Ethics and Professional Education in Social Work: from conservativism to emancipation

Abstract

Based on a critical reading of social work curriculum from 1936 to the curricular guidelines of 1996 this article analyzes the social direction and ethical perspective found in the eight-decade trajectory of education in social work. Using document research, it reviews the ten curriculums since the establishment of Brazil’s first school of social work, passing through four minimum national curriculum until the current curriculum guidelines. It traces the route traveled from an education based on a conservative perspective to the important inflection of an emancipatory perspective. It raises considerations about the challenges faced by the current political pedagogical project, particularly concerning the need to implement the transversality of ethics in the education of social workers.