Social Development and Minimum Standards in Social Work Education in South Africa

This paper evaluates how well South African minimum standards for social work education, known as Exit Level Outcomes, are aligned to a social development paradigm. Developmental social work is a relatively new approach in social work education internationally, and this article can therefore provide lessons for other countries using this paradigm in an education model based on national minimum standards.

The complexities and difficulties of using a minimum standards approach in education are discussed and the policy context for the development of these standards in South Africa is explained. The use of a social development framework for the analysis is motivated in relation to its relevance to the social context. Nine criteria for a social development perspective were drawn from the literature to form an analytical framework. A content analysis using this framework was done on the minimum standards.

The results show that the minimum standards are generally aligned with social development principles that drive national priorities, but a few significant gaps exist, which are outlined and discussed. This article attempts to grapple with the complexities of using these minimum standards to drive both curricula related and extra curricula activities in social work education in South Africa     

W(h)ither the academy? An exploration of the role of university social work in shaping the future of social work in Europe

A controversial proposal to pilot the training of child protection social workers through an intensive work-based route in England is being supported and funded by the UK Government. Frontline, the brainchild of a former teacher, locates social work training within local authorities (‘the agency’) rather than university social work departments (‘the academy’) and has stimulated debate amongst social work academics about their role in shaping the direction of the profession. As a contribution to this debate, this paper explores the duality of social work education, which derives its knowledge from both the academic social sciences and the experience of practice within social work agencies. While social work education has traditionally been delivered by the academy, this paper also explores whether the delivery of training in the allied professions of probation and nursing by ‘the agency’ is equally effective. Finally, this paper explores the Helsinki model which achieves a synergy of ‘academy’ and ‘agency’. It suggests that there are alternative models of social work education, practice and research which avoid dichotomies between the ‘academy’ and the ‘agency’ and enable the profession to be shaped by both social work academics and practitioners.     

International field training in social work education: beyond colonial divides

This paper examines the influence of and need for a critical and global-oriented social work education on students’ learning and developments in the context of international field training. The study uses mixed methods strategy of web survey, focus groups and document review of field reports. Participants in the study are social work students from social work programs in Norway and Sweden who have conducted their international field training in the Global South. The results of the study show that in order to obtain a critical and postcolonial understanding of global inequalities and the role of social work, students need to be truly prepared for international field training by critical and postcolonial knowledge, which will challenge many students’ West-centric perspectives and facilitate them by a self-reflective positioning throughout their field training. The imagination of traveling to and ‘learning about the others’ should be then replaced by a move beyond ‘us-and-them’ divides in line with the ethical principles and values of social work.     

Changes in the quality and regulation of social work education: Confronting the dilemmas of workforce planning and competing qualifications frameworks

The Modernising Social Services agenda seeks to raise the quality of service outcomes through regulation. Because attaining quality outcomes for service users is related to better training of providers, a parallel modernising agenda seeks to raise the quality of education and training through regulation. With the demise of the CCETSW, responsibility for regulating social work education is under debate. Workforce planning is a critical issue, as are trends towards separate qualifications, genericism, and specialism. Two agencies, the QAA (Quality Assurance Agency, responsible for higher education qualification frameworks) and the QCA (Qualifications and Curriculum Agency, responsible for work-based qualification frameworks) have established their separate qualifications frameworks, but have not worked out the transferability and equivalence of educational and work-based awards across the separate frameworks. Until consonance is established, a seamless ladder of progression from work-based social care awards to educationally based social work awards is not possible, thereby limiting workers' expertise and career opportunities. This paper argues that change must involve reconciling separate frameworks and resolving issues of transferability, specialism, and genericism. Social work education's partnerships between universities and employers provide lessons for bridging the divide between work-based and educational awards. Women, part-time workers, ethnic minorities, and people with a disability will benefit from accessible transparent frameworks.     

