Readers' response: The place of social work in the Contemporary University: Meeting the challenges of the profession and the Academy

Abstract

The pressure to attract funds and produce research, to spend more time on scholarship rather than on teaching and practice links challenges the nature of social work education. This paper outlines the impact of both funding cuts and the managerial and business culture of contemporary Australian Universities on the teaching of social work. It addresses social work practitioners concerns' about these changes, and outlines attempts made by social work schools to respond to these challenges.     

Scholarship and Research in Social Work: Emerging Challenges

Abstract

One of the defining elements of a profession is its capacity to generate and transmit knowledge about practice. This paper reviews and assesses the state of scholarship and research in social work through diverse perspectives, among them research methods found in the core literature, the scholarly productivity of faculty and doctoral graduates, the research curricula in graduate programs, and the use of scholarship by practitioners. Finally it posits challenges for improving the profession's research training, scholarly production, and knowledge transmission.     

Treatment Implications for Interracial Couples

SUMMARY

This exploratory study was conducted to identify relevant treatment considerations for therapy with interracial couples and determine clinical social workers' knowledge and application of such considerations. The study found that the social work students and practitioners manifested serious deficits in important areas of clinical work with interracial couples.     

Response to “A Theoretical Framework”

Abstract

The outcome of social work intervention is often some rearrangement of valuable resources—money, services, power, status—in a family, neighborhood, or community. However, this redistributional effect of social work intervention and the related ethical implications have been largely unexplicated. This paper discusses the nature of distributional questions, examines three alternative approaches to the ethics of distribution—1) classical utilitarianism, 2) intuitionism, and 3) Rawls' “Theory of Justice”—and reviews the criticisms of each. The paper concludes that elements of each of these approaches can apply to social work education and practice and can help guide practitioners to higher levels of ethical consciousness.     

Initial assessment: A key stage in social work intervention

Abstract

This paper examines the intake practices in child protection in the New South Wales Department of Community Services as a case study of initial assessment in social work intervention. Data was collected in three Department of Community Services local offices where 39 practitioners were interviewed about their child protection work practices. An observational study of the workers' intake practices was also undertaken for a period of approximately 110 days. While official Department of Community Services policy and procedures provided the basis for intake practice, this research found that other important factors relating to the informant, the characteristics of the frontline worker, the workplace environment and the context of child protection practice influenced the intake process. The implications of the research findings for other social work practice settings are considered.     

Effective relationship-based practice: A theoretical exploration

This paper looks at the importance of a relationship-based approach within social work. It explores past writings on the social worker-client relationship, why the relationship was seen to be central to effectiveness and good practice, and why this perspective fell out of favour. It revisits the importance of a relationship-based approach, within a psychosocial perspective, in relation to eight areas of practice. These include the assessment task and process; relationship difficulties; people who are vulnerable or reliant on others for their well-being; situations that require practitioners to be able to hold and contain anxiety; the relationship as a foundation for capacity building, empowerment and developing people's potential; and in relation to disadvantaged and marginalised sectors of the population, how social workers can use the 'front-line' knowledge they have gained through the relationships they have created in political ways--to bear witness and report on 'social ills' as they impact on the lives of service users. A final section looks briefly at how the service user-social worker relationship is perceived and described in the Benchmarking Statement, National Occupational Standards and the General Social Care Council's Rules and Requirements and their implications in terms of the new social work degree.     

Book Reviews

Abstract

This paper explores the emergence of the social work profession in Western Australia from beginnings in the 1920s through to 1970 when the first local graduates gained employment. The authors illustrate how WA's history both connects with and diverges from patterns of the profession's development in more populous states, througt, the use of interviews conducted with pioneering social workers These oral histories illuminate how gender, class and other markings of privilege and power framed, and were framed by, the education, practice, sites of practice and career paths of social workers in the early years. Two interacting themes identified in this research were restricted employment possibilities for social workers in the State and a lack of locally available professional education until the mining boom of the sixties. The paper concludes by listing six lessons for current practitioners: the transcendent importance of reading contexts; identifying and developing relevant sites of practice; maintaining flexible boundaries of professional practice; being able to articulate a dynamic value base to drive practice; the importance of practitioners in shaping education, and continuing practitioner reflexivity.     

