Raising awareness of transformative ecosocial work: Participatory action research with Australian practitioners

This article reports on Participatory Action Research with social work practitioners who collaboratively explored the effects on professional practice when practitioners raise their awareness of an ecosocial work approach. Although contemporary research in the profession has contributed to the ongoing development of ecosocial work, there is a notable lack of collaboration with social work practitioners. Using a transformative ecosocial work model of practice, researchers together with social workers from a range of practice contexts met as co‐inquirers to plan, implement and evaluate ecosocial work interventions. As part of a larger international study, this article reports on research outcomes within the Australian context. Overall, results indicate that practitioners incorporated interventions across personal, individual, group and organisational levels of practice, but were constrained by structural elements at broader levels. Continuing the development of ecosocial work requires further collaborative exploration with practitioners, which takes into consideration communities and broader social and political systems. Key Practitioner Messages: ? This research endeavours to contribute to the evidence‐base for progressing transformative ecosocial work in professional practice; ? Using Participatory Action Research (PAR), this research was done in collaboration with social work practitioners as co‐inquirers to develop ecosocial work interventions; ? A range of ecosocial work interventions were implemented at the personal, individual, group and organisational levels.     

On Systematic Reviews in Social Work: Observations from Teaching, Learning and Assessment of Law in Social Work Education

This paper draws on the experience of completing a systematicreview of teaching, learning and assessment of law in socialwork education. It reviews core elements of the process andquestions whether systematic reviews as currently conceivedfor social work education and practice can realize the claimsadvanced on their behalf. The paper considers questions of evidence,quality, knowledge, dissemination and research use, and offersobservations on the potential of systematic review to provideknowledge for policy makers, practitioners, researchers andacademic tutors.     

Integrating political activism and a professional career

Psychodynaniic theories, once an essential part of social work education but recently neglected, have been reinvigorated in recent years through contributions from social constructionism, infant research, and intersub‐jectivity. These theories, with their emphasis on multiple perspectives, context, and collaborative relationships allow for important considerations of diversity as well as clients’ strengths and resilience, and can serve as formats for the broadest forms of change. In its contemporary form, psychodynamic theory offers a complex and rich understanding of human behavior and a direction for practice that is utterly consistent with social work values and interests.     

改革开放30年以来中国医务社会工作的历史回顾、现状与前瞻

(接2012年第5期)五、中国社会福利时代与医务社会工作发展前景2010年是中国社会政策、社会立法、社会管理、社会服务、社会建设与社会福利元年,标志中国总体性社会福利制度,包括国家福利、儿童福利、家庭福利、妇女福利、残障福利、老年人福利、军人福利、社区福利和社会化福利时代来临,以改善民生为重点的社会建设和中国特色社会福利制     

服务学习型教学模式在社会工作专业中的运用

起源于西方的服务学习模式日益受到了我国高校教育的重视。社会工作作为一个实务性强的专业,在专业发展中注重实践,对理论的本土化发展不断进行探索。本文探讨服务学习教学模式在社会工作专业中的运用的理论和现实背景;描述服务学习教育模式的定义和特征,总结服务学习与社会工作专业教学的契合点;探讨服务学习在社会工作专业教学中的积极意义和对于专业成长的促进作用,讨论服务学习型教学模式的运用问题和初步构想。     

What do we know about child neglect? A critical review of the literature and its application to social work practice

Child neglect is a difficult and complex area of practice for social workers and other childcare professionals. To work effectively, practitioners need a good grasp of relevant literature and research – a point underlined by the moves to incorporate ‘research mindedness’ and ‘research literacy’ into social work education, training and practice. This paper aims to contribute to the debate around research literacy by looking in more detail at the research and knowledge base informing work with neglected children and their families, and considering the ways in which this can be applied in practice. In the first part of the paper, we provide a critical overview of the main aspects of research knowledge, summarizing ‘what we know’ currently about child neglect. Next, we look at some of the difficulties associated with this body of knowledge and at some of its limitations. Having noted these concerns, however, we go on to suggest ways in which the research evidence can be used in mainstream social work. We draw out some of the consequences for work with children and with their parents as well as considering the implications for social workers and their agencies.     

Coming Together: Factors that Connect Social Workers to Group Work Practice

Group work is an effective method to intervene with various populations in multiple settings. However, research has demonstrated that social workers are often not prepared for the realities of group work practice. In this study, the lens is turned on professional social workers that identify as group workers about the motivations and factors that contributed to their practice of group work. The goal of this research is to provide data and related insights that will enhance the preparation of social workers for the realities of contemporary group work practice. The study also identified factors that would enhance group work education in both the classroom and field education settings.     

Social Work Research and Its Relevance to Practice: “The Gap Between Research and Practice Continues to be Wide”

The social work profession requires a body of scientific evidence supporting the effectiveness of interventions; yet, the social work scientific community could benefit from strengthening its contribution to the profession's body of evidence. Through twenty qualitative interviews with social work professors who are employed at four-year academic institutions (referred to as “social work academics”), this study explored how academics define social work research and how they perceive research to inform practice. The data were analyzed along the six steps of thematic analysis, resulting in 13 themes and six sub-themes in relation to the definition of research activity and social work research, the extent to which research informs practice, and the barriers and facilitators to research informing practice. The findings revealed that social work continues to lack a clear definition of research and produces research that only minimally influences practice, often due to the pressure for social work academics to research and publish in support of their career trajectory within academia versus writing for practitioners. The social work profession should take action to address and further research the research-practice disconnect by establishing a clear definition and aims of social work research, and training academics in effective research-to-practice translational methods.     