Going beyond training: theory and practice in managing learning

The establishment of new bodies to replace the Central Council for Training and Education in Social Work (CCETSW) and to regulate the social work profession provides the opportunity to establish an improved progressive system of qualifications and continued professional development in the coming years. With the current pressure on social work agency budgets it is imperative that precious training resources—staff and money—are used to make the maximum impact on service delivery. Our involvement in the provision of a range of training programmes leads us to believe that much of the staff development and training effort invested by agencies in their staff often seem to have a limited impact on effectiveness. A change in approach is needed so that learning is placed at the heart of organisational processes to maximise the benefits of affirmation and growing professional confidence. This is essential if we are to continue to ‘nurture’ valuable professional staff and ensure that services remain flexible, creative and responsive in meeting ever‐rising public expectations.

This paper examines some of the challenges of evidence‐based practice and the demands for routine evaluation and objective‐setting. The advantages and disadvantages of a competence specification approach within the development of service and occupational standards as the basis for professional education are discussed. The paper argues that strategies for practice learning require the development of learning organisations and a better academic and agency partnership to support more effective professional education and continued professional development.     

The crisis of waged work and the option of a universal basic income grant for South Africa

ABSTRACT

Waged work is widely seen as a sufficient basis for meeting basic needs, achieving social inclusion and realizing essential social rights. Yet waged work that provides a livable income on reasonably secure terms is rare in ‘developing’ economies and increasingly scarce in ‘developed’ economies. This trend is likely to persist and worsen as the disruptive impacts of economic volatility and climate change intensify and labour market restructuring continues. Aggravating the impact is the diminishing access to livelihood options outside the wage economy. South Africa is an extreme example of this trend, with a very large proportion of the working age population superfluous to the formal economy, high levels of poverty and severe inequality. This paper describes this crisis at the global level and then specifically in South Africa, before considering the option of a universal basic income grant (UBIG). It examines the critiques and the potential merits and risks of such an intervention. To realize its transformative potential, a UBIG would have to be deployed as part of a broad transformation strategy that is led by an active state and driven by a mobilized civil society.     

Strategies for work–family balance in a South African context

ABSTRACT

Finding and maintaining work–family balance has become an increasingly difficult challenge for South African families due to various factors, including economic, political, social and cultural changes that can impact negatively on family well-being. While pathways and strategies for work–family balance have been identified in other contexts, there is little available research on the topic in a South African context. Considering the knowledge that South African social workers have in this regard as a result of their training, qualifications and role in the South African context, South African social workers were selected as participants. The aim of this study was therefore to explore and describe, from the perspective of a group of South African social workers, strategies for work–family balance that can potentially contribute to family well-being in a South African context. A narrative inquiry research design was implemented. Thirteen female social workers between the ages of 23 and 46 who work in different social work contexts across South Africa were recruited by means of purposive and snowball/network sampling. Data were collected by means of written narratives and analysed by thematic analysis. The findings identify the following strategies: Setting clear boundaries, open communication in work and family domains, strengthening personal and professional support systems, planning, time management and prioritising, self-care, reasonable work environment and continuous personal and family assessment. While the findings share similarities with work–family balance strategies identified in other contexts, this study’s significance lies in the fact that it identifies strategies specifically for the South African context and that it does so from the perspective of South African social workers.     

Social Work Academics as Humboldtian Researcher‐Educators: Discussion of a Survey of Staff Profiles from Schools in Denmark,England and Germany

A survey of social work academics' education profiles in Denmark, England and Germany is discussed. Material was collected in 2004, mainly from schools' Internet websites. Findings were classified by highest achieved level of qualification, using British terminology: ‘diploma’, ‘degree’ and ‘doctoral’. Findings are discussed with reference to the status of social work knowledge and social work education. This discussion is framed by drawing on the model of the teacher‐researcher developed by Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835). The German sample showed the highest proportions of social work academics with doctoral qualifications, with the lowest levels being found in the Danish sample and the English sample being situated in‐between.     

