Research Note: Education and Training in Genetics in Social Work Programmes Across the United Kingdom

Correspondence to Rachel Iredale, Welsh Institute for Health and Social Care, University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd CF37 1DL. E-mail: riredale{at}glam.ac.uk Summary Genetics is an issue which has only recently come on to theagenda, but it is one that will rapidly assume great significanceas the twenty-first century approaches. This article describesa survey of social work course directors in the UK, undertakento assess their opinions of the likely impact of the new geneticson future social work practice. The results provide baselinedata on education and training on genetics in social work programmesin the UK. Only a small proportion of colleges in the UK currentlyteach genetics, partly because of full curricula, and partlybecause genetics is not perceived to be relevant to contemporarysocial work practice. Other attitudes of social work coursedirectors to the new genetics are also described.     

Value Bases in Social Work Education

Correspondence to Elisabeth Lynn, Lecturer in Social Work, Centre for Applied Social Studies, 9th Floor, Chemistry Tower, University of Wales Bangor, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2UW, UK. Summary In this paper the two values of social justice and personalcaring are identified as key ideologies within social work education.Their presence is traced within a historical ebb and flow oftheory and practice and it is argued that this dialectic isembedded in social and individual systems. Based on fieldworkresearch with social work lecturers and practice teachers, itis argued that anti-oppressive social work needs a reflexivetheory/practice model to provide an understanding of how structuralpower affects all aspects of an individual. This demands a workingsynthesis of the two values of Personal Canng and Social Justicewithin an understanding of a multiple approach.     

The Private and the Public in Personal Models of Social Work: A Response to O'Connor and Dalgleish

Correspondence to Dr. R. Hugman, Department of Social Administration, University of Lancaster, Fylde College, Lancaster LA1 4YF. Summary O'Connor and Dalgleish have proposed an understanding of thedisjuncture between education and beginning practice. They discussthis in relation to individuals' models of practice. It is suggestedin this response that the individual basis of this analysisrestricts the extent of possible conclusions. A comparison withdifferent research findings is made, and it is suggested thatthere are implications for social work education and the collectiveresponsibility the profession has for beginning social workers.     

A Case for Social Work Evaluation of Social Work Education

Correspondence to Imogen Taylor, Research Fellow, Department of Social Work, University of Bristol, 8 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TN Summary This paper discusses the importance of evaluation of socialwork education by social work researchers, particularly giventhe increasing demands from different interest groups for socialwork courses to demonstrate effectiveness. It is noted that educational researchers are dominating thefield of educational evaluation, yet it is crucial for the survivalof social work that social work education be evaluated by socialwork researchers. Both the tools and the outcome of such evaluationwill shape the future of social work education and social workitself. Recognizing that cross fertilization of ideas between disciplinesis essential, a model for social work evaluation is proposedwhich is derived from models developed by other disciplinesand integrated with social work practice theory. The resultingresearch model draws a number of parallels between researchand practice, bringing together two groups which are often distantand distinct. The model also brings researcher and user closertogether. The model is analysed in light of its applicationto the evaluation of Enquiry and Action Learning, an innovativeapproach to social work education implemented by the Departmentof Social Work, University of Bristol. Central government funding must be available to ensure systematicand rigorous evaluation of social work education rather thanthe piecemeal research possible so far.     

The Client Group Preferences of Diploma in Social Work Students: What are they, do they change during programmes and what variables affect them?

Correspondence to Dr Raymond Jack, Reader in Social Work, Anglia Polytechnic University, East Road, Cambridge CB1 1PT Summary Social work is undergoing fundamental changes in terms of theway it is organized and how it is practised. If, in this shiftingscenario of occupational deconstruction, the output of socialwork education is to be relevant to the workforce needs of welfareagencies—no matter how organized—it is importantto know more about the client group preferences of social workstudents and what factors influence them. This longitudinalstudy inquired into student preferences at the beginning andend of three Diploma in Social Work programmes and its findingssuggest that the sociodemographic characteristics of studentsare less demonstrably influential than previous experience andplacement experience whilst on the programmes. In addition,students attribute far less influence to lectures and tutorialsas change agents than they do to placements, service users orother students. The implications of this for social work educationare discussed.     

