불교계 사회복지교육의 현황과 발전방향 -대학 교육을 중심으로-

Abstract

Buddhism has its purpose on nirvana by solving the pain of human beings, and has performed actual social work with a Buddhism concept “mercy and dana”. Social work has also contributed to problem-solving of human beings in difficulties. In this point of view, It is deeply associated with the Buddhism and social work. Sixty years have been passed since the beginning of modern college social work education in Korea. Recently, social work of Buddhism is growing rapidly in Korea. However, it is difficult to seek professional social workers who have the experience and the expertise in Buddhism. Therefore development of human resources having Buddhist thoughts is keenly needed in Buddhist social work. In this paper, I have investigated the current situation and suggested some future directions in Buddhist social work education in college level. This study indicates that the Buddhist colleges of social work are in need of sufficient professors for education, satisfactory Buddhist values in educational goals, and diverse choices in curriculum. It is positively necessary for colleges to cooperate together and to introduce Buddhist social worker licence system as early as possible for the Buddhist organization. Ties with the education curriculum are urgently needed to adapt to the new environment such as increasing multi-cultural families. Furthermore, international exchange with foreign colleges would help enhancing the position of Korean Buddhist social work education. In the end, more studies are necessary on Buddhist social work and its education.