Social Work Practice and Education in México

Social work education and practice in Mexico has emphasized need for social change, family, and community involvement. Education includes casework, group work, and community organization with extensive field work experience that is community based. Education programs rely heavily on literature from South American countries including liberation theory such as that espoused by Paolo Friere. Social work education at the college level prepares graduates for practice, with a licencia. Social Workers in Mexico work in medical settings, children's services, rehabilitation, family services, work settings and a variety of community based programs. Mexico has begun to develop graduate education. Education in the US, Canada, Mexico and other countries could be enhanced with further exchanges of faculty, students and literature.     

Research Note—Is Social Work Education a Form of Social Work Practice?

ABSTRACT

The inclusion of social work education as a form of practice has been missing from the debates on the need for a unified definition of social work practice. This Research Note reports the findings from interviews with 20 social work educators who were asked whether social work education is a form of social work practice and were encouraged to elaborate on their response. The qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis and revealed five themes. The findings contribute to the debate on the need for clarification among social work authorities in shaping the definition of social work practice and the need to provide a clear stance on the extent to which social work education is a form of social work practice.     

Troubling Times for British Social Work Education?

Although the creation of a new framework for qualifying education in social work combined with the introduction of a new framework for post qualifying education appears to have clarified and protected the future of social work in Britain, there remain a number of problems which these developments have not resolved. Indeed, as I will argue, their implementation has created a set of new questions that could derail the best intentions for the development of British social work. The purpose of this paper is to identify the scope of these problems, which potentially affect the provision both of qualifying and post qualifying education. It is suggested that while these issues may particularly impact upon social work education in England, it is probable that they will also present a problem for other countries in the United Kingdom.     

What Changes MSW Students' View on the Mission of Social Work?

Little is known about how professional social work education affects students' view on the social work mission. Using a secondary analysis of larger longitudinal data collected from masters in social work (MSW) students in California, USA, this study sought to explore the relationship among the students' demographic characteristics, their primary reasons for pursuing an MSW degree, and their view on the mission of social work at the time of entering an MSW program, whether the students' view on the mission of social work changed in the course of an MSW education, and factors contributing to a change of MSW students' view on the social work mission—individual adaptation vs societal change—between the beginning and the end of the MSW program. The results showed that students' degree of social action involvement, type of field practicum, and ideological variables predicted students' view changes or adherence between entering the MSW program and graduating.     

Research Training and Professional Social Work Education: Developing Research‐Minded Practice

The movement towards developing practice more firmly grounded on empirical research has, arguably, been one of the most significant international trends in social work during the past decade. However, in the UK the implications of this trend for pedagogical practices and the design of educational programmes have still to be fully explored. This paper reports on the findings of a repeated cross‐sectional survey of MSW students in Queen's University Belfast which focused on their perceptions of the value of research training to professional practice. The study, conducted over a four year period, explored students' awareness of the relationship between research and practice and their readiness to engage with research training. The findings suggested that the majority of students perceived research training as a valuable component of professional development. However, the study also found a level of scepticism among students about its practical utility along with some resistance towards actively embracing a research agenda. The paper evaluates the significance of these findings for developing research and evidence‐based practice as integral components of the new degrees in social work in the UK and for social work education programmes in other countries aiming to develop research‐minded practice.     

Research Note—Globalization and Social Work: Influencing Practice Through Continuing Education

This study determined the effect of a continuing education (CE) program on increasing social workers’ knowledge about global issues and subsequently influencing decisions for future practice. Thirty-eight participants took a CE course (3-session face-to-face or 1-month online) on global issues. Social Work Practitioner Globalization Survey was used to test participants’ (1) knowledge about globalization and global references, (2) belief about the importance of globalization for making practice decisions, and (3) intent to seek global knowledge in the future. Pre- and postcourse data from 32 respondents showed increases in knowledge, belief, and intended action toward the use of globalization knowledge in social work practice. Findings help social work educators justify and plan curricula that infuse globalization and global issues as curriculum components.     

Societal Crises–Strategies for Social Work Education

This paper examines existing literature on anticipated role problems by mothers who reenter higher education after marriage and child rearing, and presents data from a study that examined the characteristics, role difficulties, and role satisfactions of a group of women with children who recently completed an MSW program. The findings revealed an absence of major problems for these women, both during and after MSW training. The dominant theme was one of rewarding, ego-enhancing, and relatively easy movement of these women through their MSW training and subsequently into professional positions.     

Videoconferencing: A Viable Teaching Strategy for Social Work Education?

The findings of a study that examined students' reports about their experience with ITV are presented. The results are based on two different courses with different instructors and different composition of students. Results show that students in both sites report that the use of technology does not compromise their learning but they dislike it. Strategies for future research to understand the nature of the reaction are suggested.     