The Impact of Criminal Conviction Disclosure on the Self-reported Offending Profile of Social Work Students

Correspondence to University of Edinburgh, School of Social and Political Studies, 31 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh, EH8 9JT, UK. E-mail: richard.perry{at}ed.ac.uk. Summary Data gathered at a Scottish institute of higher education between1986 and 2000 indicate a significant reduction in the scaleof self-reported offending behaviour by social work students.The change coincided with the introduction by the Central Councilfor Education and Training in Social Work (CCETSW) in 1989 ofa requirement that applicants for training disclose prior toadmission any criminal convictions recorded against them. Thearticle suggests that more prolific offenders have been deterredfrom applying to DipSW programmes and the social work professionneeds to take steps to create a more positive climate for therecruitment of those offenders who represent no more of a threatto users than non-offenders.     

The Right Kind of Telling? Locating the Teaching of Interviewing Skills within a Systems Framework

to Juliet Koprowska, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, UK. E-mail: jk11{at}york.ac.uk Summary There is a gradually expanding literature addressing the teachingand learning of interviewing skills in social work education.The process of professional learning in the wider field is notfully understood; empirical studies are rare and methodologicaldifferences make comparison difficult. Few papers offer a theoreticalbasis for methods of teaching. The article starts with a shortaccount of the literature, with more explication of papers whosethemes are closely related to those of this article; a considerationof skills training on social work qualifying programmes follows.Next, Agazarian's (1997) theoretical framework is presentedand then the theory and methods of practice are employed tomake sense of obstacles to learning and to demonstrate how toovercome them. Finally, potential areas for further researchare suggested.     

Explanation and Education in Social Work

Summary Social work education has to confront the problem of workingwith students in developing an understanding of the range ofexplanations that exist in the social sciences and the differentbases of these explanations. One pedagogic approach is to explorea map of categories of explanation based upon different conceptionsof the nature of social science knowledge itself. Such a map,outlined in the paper, would distinguish between physical scienceparadigms and human science paradigms and identify the differentimplications for social work of the various viewpoints. Theteacher cannot remain neutral with regard to explanation inthe social sciences; the author therefore indicates that hisown account is based on a marxist perspective     

On the Trail of a Radical Pedagogy for Social Work Education

Correspondence to Dr William De Maria, Department of Social Work and Social Policy, The University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia. Summary This article uses a general decade by decade approach to notethe emergence (1970s), decline (1980s), and re-emergence (1990s)of radical social work. An issue for this 1990s'-type radicalsocial work will become one of attending to its own teachingmission. A range of radical pedagogic principles is presented:cause-sensitive action, tailoring, contradiction-based learning,de-monopolized values, radical analysis, polemic storytelling,and centring marginality.     

Social Work as an Aspect of Primary Health Care: The Social Workers' View

Summary This study is based on an analysis of social workers' viewsof their work with 168 clients referred over a six month periodin 1977 in a health centre setting. A wide range of referralswas made and there was close collaboration with other primaryhealth care professionals as well as outside agencies. Far morepsycho-social problems were encountered by the social workersin the course of their intervention than were apparent on referral,although most of the work was short term. Social work with theindividual predominated and a variety of traditional socialwork skills were employed, although the elderly received relativelylittle help with emotional problems and were offered mainlypractical help. Social workers' perceptions of their clientsare discussed in relation to their choice of methods of interventionand feelings of efficacy. The attachment scheme emerges as generallyfruitful both in terms of social workers' job satisfaction andclients benefitting from a multi-disciplinary approach; howeverthe need for closer inter-professional collaboration in meetingthe needs of the elderly is highlighted.     

Social Workers' Attitudes to Lesbian Clients

Correspondence to Karen Hardman, Department of Applied Social Studies, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX Summary Within British social work there is no model of good practicefor working with lesbian clients. As a prelude to the establishmentof such a model, this paper attempts to ascertain social workers'attitudes to lesbians using a thirty-item attitude (Likert)scale. The implications of social workers' attitudes for practicewith lesbian clients are considered from responses to case vignettes.     

Social Work and the Sociology of Knowledge

John Paley. Department of Social Policy, School of Policy Studies, Cranfield Institute of Technology, Cranfield, Bedford MK43 0AL. Summary The research literature on social workers' use of theory suggeststhat social work, conceived as a form of knowledge in action,is amenable to a sociology of knowledge approach. This papertries to illustrate the relevant parallels, and uses both empiricaland philosophical themes in the recent sociology of scienceto identify a strategy for social work research.     

