1. for an Early Discussion of Systems Theory and Its Impact on Practice Thinking, See Gordon

Notes

1. For an early discussion of systems theory and its impact on practice thinking, see Gordon Hearn (1958; 1962; 1969); Carel Germain, "Teaching an Ecological Approach to Social Work Practice," (1977; Germain & Gitterman, 1996); Carel B. Germain and Alex Gitterman, The Life Model of Social Work Practice: Advances in Theory and Practice, 2nd ed.(1996)

2. The model of person and system interaction presented in this chapter is rooted in a school of thought developed by a number of philosophers and social scientists including John Dewey, Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education (1916); and George Herbert Mead, Mind, Self, and Society (1934).

3. Schwartz draws his rationale for the symbiotic model from such authors as Peter Kropotkin, Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1925); Muzafer Sherif, The Psychology of Social Norms (1936; Sherif & Sherif, 1956); Gardner Murphy, Human Potentials (1985); James Mark Baldwin, The Individual and Society: Or Psychology and Sociology (1911).

4. For a historical view of the contribution of Jane Adams see: Garvin, C., "Group Work Activities and Settings," in Contemporary Group Work (1987).

5. Harry Specht was my first-year field instructor at the Mt. Vernon YM&YWHA in Mt. Vernon, New York. He, and other staff at that innovative placement, provided a foundation for my understanding of social action as an inherent part of my role as a social worker. Harry later became the Dean of Berkeley University School of Social Work. The executive director of the Mt. Vernon Y at that time, George Braeger, who later became the Dean of the Columbia University School of Social Work, developed and headed a major demonstration and research project on Manhattan's Lower East Side called Mobilization for Youth that became a model for national community action organizations and poverty programs funded during the Johnson presidential term of office. A few months before his death, when I informed Harry Specht that I often told people that he was my first field instructor, he belatedly informed me that I had been his first student.

6. For a discussion of the mediating function and the interactional model, see William Schwartz, "Social Group Work: The Interactionist Approach," (Berman-Rossi, 1994); See also William Schwartz, "Between Client and System: The Mediating Function," in Theories of Social Work with Groups, eds. Robert W. Roberts and Helen Northen (1976). For a publication containing the complete collection of published and unpublished writings of William Schwartz, see Toby Berman-Rossi, ed., The Collected Writings of William Schwartz (1994).