; rural and urban students tended to agreemore with values from which they had potential to benefit. Applications: Social work knowledge and skills rather than values maybe more imme-diately relevant to Chinese society. However, independent professional practitionersneed a solid foundation of professional values to inform practice and standardize thesocial work role. There needs to be an ongoing debate in China involving social workeducators and practitioners about values and their relation to Chinese society, the ways