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Robert (Bob) Holman (1936–2016) was a U.K. social worker who became a professor of social policy. When he resigned to lead community projects working with children and their families from his own home, his life and humanity became an inspiration for social workers and others, sustaining faith in practical and political work for social justice. He wrote biographies and social policy texts and on community action for children and families.

This paper reviews definitions of, and commentary and research on peer support as a strategy in mental health service provision, summarizing areas of relevance to social work practice. It is a well-established in many countries, linked to the recovery movement. It provides peers to support people recovering from mental illness, seeing the personal and social journeys of people through mental illness as important aspects of improving their quality of life, accepting some social disability. It is connected with self-help, informal caregiver and advocacy movements and feminist ideas about treatment. Research reviews demonstrate that employing peers as supporters for people recovering from mental ill-health is feasible both in peer-led and in professional mental health provision. Outcomes are at least as good as professional help and peer support reduces use of expensive in-patient services. Positive features of the relationships between peers and patients brings benefits to both, building positive experiences in patients’ lives and helping them manage disabilities.

Much social work theorization about social work with older people concentrates on service provision and practical and emotional support of older people and their informal caregivers. In this chapter, the author draws together elements of social work practice theory with policy directions and service development trends in work with older people. It argues that, as with other client groups, the biomedical lens limits our view of appropriate responses to the needs of older people. Social identity theory proposes that people maintain a positive self-identity by valuing characteristics of youthfulness and distinguishing them from assumed negative characteristics of old age. Social work practice with and social care services for older people must recognize and contest the social environment of ambivalence about ageing and devaluation of older people in personal relations and social structures. A tradition of radical and critical accounts of social work practice theory builds on critical social policy ideas.

This chapter contains a brief biography and transcript of an interview with Mariacarmen Mendoza, a leader in Mexican social work education, who was awarded the Katherine Kendall Award of the International Association of Schools of Social Work in 1998, for her contribution to international social work education. In addition to her professorship at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mendoza has contributed to adult education, community work, civil society organisations, the development of public administration in Mexico and throughout Latin America. She has also undertaken disaster relief work and been concerned with the impact of environmental issues on poor communities. International work extended her opportunities for contributing on many of these important social issues. In social work education, she helped to develop collective education where subject and practice educators work together to develop curricula that include skills training and sought opportunities for indigenous publications.

The chapter presents a content analysis and discussion of interviews with most of the awardees and of biographies of others who received the Katherine Kendall Award, focused on their views on the future of international social work and its education. Debate on the future role of the International Association of Schools of Social Work is also reviewed. Weaknesses in the representation of the full range of international social work education by the Association and the Award are considered. Ways of strengthening representation through greater involvement from the Global South and better funding of representation are explored.

This chapter contains a brief biography and transcript of an interview with Armaity S. Desai, a leader in Indian social work education, who was awarded the Katherine Kendall Award of the International Association of Schools of Social Work in 1992, for her contribution to international social work education. After social work training and practice experience in India and the USA, she held leadership roles at the Nirmala Niketan College of Social Work, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and the Indian University Grants Commission. Areas of social work important in her career included adoption, practice education, integrated practice in social work, using a range of modalities, using social work ideas to inform leadership roles and social development. She saw international social work as giving breadth of perspective, and saw lack of funding and indigenous literature as obstacles to development in social work education. Activism, standing up against the state, is seen as important in social work.

This chapter contains a biography of Harriet Jakobsson, a leader in Swedish social work education, who was awarded the Katherine Kendall Award of the International Association of Schools of Social Work in 2000, for her contribution to international social work education. She fulfilled roles in social work education in Lund and Örebro universities and worked with refugees and with children in Africa and Asia, including leadership roles with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, and the Swedish International Development Commission. She contributed to the development of social work education in Lebanon as a professor of social. Her work with children reflected a strong focus on the rights and voice of children, promoting the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child.

This chapter contains a brief biography and transcript of an interview with Terry Hokenstad, a leader in American social work education, who was awarded the Katherine Kendall Award of the International Association of Schools of Social Work in 2004, for his contribution to international social work education. His professional and academic focus has been on ageing and older people, and he has been widely involved in policy advocacy in this area, including at the United Nations. Another important activity was building international links between US universities and many other countries, particularly with the opening up of the former Soviet bloc. He looks forward to future developments in coordination among international social work organisations.

