PLOTTING THE LITERATURE ON SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION FROM 1971-2020: A SCIENTOMETRIC ANALYSIS

This paper aimed to examine social work education, school social work, and social work curriculum employing scientometric analysis from 1971 to 2020. The purpose was to consolidate the documents on social work education in the science citation index and web of science database indexed publications. We extracted 4351 published documents and presented them in tables and figures to show the trend of data. The study findings showed that the major documents were published as articles and the language English was used. Similarly, the top keyword social work education, Univ. of Maryland top organization, and the United States was the top country. The name of Bogo M was at the top of the list of top twenty authors, top keyword school social work, and social work curriculum. Further, social work education was the top source of published documents and the top-cited article had 202 citations published in 2007.

Generally, there is no such provision of these activities however every school has established a group of students that take up social work activities (Shoaib, Iqbal, & Tahira, 2021;Shoaib, Mustafa, & Hussain, 2022, 2023;Garrett, 2005).It is often a kind of social work squad that performs these activities outside the school (Lee, 2012;Leung, 2015).Similarly, the student-teacher relationship shows that how teachers inculcate the characteristics among the students (Costin, 1983;Isaksson & Sjöström, 2017).It includes acceptance of student experiences while stepping into the shoes of teachers to involve in social work activities (Pahwa, 2003;Redmond, 2003;Varley, 1980).These students are trained by the teachers to assist the people with different concerns of education, health, and classroom (Biddle, 1955;Welsh, 1983;Wong, 2013).They are supposed to support after the consultation with teachers and parents (Shoaib, Ali, & Akbar, 2021;Shoaib, Anwar, & Mustafa, 2022;Shoaib, Fatima, & Jamil, 2021;Garrett, 2005).It is pertinent to mention here that we are going to analyze the research documents published in the last five decades in the field of social work education.A great bulk of the literature has been evidenced growing in the last five decades due to the access technology that further paved the way for the common people to access, research, and construct the knowledge.

Objectives of the Study
We articulated the main objective to examine social work education, school social work, and social work curriculum employing scientometric analysis from 1971 to 2020.Further, the results were presented in the following sub-headings in the section of results and discussion.
• Types, language, year, and social work education keyword