Stumbling towards oblivion or discovering new horizons? Observations on the relationship between social work education and practice

What should social work education be training students for? What should the relationship be between social work education and practice? The first half of this article cautions that social work education, as currently constituted, may 'unfit' people. Principally, this is because social work practice, as envisaged by employer interests, has not been subject to the same critical scrutiny as social work education and has come to dominate perceptions of the training task. The dangers that follow from this position are outlined. The second half of the article proceeds to explore the contribution that practice teachers and tutors can make to enable practitioners to remain confident, credible, critical and creative in this practice environment. The article concludes with some observations on the future as envisaged in the proposals to modernise social services and to create a General Social Care Council.     

Building resilient communities: Social work practice and rural Queensland

Abstract

This paper applies the notion of community resiliency to rural and regional Queensland and explores the role of human services and practitioners in developing this resiliency. Communities can be considered as being ‘resilient’ when they respond to crises in ways that strengthen communal bonds, resources and the community's capacity to cope. Increasingly, community resiliency has become the focus of international research (Kulig and Brown 1996; 1997), In our work, we have been exploring alliance-building between practitioners and their communities in several research projects in rural and regional Queensland. We argue that these alliances contribute significantly to the building of resiliency and are a potential site for further work in strengthening and sustaining rural communities. The implications of community resiliency for social work practice are discussed.     

The terrors of night and the arrows of day. Social workers' processes in the aftermath of murder

This paper provides extended extracts from interviews conducted with three social workers interviewed for a study enquiring into social workers' experiences of stress. For the purposes of this study, experienced practitioners were asked to recall a time that stood out for them in their minds as causing them stress. They were asked to describe the experience, to say how it had affected them, how they responded to it and what they had found helpful and unhelpful when attempting to deal with the experience. The three participants quoted in the paper all talked of their involvement with service users who had killed others. They describe personal and organisational responses to the murders and tell of internal processes and responses from others that were found to be helpful and unhelpful. The 'haunting' quality of such experiences is apparent throughout accounts, as is the relevance of psychodynamic theory and concepts. The importance of creating and using a therapeutic space in which it is possible to have ideas about how such stress can be thought about is emphasised.     

Young persons as epistemological agents in social work assessment and intervention

SummaryLiterature debates whether young persons' participation in social work decisions is tokenistic in nature or it empowers them to shape their world. By and large, young persons deemed at risk remain the targets of intervention. This paper aims to underscore the need to move beyond soliciting young persons' voice merely in order to corroborate information provided by adults and professionals in social work assessment and intervention. Instead, it explicates the philosophical foundation for social workers to treat young persons as knowledgeable agents capable of contributing to professional knowledge.FindingsThrough reinterpretation of a published case study on children of sex worker mothers in India, this paper highlights how young persons are active agents of their own lives even in extreme dire situations. These children of sex worker mothers were capable of advocating for their own rights as well as that of their mothers. Through the secondary analysis of data, we illustrated the dynamic process of knowledge construction by young persons.ApplicationBy paying attention to the young persons' capacity as knowledgeable agents we propose social workers to intentionally incorporate their knowledge in their practice.     

Life Story Reflection in Social Work Education: A Practical Model

ABSTRACT

Drawing from the practice-oriented conception of reflection in social work, its applications in social work education typically focus on students’ encounters with the field. Recognizing the value of practice-oriented reflection yet aware of its limitations, complementing it with life story reflection (LSR) is urged. The importance of LSR in social work education is discussed, and a three-phased application is proposed, which encourages reflection and reflexivity. First, future professionals recount their life stories, subsequently they analyze them, and eventually they explain them. LSR might be doubly beneficial in forming social workers as reflective practitioners. It is valuable in its own right, encouraging students’ “big” self-understanding, and when combined with the customary modes of reflection in and on action, potentially deepening insights attained through them.     

Practitioner Research Capacity: A Survey of Social Workers in Northern Queensland

Abstract

Strategies to build practitioner research capacity need to be developed in order to increase the research base for social work. To be effective, strategies need to be informed by an understanding of the organisational context and the social work workforce. This paper reports the results of a cross-sectional survey of social workers conducted as part of a larger study of health practitioners in a public sector health organisation in northern Queensland. The survey demonstrates a high level of interest in research. Research methods congruent with social work's person in environment focus were favoured by participants. However, consistent with the literature, lack of confidence, limited knowledge and skills, and practical constraints impeded research activity. This study contributes to research capacity building initiatives by identifying research strengths and areas of research activity where support is required. Approaches to evidence-based practice consistent with social work and strategies for research capacity building are discussed.     