The chapter presents a content analysis of interviews with most of the awardees and of biographies of others who received the Katherine Kendall Award, summarizing information about them. It reviews the nature of their international work, their roles in developing social work education in their own country and internationally, in extending practice education and in curriculum development. The main social issues that engaged their involvement and the main subjects of their publications are analysed. Issues such as academization, community involvement and policy advocacy, social work and gender, the funding of their work and their work with the United Nations are explored.

This chapter contains a brief biography and transcript of an interview with John Maxwell, a leader in Caribbean social work education who was awarded the Katherine Kendall Award of the International Association of Schools of Social Work in 2002, for his contribution to international social work education. For 35 years, he led social work education at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, in Jamaica, following an early career in youthwork and community development. Seeking to improve the academic and professional standing of social work, he was involved in significant curriculum development, concerned to shift it from a clinical to a community focus and established practice education firmly with good agency supervision. Lack of indigenous literature led him to play a role in the creation of the Caribbean Journal of Social Work. International links expanded the horizons of social work in the Caribbean.

This chapter contains a brief biography and transcript of an interview with Sven Hessle, a leader in Swedish social work education, who was awarded the Katherine Kendall Award of the International Association of Schools of Social Work in 2006, for his contribution to international social work education. Trained as a psychologist, after early experience as director of a therapeutic community for drug users, he worked with vulnerable multi-problem families. He later moved into research and teaching about child welfare practice in Sweden and internationally. He led a variety of projects to reconstruct social work in the former Yugoslavia, involving UNICEF and the Swedish International Development Agency, later becoming involved in other international projects in Asia. He argues for seeing a social aspect to many world problems and fears trends towards academization will diminish the value of the practical aspects of social work education.

This chapter contains a brief biography and transcript of an interview with Silvia M. Staub-Bernasconi, a leader in Swiss social work education, who was awarded the Katherine Kendall Award of the International Association of Schools of Social Work in 2010, for her contribution to international social work education. After studies in social work in Zurich and the USA, she became a street worker with gangs and with migrants. Developing ideas about social work as an action science, concerned with sources of power as well as individuals, she focused on social work as a human rights profession, and was involved in developing a European doctoral programme, INDOSOW. Her experience of students who had been oppressed in many countries led her to teach social work by connecting biography with sociocultural contexts. In the future, social work must separate itself and neoliberal ideas, meeting its triple mandate for a science base combined with individual care and political and social concern.

This chapter contains a brief biography and transcript of an interview with Lena Dominelli, a leader in British social work education, who was awarded the Katherine Kendall Award of the International Association of Schools of Social Work in 2012, for contribution to international social work education. Following education in sociology, she worked as a community worker in a UK government programme, eventually closed down because it stimulated activism. Later, community work became distanced from social work in the UK. Important publications focused on class, gender and racism, and she worked on critical theory and to promote social work as a research-led discipline. Current issues of concern are to embed human rights and social and environmental justice in social work theory and develop involvement in disaster work. During her career, social work changed for the worse by becoming more bureaucratic and managerialist, but among positives are improvements in the profession's status and greater emphasis on user involvement. She would like to see social work become a universal service.

Katherine Kendall was an important executive, fulfilling leadership roles in the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) for nearly 60 years. She experienced migration to the USA, the disruption of war, family disability and her own disability in her early life. As a young woman, she travelled in Europe with her husband in the 1930s, taking up social work training on their return. During World War II, she took up US government international liaison posts. Later, she researched international social work education for the United Nations, contributing to her PhD. Taking up executive posts in the US Council on Social Work Education, she became honorary, then executive secretary of IASSW, fulfilling consultancies and international visits, particularly in Latin America. She led a significant international social development project on family planning, and completed publications on issues in social work education and international social work, including historical overviews and biographical tributes to leaders in these fields, drawing on her experience.