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Several studies have been conducted to elaborate on the importance of social work education (Ahmad, Ahmad, Shoaib, & Shaukat, 2021;Ahmad, Shoaib, & Shaukat, 2021: Bibus & Koh, 2021;Jewell et al., 2021;McClendon et al., 2021;Park et al., 2021).A huge body of literature revealed that social work education had been practiced to address the social evils and problems in different countries in the globe (Altshuler & Bosch, 2003;Bush, 1977;Wermeling et al., 2013;Yarbrough, 1975).As the study of Moran (1989) asserted that social work education had been used to change the attitude of students at different levels.Similarly, the findings of Gelman et al. (1996) illustrated the liability-oriented issues in the field of social work education.Further, Moffatt, Oxhandler, and Ellor (2021) pointed out the role of social work education to promote spirituality and religiosity.As mentioned by Kourgiantakis et al. (2020) that social work education had been used to address individuals facing addiction, mental health issues, and suicide.However, the study of McGuire and Lay (2020) revealed that social work education had been used in reflective pedagogy and integrating classroom along with the education based on competency.It is important to mention here that research scholars highlighted the importance of social work education to tackle different social problems including forensic (nwar, Shoaib, & Mustafa, 2022;Shoaib, 2021;Shoaib, Abdullah, & Ali, 2020, 2021;Kheibari, Walker, Clark, Victor, & Monahan, 2021), intercultural humility (Bibus & Koh, 2021), disability (Kim & Sellmaier, 2020), human rights (Gatenio Gabel & Mapp, 2020), social change and transformation (Witkin, 2014), AIDS (Bowen, 2013), cooperative learning (Steiner, Stromwall, Brzuzy, & Gerdes, 1999), and liability issues (Gelman et al., 1996).Similar to social work education, several studies had been conducted to mention and elaborate on the importance of school social work in different countries in the world (Biddle, 1955;Costin, 1983;Isaksson & Sjöström, 2017;Lee, 2012;Redmond, 2003).Similarly, several studies had been conducted to strengthen and highlight the issue raised in the field of school social work (Shoaib, Ahmad, Ali, & Abdullah, 2021;Shoaib, Ali, Anwar, & Abdullah, 2022;Garrett, 2005;Hale, 1966;Picton & Keegel, 1978;Redmond, 2003).As the study of Wong (2013) illustrated the school social work address the recovery of disabled children during an earthquake in China.Similarly, the findings of Lee (2012) pointed out the importance of school social work in the context of Australia.The findings of Averett and Hegde (2012) asserted the strength of school social work to address the students' attitudes.It is worth mentioning to state that several studies had been a highlight and used school social work to address different problems at the school level including group activities in school (Garrett, 2005), computer and virtual reality (Smokowski & Hartung, 2003), information system in schools (Redmond, 2003), usage of technology in schools (Pahwa, 2003), evaluation (Marshall & Rose, 1975), and educational planning (Hale, 1966).
Further, it observed that different studies had also been conducted to address the issues of the social work curriculum (Shoaib, Ali, Anwar, Rasool, et al., 2021;Shoaib, Ali, Anwar, & Shaukat, 2021;Shoaib, Ali, & Naseer, 2021;Canfield & Weiss, 2015;Hageman, Sherraden, Birkenmaier, & Loke, 2021).The study of Alvarez-Hernandez (2021) revealed that social curriculum had been a very important aspect of social work discipline.This study also added the teaching of intersectionality and also used analysis clusters.However, the study of Sousa, Yutzy, Campbell, Cook, and Slates (2020) pointed out the practice and need of social work curriculum at the macro level.It is important to mention here that in all the above-mentioned studies, scholars used different tools and techniques to conduct their studies along with scientometric analysis techniques.As the study of Shoaib, Ali, Anwar, and Shaukat (2021) employed scientometric analysis to show the trend of data on learning outcomes and academic performance in higher education.Similarly, the study of Shoaib, Ahmad, Ali, and Abdullah (2021) used the same method to show the trend of data on classroom and class participation.Hence, this study had also been used the bibliometric analysis technique to evaluate social work education, school social work, and social work curriculum employing scientometric analysis from 1971 to 2020.

METHODOLOGY
For this study, we employed scientometric analysis and extracted data from the science citation index database and web of science (core collection).The searched query was used as [TS=("Social Work Education") OR TS=("School Social Work") OR TS=("Social Work Curriculum")].Further, the data was extracted on April 30, 2021, at 10:23 PM with the period of 1971 to 2020.Based on the scientometric analysis, searched keywords by topic were retrieved as 3891 social work education, 318 schools social work, and 307 social work curriculum.A total of 4516 results were found and 4351 published documents after screening.For analysis, Biblioshiny, VOSviewer, and MS Excel software were used.Further, a four-phase flow chart of the data extraction and filtration process was presented in Figure 1.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
This section included the results and discussion on the subject under discussion.Further, this section was divided into sub-sections as mentioned in the objective of the study.The results were depicted with the support of tables and figures to show the trend of data.

