Swings and slippery slopes: Reflecting on processes of higher education curriculum in the space of globalization and a pandemic

The Asia-Pacific is the most expansive region for social services and health care, ranging from New Zealand in the south to the border of the Russian Federation in the north. Professional education in human services, social work, and allied health is rapidly expanding in this region and globally as the power and influence around these professions ‘swings’ between different countries in the region. The globalization of social and health care issues is challenging professional higher education and accreditation processes to adjust to producing education graduates who are global professionals, multi-lingual, culturally responsive, and able to work in diverse community contexts and within the ‘slippery slopes’ of social and economic change. This article explores the development of a new social work curriculum and course for an international higher education provider that was implemented in 2022 and aims to meet the challenges of intercultural learning and skills development in the new plural-lingual and fragmented global contexts. The ethnographic study reveals that education organizations and educators can advocate for and develop globalized, internationalized social work and social care curricula in this unsteady context when supported to do so by regulatory authorities.