This chapter contains a brief biography and transcript of an interview with Abye Tasse, a leader in African social work education, who was awarded the Katherine Kendall Award of the International Association of Schools of Social Work in 2016, for his contribution to international social work education. A refugee from Ethiopia, he trained and worked as a social worker with migrants in marginalized communities in France. He was involved in developing practice education in Romania and social work education in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Mauritius and Comoros. In Ethiopia, masters and doctoral education supported the development of staff to contribute to bachelor-level education. Research and practice in work with migrants have been important in his career. In the future, social work needs to focus on brotherhood as an important element of liberty and greater equality. The Global social development Agenda is an important basis for future progress in social work.

This chapter contains a biography of Robin Huws Jones, a leader in British social work education, who was awarded the Katherine Kendall Award of the International Association of Schools of Social Work in 1996, for his contribution to international social work education. After early academic posts in adult education and social studies, he became first Director of the National Institute for Social Work Education (UK) and later Associate Director, Joseph Rowntree Memorial Trust. For several years, he organised courses in England for African social welfare administrators. He led a major social development project in the valleys of south Wales and courses for social welfare administrators in third world countries. Contributing to the development of groupwork and community work in the UK, he was a successful fundraiser for many ventures, also achieving influence on social policy in a range of fields.

This chapter contains a biography of Herman D. Stein, a leader in American social work education, who was awarded the Katherine Kendall Award of the International Association of Schools of Social Work in 1994, for his contribution to international social work education. He fulfilled senior academic roles in Columbia and Case Western Reserve Universities in the USA, and worked with displaced persons and victims of the Holocaust in Europe after World War II, and in social development work with UNICEF in Africa (particularly Tanzania). He was involved in major developments in the social work curriculum and on programmes to meet minority concerns in the US, incorporating a strong social justice perspective. He accepted leadership roles in the Council for Social Work Education (US) and the International Association of Schools of Social Work, demonstrating considerable qualities of diplomacy. His publications on behavioural and organizational issues in social work and on social work education were influential.

This chapter identifies three phases of internationalization in social work education. It documents foundation dates of social work courses in a representative range of countries. The foundation phase from the 1920s to 1945 brought together early social work schools in a committee under the leadership of Alice Salomon, the German feminist and social worker. From 1945 to 2000, the establishment phase achieved the adoption of social work education virtually universally, with Katherine Kendall playing an important executive role promoting coordination through the International Association of Schools of Social Work. The end of the Cold War in the 1990s led to the consolidation of the policy and social development work in these earlier phases into an issues-based phase when the Association sought to develop influence on global policy issues of social justice, social conflict and social development. Debates about the nature of international or global social work are explored.

This chapter contains a brief biography and transcript of an interview with Shulamit Ramon, a leader in British social work education, who was awarded the Katherine Kendall Award of the International Association of Schools of Social Work in 2008, for her contribution to international social work education. An important focus of her work as mental health, and early research compared Italian and UK services. She was also involved in developing social work in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet bloc and in the development of an international doctoral programme, INDOSOW. Later projects were concerned with social work responses in situations of political and social conflict. Her work demonstrates a commitment to user involvement in practice and education.

This book explores the aims and priorities of trends to internationalize social work education, in the context of wider processes of economic and cultural globalization. Its analysis draws on interviews with leading social work educators who have been recipients of the Katherine Kendall Award of the International Association of Schools of Social Work, for their contribution to international social work education. Three phases of internationalization are identified: a foundation phase before World War II, an establishment phase until the millennium and a subsequent shift towards international advocacy on issues of concern to the social work profession. Interviews and in three cases biographies illustrate the concerns and internationalizing activities of leading educators during these last two phases. A focus in the 20th century on achieving the adoption of social work education and practice throughout the world led to a concern for practice education and community and social development. An important project in the 1970s involved family planning as a focus of social development. Social justice, political and social conflict and more recently green issues have engaged educators' commitments. Even though women are in a majority in social work, women leaders and leaders from the Global South often faced considerable struggle to assert their research and development priorities. The analysis shows that most Kendall awardees came from Europe and the US, where finance and linguistic and cultural hegemony facilitated educators in playing international roles.