Reforming the child welfare system: Competing paradigms of change

Efforts to reform the child welfare system in the United States have been hampered by the tendency of would-be reformers to operate out of different perspectives, or paradigms, each of which is relatively closed to the others. This paper identifies four traditions of social planning and social change and relates them to different approaches to reforming child welfare. Each perspective has its own core assumptions, its own approach to knowledge building, and its own flaws or weaknesses. Due to the magnitude and complexity of the child welfare crisis, it is important to find ways to bring together the various perspectives into a more unified and systemic approach to reform.