Types, Language, Year, and Social Work Education Keyword
Table 1 indicated the type of published documents along with language, year, and keywords used in social work education from 1971 to 2020.Data illustrated that 86.14 percent of the published documents were in the form of an article and 3.93 of the documents were editorial material.It is important to mention here that the documents were published in the type of book review, proceedings paper, review, meeting abstract, letter, note, and correction.However, there was only one document published in each type including the abstract of the published item, biographical-item, discussion, news item, and reprint.The overall results showed that the major proportion of the published documents were in the form of an article from 1971 to 2020.
In Table 1, the language of the published documents was also provided.Here, the data indicated that 99.29 percent of the documents were published in the language of English and 0.30 percent of published documents were in German.However, the documents published in the language of Spanish, Croatian, and Turkish were also reported.The scientometric analysis also reported that there was only one published document was found in the language of French, Portuguese, and Russian.The overall analysis based on the scientometric analysis described that the most preferred language used in the published document was English.This language is the international language and is used for communication at different local, national, and international levels in the globe.
The scientometric analysis also provided the publication year of the published documents in Table 1.Tabulated data depicted that there were a very smaller proportion of the documents published in the year category of 1971 -1975, 1981 -1985, and 1986 -1990 that range from 1.59 to 1.82 percent of the documents.However, the publication of documents increased gradually from 1996 to 2020 as mentioned in the said table.It is important to mention here that 34.66 percent of the documents were published in the year from 2016 to 2020.
Table 1 also described the keyword used in the topic of social work education.Data in the table indicated that the keyword social work education was at top of the list of top keywords with the frequency of 1221 and 1645 total link strength.Similarly, the keyword social work secured the second position in the top social work education keywords with the frequency of 387 and 666 total link strength.It is important to mention here that the keywords including education, social justice, social work practice, evidence-based practice, curriculum, diversity, students, higher education, field education, social work students, international social work, mental health, research, social work curriculum, spirituality, cultural competence, and human rights were also in the list of top keywords of social work education.However, the keyword child welfare was at the bottom of the list of top keywords of social work education with the frequency of 47 and 66 total link strength.

. Author Keywords of Social Work Education Top Twenty Organizations and Countries of the Published Documents
Data in the Table 2 illustrated the top twenty organizations and names of countries of the published documents from 1971 to 2020.The scientometric analysis described the name of the organization Univ.Maryland was placed at the top of the top twenty organization list with the frequency of 82 published documents.Similarly, the name of Univ.Toronto secured the second position with a frequency of 75 publications.It is important to mention here that the name of Univ.Georgia, Univ.N Carolina, Univ.Michigan, Arizona State Univ., Univ.Illinois, NYU, Univ.Tennessee, Univ.Calif Berkeley, Virginia Commonwealth Univ., Univ.Denver, Rutgers State Univ., Univ.Connecticut, and Univ.Washington was also on the list of the top twenty organizations.However, the name of Florida State Univ.and Univ.Texas Austin published equal documents i.e., 45.Further, the name of Fordham Univ.was the last in the list of top twenty organizations.It is pertinent here to mention that there was 1727 organization in the total number reported to publish documents on the subject under discussion from 1971 to 2020.
Table 2 also revealed the list of the top twenty countries of the published documents from 191 to 2020.Data indicated that the name of the United States was at top of the list with 2306 published documents during the said period.Similarly, United Kingdom secured the second position with 490 publications and Australia opted for the third position with 276 total number of published documents on the subject under discussion.It is worth mentioning here to state that the name of Canada, China, Israel, New Zealand, Ireland, India, South Africa, Sweden, Norway, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Greece.However, three countries including Finland, Georgia, and the Netherlands published equal documents i.e., 11.The name of Belgium was the last in the list of top twenty published documents with 10 publications.It is stated that there were 93 countries reported to publish documents from 1971 to 2020.

