Problem Mapping: Implications for Social Work Education and Practice

Abstract

Social work education plays a significant role in training students to work for the mission of enhancing human well-being and meeting the needs of the people. However, the complex social problems of the contemporary world and reducing funding to nonprofits are posing challenges, even for trained social work professionals. Realizing the need to adopt innovative, creative, and entrepreneurial ways of problem-solving, social entrepreneurship (SE)/intrapreneurship and social innovation (SI) have widely gained attention within social work education. The contextual and comprehensive understanding of the social problem and identification of the specific problem to solve (opportunity identification) is a prerequisite for practicing SE/SI for social workers. In this context, the present conceptual paper introduces the approach of “Problem Mapping” and the “Problem Map” tool by citing the SE cases from India. Lastly, pedagogical changes in the social work curriculum are suggested to incorporate this learning, considering its importance for the social workers.

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