Insights on Professional Identification and Licensure from Community Practice Social Workers

ABSTRACT

This article describes a qualitative study designed to explore both how community practice social workers identify professionally and to examine their view towards professional regulation. Thirty-five MSW-level social workers in a large metropolitan region who self-identified as community practice social worker participated in in-depth interviews. The respondents shared their views regarding professional identification as social workers and the impact of professional identity on their work as community practitioners. Approximately half of the respondents indicated that they only sometimes or never identify as a social worker. The respondents were generally critical of the licensing burden placed upon them as community practice social workers.     

Transitioning from ‘outside observer’ to ‘inside player’ in social work: practitioner and student perspectives on developing expertise in decision-making

ABSTRACT

This paper reports on a six-year qualitative study of social workers’ perspectives on factors influencing decision-making in children and families social work in England. Data collected between 2010 and 2016 reflect frontline practice during a period of substantial change and reform in UK social work. This paper builds on an earlier analysis with data from all three stages of the study capturing the lived experiences of practitioners ranging from student social workers to qualified advanced practitioners in management roles. Data from 9 focus groups comprising 51 participants were analysed using grounded theory. Data analysis generated four representative categories: developing agency in the social work role; troubling emotions; transitions in the development of expertise and the impact of organisational cultures in children and families social work services. An emerging theoretical framework is presented. This identifies the significance of transitions and threshold concepts in the development of the social work professional from the role of students as ‘outside players looking in’ through to the expertise of qualified practitioners as ‘inside players’ within organisations. Recognising periods of liminality, transitional learning and uncertainties in developing decision-making expertise may be of significant benefit to social work education and the profession.     

Thinking the unthinkable: 'white liberal' defences against understanding in anti-racist training

Abstract

This article describes and analyses a range of group processes which occurred during anti-racist training workshops with qualifying social work students. The principal focus is to understand white students' defences against authentic learning about their own anxieties with respect to their black colleagues, and how unless these are surmounted they will constitute a continuing block to the possibility of a 'depth' engagement with racism.     

Gating Union: The Politics of Making a Historically Black Community

ABSTRACT

In 1999, Union was officially recognized as a Historic District by the National Register of Historic Places. Although approximately 80 percent of the residents are raced white, Union was identified as a historically black space. The recognition, premised on Union's origins as a town founded by freed slaves in the late nineteenth century, was the culmination of efforts by the Union Community Association. Its members, who are predominantly white, middle class, and newcomers to the area, took on the role of “protecting” their community by gaining official historic recognition, a task that established them as the gatekeepers of history, and black residents as historical artifacts. As Union became established as a historically black community, its social and legal boundaries could act to protect the place against unwanted land developers. While (white) residents took on the role as history's gatekeepers, (black) descendent residents were turned into tangible metonyms for history, authenticating by their presence Union's historic status. Official recognition has allowed the Union Community Association to fence in an oasis of rustic living at the edge of development, while less affluent residents find themselves gated into a stagnant social landscape in which social and economic opportunity has been effectively gated out.     

The role of research in defining a 'practiceable' problem for social work: The parallax of community and family violence exposure among children and youths

In the partnership between social work practice and research considerable attention has been devoted to the formulating of researchable questions that are raised by practitioners in order to improve, inform, and evaluate human services. In contrast, little attention has been devoted in the practice-research partnership to the formulating of "practiceable" problems for social work: Namely, what role does research play in defining social problems that, once discerned, are viewed as worthy and capable of meaningful social work intervention? This article considers the role of research in rendering practiceable the problem of American youths' victimization inside the home, and, in parallax, the problem of youths' victimization outside the home. This comparison yields insights about the contributions that research has made in shaping social work practice on one front, and about the obstacles and opportunities for research in rendering social work practice activities on parallel front. Broader lessons for social work practice research are considered from this parallax view.     

Social Work and the Treatment of Substance Abuse in Israel

SUMMARY

This paper examines the role of the social worker within the field of substance abuse in Israel at the start of the 21st century, its implications for the profession, and the training of its practitioners. Addiction to psychoactive substances is viewed as a bio-psycho-social phenomenon caused by a wide variety of factors and the respective interactions between them, placing it within the realm of the expertise of the social worker. The social worker plays a central role in providing both administrative and clinical interventions with this population. Additional ways in which the education and training of social workers can prepare them to deal more efficiently and comprehensively with the problem of substance abuse in both practical and academic terms is discussed.