Social Work Training or Social Work Education? An Approach to Curriculum Design

Population ageing, economic circumstances and human behaviour are placing social welfare systems under great strain. In England, extensive reform of the social work profession is taking place. Training curricula are being redesigned in the context of new standards of competence for social workers—the Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF). Students must be equipped on qualifying to address an extensive range of human problems, presenting major challenges to educators. Critical theory suggests an approach to tackle one such challenge—selecting the essential content required for areas of particular practice. Teaching on social work with older people is used to illustrate this. Habermas' theory of cognitive interests highlights the different professional roles served by the social work knowledge base—instrumental, interpretive and emancipatory. Howe's application of sociological theory distinguished four social work roles corresponding to these. It is suggested that curriculum design decisions must enable practitioners to operate in each. When preparing students to work with older people, educators therefore need to include interpretive and emancipatory perspectives, and not construct social work purely as an instrumental response to problems older people present. This approach provides one useful rationale for curriculum design decisions, which is applicable to other areas of practice, and to contexts outside England.     

Is Graduate Social Work Education Promoting a Critical Approach to Mental Health Practice?

A sample of 71 psychopathology course syllabi from 58 different graduate schools of social work was analyzed to determine whether different viewpoints and the concomitant empirical evidence were presented regarding 4 significant mental health topics: concepts of mental disorder, reliability and validity of psychiatric diagnoses, biological etiology, and drug treatment. There is little evidence that graduate psychopathology courses cover viewpoints other than the most conventional and institutional—that of biomedical psychiatry. A small handful of secondary (textbooks) rather than primary (research articles) sources provide the majority of the mental health content in these courses. Implications are discussed. The article includes an overview of both the relevant conventional and critical literature.     

Virtual Social Work Education—Theory and Experience

This paper critically analyses the experience of providing social work education over the Internet. It argues that the interactivity and responsivity integral to e‐learning are significant capabilities that can facilitate the kind of student centred learning in social work that is consonant with the emerging consensus on effective educational and professional practices. Associated with this it argues that e‐learning better provides equality of access and opportunity to a diverse range of students to pursue social work education through the creation of critical mass and technological adaptations to diverse needs. Research with a group of students who have pursued online learning is presented. The research indicates that though e‐learning is largely considered a positive and enabling experience by students, it is still experienced as isolating by most. A balance therefore needs to be struck in future between face to face and online interaction ensuring students are not isolated and that infrequent use of e‐learning does not delay engagement with the medium and the passing of online developmental milestones. This paper concludes that there is a longer term future for e‐learning within social work education but that this future needs to be based on androgenic constructivist strategies to student learning and a responsive blend of online and physical interactivity.     

Whose Responsibility is it? A Call for the Integration of the Knowledge of Substance Misuse in Social Work Education,Practice and Research

This commentary is based on the review of two articles written by Hutchinson and Allnock (2014a; 2014b) presented in this journal issue. The commentary reviews the two articles and other research on the integration of substance misuse in social work education, practice and research. Four lessons are presented in terms of how to enhance the knowledge and skills around substance misuse by creating stronger links between social work education, practice and research.     

Evidence-Based Practice in Social Work: Challenges and Opportunities for Clinicians and Organizations

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is increasingly emphasized in social work, yet effective approaches for translating research evidence into social work practice remain elusive. Despite a growing body of evidence describing effective interventions with a variety of populations, social workers continue to encounter substantial challenges with incorporating knowledge gained from these intervention studies into their routine practice with clients. This paper presents the current research outlining the known barriers and promoters to using EBP in social work clinical practice. Because social workers practice within the context of organizations, we consider the barriers that exist at both the individual and organizational levels that affect clinical social work practice. In addition to addressing the various challenges to incorporating research evidence into practice, we will also discuss a variety of emergent opportunities accompanying the move toward EBP that can be leveraged by clinicians in their social work practice with clients.     

Skills Laboratories and the New Social Work Degree: One Small Step Towards Best Practice? Service Users' and Carers' Perspectives

The new social work degree has a strong emphasis upon the development of communication skills and upon the requirement for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to assess students' safety and readiness to practise. The GSCC grants to HEIs to develop skills labs to help with this skills development have been widely welcomed, but not enough work has been done fully to evaluate the effectiveness of such skills labs. There has been some previous evidence to suggest that such projects may even be counter‐productive. This article explores the way in which Staffordshire University has called upon its service user/carer group and a team of practice assessors to work with the academic tutor to devise and carry out a programme of skills training in a skills lab environment for first year students on the new degree. An initial evaluation of this project shows encouraging results for this ‘work in progress’, even though it is still early days.