Ethical Milestones of Social Work Professionalization (American, Czechoslovak and Slovak Perspective)

Andrej Matel

Abstract
OBJECTIVES: The aim of the paper is to analyse the place and role of ethics in the process of professionalization of social work from a diachronic point of view and present selected ethical milestones in this process. THEORETICAL BASE: Ethics is an integral part of the process of professionalization of social work from its beginning to the present. The paper relied mainly on the works of Frederik F. Reamer, taking into account the Czechoslovak and Slovak cultural-historical and political context. METHODS: The diachronic perspective is related to historical analysis, which in the case is connected with the qualitative content analysis of primary sources and secondary literature. OUTCOMES: The paper offers the analysis of the works of selected authors to learn that ethics has a stable position in social work from its beginning to the present, although its external expressions and emphases have changed over the course of history. SOCIAL WORK IMPLICATIONS: Ethics should not only be a special subject of academic works, but an integral part of all its theories and methods of work. The ethical challenges of the current digital age and the global pandemic period are key themes, which should be part of ethical reflection.

Keywords
ethics, code of ethics, values, social work, professionalization

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