At the Edge of the Frame: Beyond Science and Art in Social Work

Correspondence to Dean Emilia E. Martinez-B raw ley. School of Social Work, Arizona State University, PO Box 871802, Tempe, Arizona 85287–1802, USA. Summary The central argument in this article is that social work hasalways been a practice at the fringes. The phrase is used inits best sense and in at least two meanings: (1) that socialwork has been at the edges of the mainstream of scientific discourse,not because of any intrinsic deficiency in the profession butbecause of the nature of the practice; (2) that, in the postmodernsense, social work has been a collage where science, art, rationalityand intuition, systematic and asystematic knowledge meet. Inthis latter sense, this article proposes, social work can representa very desirable convergence of paradigms that needs to be acknowledgedand celebrated. Perhaps the most significant contribution ofpostmodernism is that it accommodates this possibility.     

Selecting for Social Work

Summary Social work courses need to spell out the characteristics andconsequences of particular selection procedures, as a prerequisiteof improvement. This article reports a survey of applicantsfor a postgraduate social work course, where entry is determinedby two independent, individual interviews. Previous social workexperience and the candidate's degree subject emerged as importantcorreiates of selection. Paired interviewing appeared to operatein an impartial fashion, with a high degree of consistency betweeninterviewers of different kinds, and an absence of hierarchyin resolving conflicts. However, the outcome of interviewingwas partially contingent upon the degree of agreement betweeninterviewers on their initial, individual assessment of thecandidates' suitability.     

Parton, Howe and Postmodernity: A Critical Comment on Mistaken Identity

Correspondence to Carole Smith, School of Social Work,, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, Dover Street Building, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL Summary In their contributions to the debate about social work, modernityand postmodernity Parton(1994) and Howe (1994) argue that therecent changes in social work practice can best be understoodas features of, or responses to, the postmodern social orderin which it is located. This has led, they argue, to an increasingfragmentation of the profession and an undermining of its formalknowledge base. We will argue here that, not only does suchan argument oversimplify the nuances of the ‘postmodernity’question, but it represents a misreading of the pressures affectingpractice at this time, which are more properly attributableto the operation of the discourses and ideologies of a particularphase of late capitalism and high modernity.     

The Changing Nature and Context of Social Work Research

Summary Social work research is constantly diversifying and expandingand this article explores its changing nature; including changesto epistemology and practice; and the critical influence ofthe wider economic, political, theoretical and practice changesoccurring to social work itself. The author discusses a numberof issues facing social work research: the enduring conflictsof ways of knowing, doing and valuing social work research;the role of practitioners as researchers; and the challengeto empower service users as self-determining researchers.     

Working in the Social Services: Job Satisfaction, Stress and Violence

Correspondence to Professor Jan Pahl, Department of Social and Public Policy and Social Work, Darwin College, University of Kent at Canterbury, Canterbury CT2 7NY. Summary A major survey of the social services workforce (Balloch etal., forthcoming), carried out in the Research Unit at the NationalInstitute for Social Work, has produced new data about sourcesof job satisfaction and about the incidence of stress and violence.The survey took place in five different local authorities inEngland, and interviews were carried out with 1276 individuals,selected from four groups of staff: managers, social work staff,home care workers and residential staff. The results suggestedthat those who work in the statutory, social services do experiencemore stress and violence than workers in other parts of thehealth and welfare services. However, different jobs presenteddifferent hazards. In general, home care workers were the mostsatisfied with their jobs, and were also the group least likelyto be stressed or to experience violence in the course of theirwork. By contrast, residential workers, especially those withmanagement responsibilities, were most at risk of both violenceand stress. Men were more likely than women to experience violence,while other groups with a higher than average risk of stressincluded younger members of staff, and managers and social workstaff responsible for elderly people.     

An Approach to the Management of the Assessment of Practice Placements

Correspondence to Annie Hudson. Lecturer in Social Work. Faculty of Economic and Social Studies, University of Manchester. Manchester M13 9PL Summary This article addresses some of the issues and problems inherentin the assessment of practice placements. and discusses theefforts of one course to devise a method of managing the assessmentprocess. It begins with an identification and brief discussionof those problems, then moves on to review the development ofthe method and describe the system as it currently operates.The second part of the article discusses the need for continuingattention to both the design of the system and its implicationsfor the roles of those most involved, with particular emphasison the role of the tutor. The article concludes by posing somequestions raised therein which have relevance for current debatesabout the future of social work training.     

Slovenian Social Work: A Case Study of Unexpected Developments in the post-1990 Period

Correspondence to Dr Shulamit Ramon, London School of Economics, Department of Social Policy and Administration, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE. Summary The paper contextualizes Slovenian social work in terms of thepolitical, social, economic and cultural changes which Sloveniahas gone through recently. The frame-work of social work educationand services is then outlined. Two major examples of unexpectedinnovative social work projects are outlined and analysed. Theimplications of these examples to Slovenian social work practiceand theory are looked at in the conclusions.