UPPVBK027 History of Social Work

Faculty of Public Policies in Opava
Summer 2025
Extent and Intensity
8/0/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
prof. PhDr. Dušan Janák, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. PhDr. Dušan Janák, Ph.D.
Institute of Pedagogical and Psychological Sciences – Faculty of Public Policies in Opava
Contact Person: PhDr. Edita Ondřejová, Ph.D.
Prerequisites (in Czech)
FAKULTA(FVP) && TYP_STUDIA(B) && FORMA(K)
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The aim of the course is to acquaint students with religious, philosophical and ethical bases of social welfare and the history of social care and social work in the context of social policy in Europe and also in Czech and Slovak territories. The course follows the development of the various forms of social care and social work from antiquity to the turn of the 19th and 20th century, and the subsequent genesis and development of social work as a specialised professional field and scientific discipline. This issue is traced on three interconnected levels, so that after passing the course, students are well oriented in the historical development of philosophical aspects and motivations of social care and its organizational forms, and in the content changes of social care and social work. Study Outcomes: Professional Knowledge: The students have an overview of the available literature, they can distinguish the main developmental stages of social care and social work, they understand contemporary and current terminology. They demonstrate basic knowledge about the development of religious, philosophical and ethical views on the issues of the state and the citizen, charitable activities, social care and social work. They know individual historical forms and methods of assistance, starting with various gifts of the members of the elite, over the creation of formalized aid by municipalities and organizations to the legislatively grounded commitments of the state, municipalities and corporations to citizens and forms of their implementation. They demonstrate an understanding of the concepts of social care and assistance from the non-specialized meeting of diverse needs in the traditional society to specialized fields of assistance in the modern and post-modern society. Professional Skills: Students can search for and sort relevant information and produce a written characteristics of the various stages and forms of social work, they can interpret their historic conditionality and variability, they can comprise and interpret the fundamental differences between the historical and the modern forms of social care and social work in the context of social development and put them in mutual comparison.
Syllabus
  • 1) Introduction to the study of the history of social work, terminology, literature
    2) Subject and periodization of the history of social work, review of literature
    3) Social assistance and social care in antiquity: paternalism and philanthropy
    4) The beginnings and development of Christian charity (1st - 10th century)
    5) Main forms and ways of social care and mutual solidarity in the 11th - 15th century
    6) Between mercy and repression I. Renaissance and reformation social thinking and care (16th century)
    7) Between mercy and repression II. Enlightenment and social care (17th - 18th century)
    8) Philosophical and ethical fundamentals of social solicy and social work in modern age (18th - 20th Century)
    9) From social care to the beginnings of social work (1st half of the 19th century)
    10) The birth of modern social policy and social work (2nd half of the 19th century)
    11) Social work between wars: Influence of science and ideologies (1918-1939)
    12) Social welfare state and social work in liberal democracies and in Czechoslovakia after World war II (1945 - 1989)
    13) Modern penitentiary and social work
Literature
    required literature
  • MUSIL, L. Různorodost pojetí nejasná nabídka a kontrola výkonu "sociální práce". In Sociální práce/Sociálna práca, č./roč. 2/2008, s. 60-79. ISSN 1213-6204. info
  • JANÁK, D. – HLAVIENKA, L. Dějiny sociální práce. Distanční studijní opora. Opava: Slezská univerzita v Opavě, 2022.
  • JANÁK, D. – HLAVIENKA, L. Kapitoly z dějin sociální práce (studijní text – pracovní verze). Opava: Slezská univerzita v Opavě, 2020.
  • LAAN, G. van der. Otázky legitimace sociální práce: (pomoc není zboží). Boskovice: Albert, 1998. ISBN 80-85834-41-3. info
  • NOVOTNÁ, V. a SCHIMMERLINGOVÁ, V. Sociální práce, její vývoj a metodické postupy. Praha: Karolinum, 1992. ISBN 80-7066-483-5. info
    recommended literature
  • MUSIL, L. Tři pohledy na budoucnost sociální práce. Hradec Králové: Gaudeamus, 2010. ISBN 978-80-7435-086-3. info
  • TOMEŠ, I. Úvod do teorie a metodologie sociální politiky. Praha: Portál, 2010. ISBN 978-80-7367-680-3. info
  • MATOUŠEK, O. a kol. Základy sociální práce. Praha: Portál, 2007. ISBN 978-80-7367-331-4. info
  • RADWAN-PRAGLOWSKI, J. a FRYSZTACKI, K. Społeczne dzieje pomocy człowiekowi: od filantropii Greckiej do pracy socjalnej. Katowice: Śląsk, 1998. ISBN 83-7164-106-0. info
Language of instruction
Czech
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course can also be completed outside the examination period.
Information on the extent and intensity of the course: Přednáška 8 HOD/SEM.
Teacher's information
A written test to verify knowledge of the required literature and lectures. The test consists of a minimum of 30 closed questions with four answer options, of which only one is correct.
The course is also listed under the following terms Winter 2014, Winter 2015, Winter 2016, Winter 2017, Winter 2018, Winter 2019, Winter 2020, Winter 2021, Winter 2022, Summer 2023, Winter 2023, Summer 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Summer 2025, recent)
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