Exploring a New Direction for Social Work Education and Training in Nigeria

American and British models of professional social work that have been exported to Africa have been critiqued as unable to address the unique issues and cultural characteristics of the majority of Africans. Such critiques have increased as the social work profession in the Western world has failed to come up with answers to many of its own most vexing social problems. African social work educators are therefore questioning the borrowing of such ‘problematic’ Western social work knowledge. This paper critically reviews the challenges for social work education and training in Nigeria of this Western‐influenced social work legacy that is largely remedial in nature and underpinned by the charity and casework model that locates problems within individuals and their families. Building on recent scholarship, personal experiences of schooling and working in Africa and the West, as well as experiences from collaborating on a project with colleagues in a social work program in a Nigerian university, three issues are put forth that could guide an exploration of a new direction for social work education in Nigeria.     

New Vocational Qualifications in Child Care and Education in the UK

SUMMARY: This paper explores the implications of the introduction of the new system of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) in Child Care and Education. The historical context of provision and the dual system of training of early childhood workers in Britain, split between care and education, is briefly described to show why pressures for change have come about. The background to the development of the qualifications is examined to see what light this throws on their current implementation. The paper argues that, compared with Europe where most countries are moving towards graduate status for early childhood education workers and many are thinking about an integration between care and education, with the introduction of our new child care NVQs we are moving in the opposite direction. Their introduction is likely to entrench the current split and does nothing to encourage the development of higher level qualifications which integrate care and education.     

The Passing of the Practice Teaching Award: History,Legacy, Prospects

This article reviews the origin, development and prospective demise of the Practice Teaching Award, as a prelude to considering the scope for reconfiguring practice teacher training and assessment on the GSCC landscape of social care codes of practice, qualifying programmes in social work and an integrated post‐qualifying framework. As a bridge from the past to the future, the article highlights a rich PTA ‘legacy’, identifying a particularly valuable ‘bequest’ in the ‘mainstreaming’ of portfolio assessment. Transcending the sphere of education and training as such, the reflective self‐assessment characteristic of effective portfolio construction is identified as a major contribution to the ‘professionalisation’ of social work practice as a whole.     

Advocating the Clinical Social Work Professional Identity: A Biographical Study

Aiming to portray the clinical social work (CSW) professional identity, the present biographical study examines the CSW knowledge and practice domain boundaries as they appear from the perspectives of three Greek mental health social workers who have advocated for the professionalization of CSW. The practitioners' perspectives are studied in relation to their demographic characteristics, education and training, and multidisciplinary relationships. A thematic analysis of the in-depth interviews revealed that these practitioners retained their nuclear social work identity and felt their skills and interests to be different from those endorsed by the present generic social work education and practice system. The study also revealed differences in the educational qualifications and routes that each of the three practitioners followed in order to be able to identify themselves as ‘clinical social workers’. Although the common denominator in the practitioners' perspectives was their training in psychotherapy, the type of psychotherapy training pursued and the experience of personal psychotherapy differentiated each practitioner's ability to theorize on the CSW practice identity. The research data were filtered through a psychodynamic lens to reveal the dynamics of the unconscious processes within the relationships formed between individuals and organizations.     

Has Social Work Heeded the Call? Sex Offender Content in Social Work

The relationship between theory, research and practice in the contemporary UK social work curriculum is examined in the context of the New Labour Government's insistence on making explicit the connections between knowledge, research, standards and ‘best practice’ in its regulatory discourse. The argument suggests that far from being obvious, settled or predictable in the way in which this discourse suggests, the relationship between research, theory and practice is highly contentious and certainly unresolved. The article then goes on to look at concepts of theory and research. ‘Theory’ is seen as having evolved with little reference to evidence and ‘research’ is seen as having established a new intellectual hegemony without having engaged with or contributed significantly to the development of practice theory. The article concludes that the trend towards a professional and intellectual fragmentation of the social work discipline needs to be reversed if students are to develop their own ‘research mindedness’.     

