Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Independent comment on Audio‐visual and Print Materials; Whispers from the East Frances E. Steinberg and Richard G. Whiteside Risky Practices: A Counsellor's Guide to Risk Management in Private Practice; Nigel McBride & Michael Tunnecliffe Therapeutic and Training Tools from St. Luke's Parenting between Cultures: The Primary Years: A Program for Parents from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Communities; Catherine Blunt. Marymead Child and Family Centre, Kingston ACT, 2000 Bringing Up Boys, A Parenting Manual for Sole Mothers Raising Sons; Jo Howard Mothers and Sons; Bringing up Boys as a Sole Parent; Jo Howard Treating Huckleberry Finn; David Nylund. Jossey‐Bass Family Secrets: Gay Sons — A Mother's Story; Jean M. Baker Lesbian Step‐Families: An Ethnography of Love; Janet M. Wright ‘Rent Two Films and Let's Talk in the Morning’. Using Popular Movies in Psychotherapy; John & Jan G. Hesley     

Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: The Tale of Samuel Whiskers or the Roly-Poly Pudding Beatrix Potter Grandpa John Burningham African Adventure Willard Price The Door in the Dragon's Throat Frank Peretti Children's Books and Social Values Amazing Grace Mary Hoffman and Caroline Binch, Frances Lincoln William and Marmalade Andrew Davies     

Reviews

This paper links participant observation as a research method to the assessment of student social workers' practice through observation. In order to provide students with opportunities to demonstrate their competence to the best of their ability without diminishing the quality of their service to users, the observer must be able to function at different points along the continuum between participation and observation. The styles recommended for this purpose are: ” the quiet participant in energetic groups; ” the interested observer in quiet activities; and ” the respectfully distant observer of conversations. Comparisons between this research method and the practice of observation highlight the marginalisation of service users. Key issues include: ” fully informed consent; ” conditions for intervention by the observer; ” respondent validation; and ” ownership of assessment reports. Micro- and macro-level strategies to remedy these issues are considered. The distinction between collaboration and partnership is considered. Examining the position of service users as participants in research highlights a hierarchical web of power relations in observation. Whilst this can be addressed in individual practice, such practice can only be fruitful in a culture that truly values service users as partners in social work education.     

Reviews

This article seeks to stimulate debate around the relationship between Post‐Qualifying Social Work education and social work practice. Whilst initially welcomed as a positive development for the continuous professional development of qualified social workers, the author questions if in a work climate increasingly dominated by concerns about meeting global market forces PQSW education has the potential to support discriminatory and oppressive practice and undermine social work values?Higher education in England has been given the task by the General Social Care Council to develop Post‐Qualifying Social Work (PQSW) education that delivers both academic and vocational learning as national occupational standards, workforce planning and concerns around globalisation drive professional development. Indeed, a positive selling point for the PQSW framework is its apparent ability to bring together practitioners' career choices with professional development, employers' workforce planning strategies and the government's modernisation agenda for public service provision. However, could a system of education designed to meet such a variety of agendas undermine social work practice and reduce higher education to primarily providing programmes designed to meet regulatory requirements rather than professional social work that promotes an anti‐discriminatory and anti‐oppressive approach to practice? The article concludes that whilst evidence suggests PQSW education does make a positive difference to practitioners and their organisations, debate is still required to ensure it supports agreed social work values and a commitment to anti‐oppressive and anti‐discriminatory practice.     

Reviews

Barbara S. Held, Back To Reality: A Critique Of Postmodern Theory In Psychotherapy Michael R. Butz, Linda L. Chamberlain And William G. Mccown, Strange Attractors; Chaos, Complexity, And The Art Of Family Therapy Michael J. Mahoney, Human Change Processes: The Scientific Foundations Of Psychotherapy James Hillman And Michael Ventura, We've Had A Hundred Years Of Psychotherapy—And The World's Getting Worse Renos K. Papadopoulos And John Byng-Hall (Eds), Multiple Voices; Narrative In Systemic Family Psychotherapy Haim Omer, Critical Interventions In Psychotherapy: From Impasse To Turning Point Donald R. Bardill, The Relational Systems Model For Family Therapy: Living In The Four Realities     

Reviews

Robert Levy, Ana Pauker: The Rise and Fall of a Jewish Communist (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001). 407pp. Illustrations. Index. ISBN 0–520–22395–0 (cloth). $35