Home | Prof R John Lawrence

Professional Life & Career

University of Adelaide, 1950-53

Rhodes Scholar for South Australia, 1953

Magdalen College, Oxford, 1954-56

First Australian lecturer in social administration, University of Sydney, 1961-68

PhD scholar at ANU, 1958-60 – wrote a history of professional social work in Australia (published by ANU, 1965)

First Australian professor of social work, UNSW, 1968-91; emeritus professor, 1991 -

Federal President, Australian Association of Social Workers, 1968-70

Member, Executive Board, International Association of Schools of Social Work, 1974-82

Elected member, Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) Board of Governors, 1973-77; vice-president 1976-77

Benevolent Society of NSW, Board Director 1977 - 1986

First official inquiry in Australia into child abuse (the Montcalm report), NSW Department of Youth and Community Services, 1982

At UNSW

Head of School of Social Work, 1968-82; acting head, 1985, 1991
Chairman, Board (then Faculty) of Vocational Studies (then Professional Studies), 1971-73; Faculty of Professional Studies, 1980-81
Member of Professorial Board Committees – Executive, Admissions, Re-enrolment, Health Personnel Education, Resources Allocation, Research and Higher Awards, General Studies Inquiry, Professorial Superannuation Scheme, Administrative Procedures, 1970-86
Member of the University Council, 1979-81
Member, Board of the Australian Institute of Administration, 1970-78
Chairman, Social Sciences and Humanities Library Advisory Committee, 1978 -80
Played a major role in establishment and development of Social Welfare Research Centre (Social Policy Research Centre, from 1990) directly funded by federal government, 1976-96; wrote a history of the Centre’s first 25 years, 2006.

Teaching and Research Overseas

University of Michigan School of Social Work, 1967 – Fulbright senior travel award
University of York, UK, Department of Social Administration and Social Work, July 1974-Jan 1975
Rutgers University School of Social Work, New Jersey, Jan-June 1983; and Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Aug-Dec 1983 – Fulbright senior travel award
Moses Distinguished Professor, Hunter College School of Social Work, City University of New York, Sept 1987-Aug 1988
Wilfrid Laurier University Faculty of Social Work, Waterloo, Ontario, Jan-Feb 1990 – Canadian Commonwealth Fellowship
University of Stockholm School of Social Work, March – May 1990

Member of the Order of Australia, 1997 - For service to the discipline of social work internationally, and as the first Professor of Social Work in Australia, to the development of social policy research and to community agencies.

Publications include:

Professional Social Work in Australia, Canberra, ANU Press, 1965; reprinted 2016.

Compiler and editor, Norma Parker’s Record of Service, Sydney, 1969.

‘Philosophy of Social Welfare in the 1970s’, in H. Weir (ed.), Social Welfare in the 1970s, Sydney, Australian Council of Social Service, 1971. Proceedings, 6th National Conference.

‘Social Welfare and Urban Growth’, Chapter 5, in R.S. Parker & P. N. Troy (eds.), The Politics of Urban Growth, Canberra, ANU Press, 1972.

Consultant and Chief Rapporteur, Problems and Prospects in Schools of Social Work Contributing to Development in the ECAFE Region, Report, ECAFE/UNICEF Seminar, Bangkok, November 1972.

‘Introduction – Australian Social Work: In Historical, International and Social Welfare Context’, in Phillip J. Boas and Jim Crawley (eds), Social Work in Australia: Responses to a Changing Context, Melbourne, Australia International

Press,1976.

Responsibility for Service in Child Abuse and Child Protection, Report and Recommendations of the Inquiry into the Statutory and Moral Responsibilty of the Department of Youth and Communtiy Services in New South Wales, in

the Light of the Case of Paul Montcalm, October, 1982, Parliament of New South Wales, No. 20, 1983.

‘Human Survival and Development: Our Urgent Need for a Reflective Universal Morality’, 1st Dame Eileen Younghusband Memorial Lecture, Proceedings, 22nd International Congress of IASSW & 8th International Symposium of the IFSW, Montreal, 1984.

Argument For Action: Ethics and Professional Conduct, Aldershot & Sydney, Ashgate, 1999.

Social Policy Research: 25 Years of a National Research Centre, Sydney, Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW,

2006.

Seeking Social Good: A Life Worth Living - an Autobiography in 6 Volumes, Sydney, 2017.

Getting Educated
A Career Under Way
Working in Australia
Living and Working Overseas
Working with International Organisations
Disengaging from Work and Later Life

A note from the author

I have been professionally committed to seeking to improve the lives of others in my own country and elsewhere in the world. Initially when I retired, I intended to leave my extensive personal archives for future researchers. I had done my dash. It was now for others to develop social work and social policy in their contemporary and historical contexts. I had no intention of writing my autobiography. What changed my mind?

My pioneering responsibilities in both social policy teaching and professional social work education in Australia, gave me an obligation to leave a record of my experience for posterity.
Much of my archival material, including many of my papers, was not likely to be found elsewhere or was widely scattered.
This would be a contribution to social work and social welfare history.
It would show how sabbaticals and other periods working in other cultures were an essential feature of university life.
It would demonstrate that working with international social work and social welfare organisations was a difficult, but significant part of emerging professional responsibilities.
It would emphasise the theoretical and practical importance of ethics. The autobiography format recognises that, whatever else is going on in economic, political and social structures, the quality of each human life is the most reasonable basic moral measure.
An autobiography is one significant way of organising historically significant material.
It would give due recognition to the people and social institutions that shaped my concerns and values, early and later in my life.
It could contribute to knowledge and understanding of my particular schools and universities, and of the important social agencies with which I was associated.
It would provide a case example of developing a professional social work school in an Australian university.

Highly respected senior colleagues who have read the whole work have given it enthusiastic endorsement.

I hope it stimulates further historical writing and social commitment.