ABSTRACT
The 1960s inception of social work training in Zimbabwe up to the present time has, over time, produced skilled and internationally recognised social work cadres who maintain receptiveness for transforming lives of the marginalised. Nevertheless, reflection and self-introspection is required as the profession is now at a crossroads as a result of various intractable socioeconomic challenges. Enduring remedial approaches originating from Global North origins are undoubtedly becoming redundant. The dominant narrative in African social work scholarship discourses is about mainstreaming developmental social work. Henceforth, this chapter interrogates the extent social work training has embraced developmental social work in the curricula. Galvanising the repertoire of social work methods of interventions in Zimbabwean social work training guarantees future social workers with creative approaches to confront pervasive challenges like failed poverty mitigation interventions. After interrogating the developmental social work approach in the Zimbabwean social work curriculum, major findings highlight the need for blending aspects of indigenous knowledge in recognising environmental social work as crucial for robust and holistic transformation of the marginalised. The chapter's methodology is secondary literature based on relying on discourse analysis of social work teaching scholarship on some of the major findings after interrogating the developmental social work approach in social work curricular in Zimbabwe. The chapter concludes by offering pathways towards robust innovations in social work teaching that can buttress the mainstreaming of developmental social work. This is in keeping with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG) agenda of leaving no one behind.
