Current Activities
This research project aims to promote international exchange of diverse social work knowledge and experience among practitioners (not necessarily limited to the social work professions) who are involved in community development and local activities in Asia and other regions.
1. Call for participants: Expected participants for the pilot study
Those who self-identify as practicing social work (whether ‘professional’ or ‘non-professional’ in the narrow sense), have an interest and involvement in community activities, agree with the study’s content and purpose and have completed and submitted the application form. Because of the research purpose, Western-rooted professional social work is not prioritised strategically. Additionally, those who are solely engaged in research at the time of application are ineligible. Please note that the call may be closed if there are more than 20 potential participants (or a maximum of 5 per country), among others.
2. Research Period (tentative)
January 2025－October 2027
3. Planned collaborative activities include
- Holding small-size online workshops (about every few months)
- Publishing reports on local/indigenous social work knowledges based on practical essays or narratives
- Sharing and disseminating findings in publications in collaboration with us.
4. Registration fee
Free
5. Registration and Cancelation
Registration: If you are interested in it, please contact me.
How to withdraw/cancelation: Collaborators can withdraw unconditionally at any time.
6. Research ethics and informed consent
This project was approved for implementation by the Research Ethics Review Committee of Shukutoku University on 4 July 2024 (Approval numbers: 2024-103, 2024-104), and re-approved by the research ethics committee of Shimane University on 18 January 2025 (Approval number: 2024-09). In principle, participation in this study is entirely voluntary, and participants will not be penalised if they discontinue or withdraw at any point. No compensation will be provided for participation.
7. Pre-survey
To be updated.
Recent Publications
Higashida, M., Poonpoksin, W., Paul, K., Das, T. K., Vasudevan, V., Ali, I., Jafar, M., Shoukat, A., & Matsuo, K. (2023). An exploration of contextually relevant curricula in international social work education: learning from the experiences of selected Asian countries. Discover Global Society, 1(1), 6.
Higashida, M., Matsuo, K., & Gohori, J. (2023). Integrating indigenous perspectives into international social work education: a case study in Japan. In Majumdar, K., Baikady, R., & D'Souza, A.A. (eds.). Indigenization discourse in social work: International perspectives (pp. 143-165). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-37712-9_9
A book, entitled ‘Exploring alternative social work knowledge based on the narratives of practitioners from Sri Lanka’, has been published by the Osaka Metropolitan University Press (edited by Higashida, M., Attanayake, S., Ranaweera, A., & Ashker, M.).
A co-edited book, entitled ‘International social work of all people in the whole world a new construction’ (2nd edition), has been published by Junposha (edited by Higashida, M., Akimoto, T., & Matsuo, K. (2024)).
Higashida, M. (2024). Re-examining international social work theory:
“Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?”. Discover Global Society, 2(1), 31.
A Japanese translation version of the co-edited book, entitled ‘国際ソーシャルワーク―新たな概念構築’, published by Junposha (edited by Higashida, M., Akimoto, T., & Matsuo, K. (2025)).