Navigating employability from the bottom up

ABSTRACT

Research focusing on young people’s career trajectories has emphasised ‘graduate employability’ with much less attention being afforded to the employability strategies used by disadvantaged youth, including the social, political and labour market contexts in which these emerge. This study explores how young people enrolled in entry-level, vocational training courses in Australia attempt to enhance their employability. Interviews explored perceptions of individual employability, the strategies utilised to improve employability, and the economic, personal and employment consequences of these strategies. Three main employability strategies were identified: gaining qualifications to meet employment expectations; securing work experience in a competitive labour market; and addressing economic and social challenges to secure and sustain employment. The study reveals how the dominant narratives of employability in education and employment policy are misaligned with the economic, social and labour market challenges faced by disadvantaged job-seekers with respect to notions of career and ‘fit’ between the individual and the labour market. Policy responses need to take account of the diverse ‘bottom up’ experiences and circumstances of different cohorts of young people.     

Recognizing experiential knowledge in the process of qualification of peer helpers: an analysis of an educational program for service users in France

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes an innovative training program enabling the qualification of peer carers, working within the sector of ‘social inclusion’. Since the French national debate on social work conducted within the ‘Estates General’ of 2015, peer workers have become key players in training programs in virtue of their experiential knowledge and their understanding of issues related to the process of social exclusion. This article addresses the role of peer helpers’ experiential knowledge in the training process. Because of their ‘experiential’ and ‘empirical’ knowledge about questions linked to the process of exclusion, peer helpers have become key players in social work teams and within social institutions, thus contributing to new methods of socio-educational intervention. What impact will this recognition of peer helpers’ and service users’ experiential knowledge have on education in social work? This article gives an account of an 8-month training program for peer helpers examined on the methodological level through a process of Participant observation, and based on data from comprehensive interviews carried out with a panel of peer helpers.     

Social work education in Zimbabwe: Strengths and weaknesses,issues and challenges

Social work education in Zimbabwe began with the establishment of the School of Social Work in 1964. Prior to this, the country relied on social workers trained in Britain, South Africa and Zambia . The initial focus of social work education was on training cadres who would work with groups of unemployed youths and women in urban areas. Thus, the programmes were introduced to address urban social ills. The major strengths of colonial social work education were that it provided the foundation for professional social work practice and it responded effectively to the practice needs of social work agencies. There were, however, some weaknesses such as dependence on Western literature and expatriate teachers and an orientation towards curative social work instead of developmental social work. Since the attainment of independence, the School of Social Work has endeavoured to make social work education more responsive to the development needs of the country. Great strides have also been made in developing indigenous teaching materials. The challenge facing social work education in Zimbabwe is to make it relevant and appropriate, particularly in terms of preparing social workers to address structural problems in society.     

Witchcraft as subtext: deep knowledge and the South African public sphere

Anthropologists have documented pervasive discourses about witchcraft in South Africa. The issue of witchcraft gained prominence during the latter years of apartheid when youths called ‘Comrades’ sought to cleanse rural villages in the north‐eastern provinces of witches. However, after apartheid witchcraft has only made a few brief incursions into the South African public sphere. I suggest that the absence of witchcraft in formal political discussions is not only due to censorship by a modernist government. It is also a product of the popular status of witchcraft as ‘deep knowledge’ or as a ‘subtext’ to social interaction in village and township settings. Accusations of witchcraft occur largely in private domestic spaces. Moreover, the ontological status of witchcraft as a mystical reality that transcends ordinary perception implies that it cannot meet standards of proof demanded by courts of law.     

The fall and rise of ‘use of self’? An exploration of the positioning of use of self in social work education

‘Use of self’ was a central concept in social work in the middle of the twentieth century. Since then its emphasis in social work education has declined as more managerial, procedural and task-focused approaches have prevailed. A review of the degree and postgraduate diploma in social work in Scotland, initiated in 2014, incorporated a comparative content analysis of past and present UK National Occupational Standards (NOS) for social work. The analysis revealed many shifts in thinking and practice, including increased emphasis on ‘use of self’ in the 2013 Standards. This paper reports on this finding in the context of the fluctuating positioning of use of self in social work education, and the potential impact of these changes on qualified practice. It concludes that the changing standards reflect increasing interest in social workers’ ability to draw reflectively on ‘self’ in their day to day practice. Some of the drivers and challenges for a renewed focus on relationship-based practice and use of self are identified, as well as the opportunities presented by this review of the degree for evaluating the impact of changing educational policy on day to day social work practice.