Top Twenty Authors and School Social Work Keywords
Table 3 described the top twenty authors and school social work keywords.It stated that the name of Bogo M was top of the list of top twenty authors list with 31 publications, 732 citations, 16 h_index, 26 g_index, and 1992 starting publication year.Similarly, the name of Crisp BR placed at second position with 19 publications, 175 citations, 8 h_index, 12 g_index, and 1998 starting publication year.It is pertinent here to mention that the name of Manthorpe J, Moriarty J, Beddoe L, Hodge DR, Hussein S, Gair S, Taylor I, Frey AJ, Holden G, Birkenmaier J, Duffy J, and Grady MD was also in the list of top twenty authors published their work from 1971 to 2020.However, the name of Austin MJ, Gray M, and Grise-Owens E was at the lowest section of the list of top twenty authors with 10 publications.3 also indicated the school social work keywords on the published documents from 1971 to 2020.Scientometric analysis showed that the keyword school social work was the top keyword in the top twenty words with 162 occurrences and education was at second position in the list with 14 occurrences.It is worth mentioning to state here that the keyword related to school social work also includes evidence-based practice, social work, school, schools, children, mental health, school social workers, collaboration, school climate, school safety, and school violence and were in the list of top twenty keywords of school social work.However, the keywords including academic achievement, assessment, barriers, disability, high school, implementation, and response to the intervention appeared equally with occurrences of 4 in the published documents.It argued that the top keyword that occurred in the published documents from 1971 to 2020 was school social work on the subject under consideration.4 indicated the social work curriculum and top twenty sources of the published documents from 1971 to 2020.The scientometric analysis described that the top keyword was social work curriculum with occurrences of 52 and social work placed at second position in the list of top keywords with occurrences of 36 times.Similarly, the keywords including evidence-based practice, research, and social work practice occurred equally i.e., 9 times in the published documents.It is pertinent to mention here that the keywords human rights, teaching, aging, curriculum development, evaluation, higher education, mental health, problem-based learning, religion, social work students, and technology were also in the list of top twenty keywords among the published documents.However, the keyword assessment was at the bottom of the top twenty keywords list with 3 occurrences.4 also depicted the top twenty sources of the published documents from 1971 to 2020.Scientometric analysis revealed that the top source of published documents was social work education with 737 publications and 5863 citations.The h_index was 30 and g_index reported as 39 along with starting publication year as 2005.Similarly, the journal of social work education secured the second position with 666 published documents, 8429 citations, 41 h_index, 57 g_index, and 1985 starting publication year.However, the name of 'journal of religion and spirituality in social work' was placed at the bottom of the list of top twenty sources of the published documents with 36 publications, 329 citations, and 2005 starting year of publication.It is important to mention here that the total sources of the published documents from 1971 to 2020 were reported as 396.  5.

CONCLUSION
We concluded that the scientometric analysis technique enabled academicians and scholars to gain insights into social work education and to identify the keywords used during different researches on the subject under discussion.The study was mainly based to examine social work education, school social work, and social work curriculum employing scientometric analysis of the documents published in science citation index database and web of science (core collection) from 1971 to 2020.It concluded that the major documents were published as articles and the language English was used.Similarly, the top keyword social work education, Univ. of Maryland top organization, and the United States was the top country.The name of Bogo M was at the top of the list of top twenty authors, top keyword school social work, and social work curriculum.Further, social work education was the top source of published documents and the top-cited article had 202 citations published in 2007.It is suggested that further scientometric analysis may be conducted from other databases and using other social work educationoriented topics.

Limitations of the Study
This study was purely based on eh scientometric analysis technique extracting published documents from science citation index and web of science databases.We did not extract data from other databases.Similarly, it had the only emphasis to examine social work education, school social work, and social work curriculum employing scientometric analysis technique from 1971 to 2020.Hence, we did not include other interlinked topics with the current study.

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. Author Keywords of School Social Work

Figure 5 .
Figure 5. Author Keywords of Social Work Curriculum Top Twenty Cited Articles The scientometric analysis also indicated the top twenty cited articles (Appendix A).Data indicated that the top-cited article was published in 2007 [by D'Cruz, H; Gillingham, P; Melendez, S] with 202 citations and 18 pages (ISSN-0045-31102, Vol./Issue-37/1).Similarly, the second position in the top twenty cited articles was secured with 190 citations, 17 pages, and published in 2009 (by Abrams, LS; Moio, JA, ISSN-1043-7797, Vol./Issue-45/2).However, the last article in the list of top twenty cited articles had 77citaitons, 28 pages, and was published in 2009 (by Sheridan, M, ISSN-1542-6432, Vol./Issue-28/1-2).Further, the top-cited articles with citations, page numbers, ISSN, title, and authors detail was provided in Table5.
• Top twenty organizations and countries of the published documents • Top twenty authors and school social work keywords • Social work curriculum and top twenty sources • Top twenty cited articles

Table 1
Published Documents by Their Types, Language, Year, and Social Work Education Keyword Documents Published by Types

Table 2
Top Twenty Organizations and Countries of the Published Documents

Table 3
Documents by Top Twenty Authors and School Social Work Keywords

Table 4
Documents by Social Work Curriculum and Top Twenty Sources