Recalibrating micro and macro social work: student perceptions of social action

ABSTRACT

As underscored by their professional code of ethics, all social workers are called to engage in social action that advances social justice. Yet, the focus of the profession has drifted toward individual treatment and away from social reform. Drawing upon data from an online survey of graduate social work students (N= 199) in the United States, this study explores the role of student perceptions relating to the importance of and their confidence in engaging in social action. Specifically, we assess whether perceptions vary according to practice level (micro or macro), social identity, or survey completion date (before or after the 2016 United States presidential election). Findings suggest that respondents exhibit a high degree of interest and confidence in social action with limited variation on the basis of their practice level or background characteristics. Furthermore, the 2016 presidential election did little to change perceptions of social action. This suggests that the profession’s marginalization of macro practice is not necessarily driven by student interest or confidence.     

Practice experience and social work education

Abstract

This paper examines the arguments that are often put in favour of social work academics having direct practice experience in order to enhance their teaching effectiveness. The paper looks at the number of ways that social work academics can gain up to date knowledge of practice developments and explores what constitutes an effective teacher. It concludes that recent direct practice experience will be of limited use in assisting social work academics to become effective teachers and that there are other ways that academics can become aware of practice developments that are in line with the other professional requirements on academics such as research and knowledge generation.     

Responding to student mental health concerns in social work education: reflective questions for social work educators

In this paper, we explore ways in which social work educators might respond to students who report that mental health issues underlie their difficulty in meeting core competencies, or otherwise use the language of mental health to describe their struggles to succeed in social work programs. We discuss various trends in policy responses in Canada, the US, the UK, and Ireland. While there are general policy trends, it is clear that responding to these kinds of issues requires the development of highly flexible and situated policy processes that can respond to student realities, concern for students’ rights and privacy, and an awareness of potential discrimination against students. These processes also need to meet the specificities of practicums, particular institutional policies, the mandates of relevant professional bodies, and the precise local legislative framework that shapes these situations. Given these varying contexts, in this conceptual paper, we used a framework on disability that is informed by critical theory to engage existing school policies and propose a set of reflective questions that can guide schools of social work to create an overall responsive environment. These reflective questions are designed to help social work educators balance the rights and needs of students with the professional and institutional demands that students meet core competencies in their education.     

Investigating the quality of social work. An experience of self-assessment with Italian social workers

Evaluating the quality of social work practice is becoming increasingly important for various reasons, among which are changes in the welfare system and the reduction of resources. Meanwhile, it is acknowledged that evaluating the quality of social work is a highly complex task. Different meanings are attributed to the concept of quality and the concept of quality in itself is linked to the notion of social work identity, nature and aims, which is an object in transition. Although performance appraisal systems are spreading, a common understanding about what is ‘good social work practice’ is lacking, also within the professional community. In Italy, social workers seem missing in the arena of investigating and indicating which criteria can be used to evaluate social work practice. To counteract this weakness, a participative research-intervention project was developed from 2006 to 2011, aimed at supporting social workers in evaluating their work. During workshops with practitioners a self-evaluation tool was designed by means of asking social workers for the possible criteria to be used to define ‘good social work practice’. This paper presents the structure and methods adopted throughout such project, focusing on both the self-assessment questionnaire and the emerging notions of quality of social work.     

Resources ancillary services and classroom instruction: thoughts of a deaf-blind social work student and her teacher

This article is the story of a social work instructor and her deaf-blind student. The chapter includes: (a) an overview of Gallaudet University, focusing on the Social Work Program and the Office of Students with Disabilities program, (b) personal background information about the student and her professor, and (c) perspectives of the educational process by both the student and her instructor. The article concludes with recommendations to both students and instructors for addressing the needs of deaf-blind students in the classroom and university setting.     

Perpetrators of sexual crime: What every social work student should know

This article argues that teaching concerning the perpetrators of sexual crimes against children should form an essential part of every diploma in social work course. Input which focuses only on the victims of such crime condones an essentially reactive response to one of the major concerns of our society. Social workers need to understand the modus operandi of perpetrators if they are able to recognise potentially abusive situations and work in a preventative way. Additionally, the methods of intervention currently being employed by the various treatment programmes can inform other areas of theory and practice, and consequently form links with a number of the broader aims and objectives of social work training. Thus in this article preventative work, adolescent perpetrators, the relationship between theory and practice, the transferability of knowledge and skills, and anti-oppressive practice are all considered.     

Enhancing social work student learning: converging Bronfenbrenner,Bourdieu and practice learning

ABSTRACT

Social work student field placements can be complex, challenging and demanding for the practice educator and student. In this paper a model of practice education is explored that incorporates the theoretical constructs of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological framework and Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, capital and field. Through the application of these constructs, the practice educator can enhance the student’s learning and development in three distinctive ways. These will be explored and presented as a model that facilitates the practice educator in supporting the student during their placement and in the preparation for professional practice.     

Acknowledgement of client diversity and oppression in social work student supervision

An enduring theme of social work literature and education has been the need for workers to recognise and challenge oppressive structures and develop competence in working with diverse client groups. This paper reports the findings of a qualitative research project where student and field educator supervision sessions were recorded, with the view to examining how oppression and diversity were addressed in these sessions. The authors have used the term 'difference' to describe the breach between the student and client experiences. Examples of anti-discriminatory practice were identified in the recordings, however on occasions supervisors had difficulty in assisting students to acknowledge diversity and oppression in supervision. Four factors that related to addressing diversity emerged from the supervision material. These were: the struggle to unmask subtle themes of oppression; the use of questioning to raise student awareness and development of self-knowledge; using student biography to facilitate learning on 'difference'; and field educator use of self-disclosure during discussions on diversity. Successful approaches to anti-oppressive practice and responding to diversity are outlined.     

