Social Work Practice Education in Italy During the Pandemic and Beyond: The Context, Experimentations and Their Possible Long-Lasting Values

With the outbreak of COVID-19, social work practice education in Italy experienced massive changes. Beyond the clear negative consequences on students, field supervisors and teachers, the shift from in-presence to remote activities also gave the schools of social work some innovation opportunities. After the pandemic, an open question concerns the current value of innovations in 2020–2022. To address these questions, this chapter analyzes the changes in social work practice education in 25 Italian BA-level programs between 2020 and 2022, illustrates the characteristics of the most innovative experimentations, and reflects on their post-pandemic value. The first section of the chapter presents the crucial characteristics of social work practice education in Italy from a historical perspective, assuming that history matters for innovation. The second briefly recalls the harshness of COVID-19 in Italy and focuses on the changes and experimentations in social work practice education programs. Finally, we discuss the current relevance of the experimentations and the long-lasting problems of social work practice education in Italy.