Reflective practice and learning from mistakes in social work student placement

ABSTRACT

Student placement is a fundamental component of social work education and an important space where to build critically self-reflective practitioners. Students learn from their reflection on their experience and their mistakes are a powerful opportunity to go behind the surface of events and understand the essence of the profession. This article will present some results from the analysis carried out on the reflective writing of a group of social work students who describe and reflect on the most significant mistakes they made in their field practice using a reflective framework developed for errors and failures. The main results of this experience are illustrated with special focus on the impact and on the emotions, the relationships with service users and the assessment of the cases. Students are often so concentrated on looking at their responsibility that they become almost blind to the systems and interactions that contribute to the negative outcomes of their actions. Social work education programs should emphasize the importance of structured reflective habits and promote the culture of responsibility instead of the ‘blame culture’, that is probably the strongest obstacle to learning from mistakes and preventing their repetition in the future.     

Social work students with personal experience of sexual abuse: Implications for diploma in social work programme providers

Social work training attracts a significant proportion of students with personal experience of psychosocial trauma and oppression, including various forms of abuse. This article considers some of the implications for social work educators. Sexual abuse is the oppression selected to illustrate this discussion because it is central to contemporary social work training and practice and it is the author's experience that student disclosures of sexual abuse are common. Emotive but unavoidable for both students and educators, sexual abuse issues demonstrate the need for programme providers to address their responsibilities to applicants, students, partner agencies and service users. Continued failure to do so ignores the risks of legal liability and raises questions of whether their practices are consistent with the DipSW's value base. DipSW programme providers are advised to take practical steps both to protect themselves and to provide appropriate support for students. They are asked to review application and selection procedures and urged to define the roles and expectations of course tutors and practice teachers.     

Science and social work: a sketch

While recognizing that understanding of ‘science’ varies across time and countries, there are strands of a shared albeit diverse inheritance. Failures to see where we are located within this inheritance make the social work community vulnerable to simplistic claims regarding what, for example, ‘doing science’ is like. This in turn makes it difficult to deal adequately with questions such as in what ways can or should we distinguish social work science from other kinds of knowledge? Is science in some recognizable way a unified form of knowledge? How ought we to deal with disputes and disagreements in social work science? What kinds of consequences might we envisage from social work science? I deal in turn with each of these questions.     

The psychological goods on clinical social work: a content analysis of the clinical social work and social justice literature

The purpose of this content analysis was to evaluate the extant literature on clinical social work and social justice. In July 2009, an online search of the university databases EBSCO Host (1988–2009) was conducted to identify articles on clinical social work and social justice. Thirty-six peer reviewed journal articles were identified and extracted. The majority were non-empirical articles (75%) published in the United States (94%) over a 21-year period from 1988 to 2009. Overall, clinical social work practice was described as psychological and/or sociopolitical interventions that had a direct and/or indirect effect on psychological and sociopolitical level social justice outcomes. Theories and practices consistent with social justice were advanced. These findings suggest that clinical social work's promotion of psychological well-being remains an underdeveloped area in the scholarly and research literature. In this era of professional educational reform, additional research and professional training on social justice based clinical social work practice is warranted.     

Alexithymia: Inner speech and linkage impairment

This essay seeks to contribute to the theoretical base guiding the treatment of alexithymia by highlighting the concepts of two scholars, psychologist Lev Vygotsky and psychoanalyst W.R. Bion. While their research was not directly concerned with alexithymia, their formulations, nonetheless, make a singular contribution to understanding its dynamics. The author demonstrates these concepts with clinical case material     

People with experience of long-term drug use and homelessness teaching with us: experts by experience participation in university social work education

ABSTRACT

Participation of experts by experience in university social work education is an important shaping factor for future social workers. This article presents two-year long experience in lecturing together with people who have had experience with long-term drug use, homelessness and have a lot of experience with being in a role of social work clients as well. The aim of the presented approach is to recognize their experience, opinions, and attitudes as an important source of knowledge in social work. Based on the research outcomes, the authors discuss topics such as: the role of experts, empowerment, breaking the stereotypes and ethical issues related to experts’ participation. They conclude with practical recommendations.     

A trauma-informed social work framework for the abortion seeking experience

ABSTRACT

This purpose of this article is to discuss the abortion seeking experience in relation to stress, trauma, and trauma-informed care. Definitions of stress and trauma are provided, and potential points of stress during the abortion seeking experience will be discussed in the areas of unintended pregnancy, policy barriers, provider access, and the external clinic environment. Abortion stigma will also be discussed in relation to individual stigma, mass media stigma, community stigma, social work practitioner stigma, and the impact of stigma on the abortion seeking experience. Next, we discuss a trauma-informed lens for considering the abortion seeking experience in the United States, and a trauma-informed social work framework for interacting with clients during the abortion experience is presented as a practice approach for reducing and eliminating trauma and trauma triggers. We then present the potential benefits of this approach. The article concludes with some additional recommendations for a trauma-informed approach to aspects of social work advocacy.     

Sociological social work: a cartoon

I trace an account of social work—and sociology—that I believe holds a promise for re-forming the relationship between the two. I develop the argument in two ways. First, taking 1920s Chicago as a case study, I will attempt ‘a history of the present’ to suggest how the relationship between sociology and social work came to be as it is. I will suggest that the practice of some (both familiar and forgotten) people in 1920s and 1930s sociology and social work is best explained as a form of ‘sociological social work’. Second, after tracking this genealogy, I suggest an agenda for sociological social work that consists of straining to enact certain kinds of inter-disciplinary relationships, developing methodological social work practice, hearing occasional sociological frontier conversations and shared theorising. I illustrate how these arguments challenge both sociology and social work and both theory and practice.