Re‐conceptualising the link between research and practice in social work: A literature review on knowledge utilisation

Despite the recent movement towards greater research use in many areas of social work, criticisms persist that decision making in practice is seldom informed by sound research evidence. Discourse about the research‐to‐practice gap in social work has tended to focus on the feasibility of evidence‐based practice for the profession, but has rarely drawn from the broader knowledge utilisation literature. There are important understandings to be gained from the knowledge utilisation field, which spans more than six decades of interdisciplinary research.This article introduces the wider knowledge utilisation literature to a social work audience. It considers the potential of this body of literature to facilitate research use in social work, as well as conceptual issues that may be hindering it from informing improvements to research utilisation in practice.     

高教研究的社会责任与高教研究主体的使命

高等教育研究的社会责任内涵主要包括：关注社会发展,服务于社会;预测高等教育可能面临的问题,引领社会发展;紧贴高等教育实践,促进改革与发展;加快高等教育学科建设,为理论创新作贡献;遵循研究中的伦理道德规范,保持高教研究队伍的纯洁性等方面。高教研究主体的使命包括提高以高等教育理论为对象的研究、以高等教育现象为对象的研究和以高等教育实践为对象的研究。     

现阶段本土性社会工作之专业关系研究

社会工作助人实践中社会工作者和受助者之间的专业关系直接影响助人实践的成败。西方社会工作理论对专业关系有比较细致的研究和相对详尽的实务原则,现阶段的本土性社会工作则由于本土文化、专业发展阶段等因素的影响要求在实践中对专业关系的把握需要注意自身的特点。高度情感卷入、有条件的接纳、案主自决的适当介入和时间上的延展性构成现阶段本土社会工作实践专业关系的特点。社会工作者对这些特点的总结、理解和把握将推动社会工作事业的发展和制度化的建设。     

“技术规制”抑或“反思生成”:社会工作实践教学模式探析

社会工作实践教学中存在技术性实践与反思性实践教学模式的分歧,关系到中国社会工作教育的专业化、职业化与本土化的进程。通过两种实践教学模式的辨析,在现实语境下,增加反思与批判元素,对技术性实践中的理性主义进行规制,应是中国社会工作实践教学的未来取向。     

构建政府、福利组织与高校的联动机制——系统论视角下的我国社会工作发展思路

中国社会工作的发展是一项庞大的系统工程，需要政府、福利组织与高校等诸要素的相互支撑，形成良性互动，以实现各种资源的最佳利用和配置。当前在我国社会工作发展过程中，人们对政府与福利组织之间的伙伴关系较为关注，而对于政府、福利组织和高校三者关系的论述有所不足。本文从系统论的视角出发，剖析了政府、福利组织与高校在社会工作体系中各自的需求与供给情况及其内在的逻辑关系，并指出三者之间具有不可分割的共生关系。文章认为，当前国内社会工作发展中遇到的一些困境，正是由于三者间没有形成良性互动的有机联系而导致。发展社会工作必须建立政府、福利组织与高校的联动机制，其中政府必须先行一步，在这个联动机制中发挥关键的推动和主导作用。     

The place of research in social work education

Summary This paper argues for a stronger emphasis on research in socialwork education and the recognition of a triangular and dynamicrelationship between social work research, education and practice.The focus here is on the particular relationship between thefirst two of this triad. The paper locates the discussion inan examination of the literature on the nature of knowledgeand ideas about professional education, and proceeds to a considerationof the place of research in disciplinary development. This includesa brief mention of changing paradigms reflected in social workresearch in the past century. Empirical data from research carriedout in the mid-1990s is used to illustrate the place of researchin social work education currently, and to support the argumentthat social work educators have responsibility for knowledgecreation (through research), as well as using research in theirteaching, and in devising curricula which develop knowledgeabout and skills in research among social workers at differentstages of training. Developing the research and knowledge baseis seen as an essential role for social work academics, in theface of uncertainties about future directions for professionaltraining and the complexity of the task for which social workersare being educated.     

Teaching and learning communication with children and young people: developing the qualifying social work curriculum in a changing policy context

Twenty years after survey evidence showed that UK social work students could complete their training without having learnt about or worked with children, new research suggests little has changed. There is still no guarantee that any student on qualification will have been taught about or assessed in communication skills with children and young people. This is despite the claim that the pre‐registration award provides teaching and assessment in core generic skills as a foundation for the development of specialist practice roles in agencies. In fact, as this paper shows, a common understanding of what counts as effective communication with children has yet to be consolidated in social work practice and research. This has impeded the process of curriculum development. Divergent expectations about what counts as social work communication with children in a changing policy context may be exacerbating long‐standing uncertainties about how genericism and specialism should be linked in professional education and training. In exploring these issues, this paper seeks to clear the way for the renewed effort that is now required if this aspect of curriculum development is to be effective.     

Advancing Hospice and Palliative Care Social Work Leadership in Interprofessional Education and Practice

The importance of interprofessional collaboration in achieving high quality outcomes, improving patient quality of life, and decreasing costs has been growing significantly in health care. Palliative care has been viewed as an exemplary model of interprofessional care delivery, yet best practices in both interprofessional education (IPE) and interprofessional practice (IPP) in the field are still developing. So, too, is the leadership of hospice and palliative care social workers within IPE and IPP. Generating evidence regarding best practices that can prepare social work professionals for collaborative practice is essential. Lessons learned from practice experiences of social workers working in hospice and palliative care can inform educational efforts of all professionals. The emergence of interprofessional education and competencies is a development that is relevant to social work practice in this field. Opportunities for hospice and palliative social workers to demonstrate leadership in IPE and IPP are presented in this article.     

Who Owns the Group? The Role of Worker Control in the Development of a Group: A Qualitative Research Study of Practice

This paper presents an application of the qualitative research methodology of ethnographic content analysis as a means to discover the salient features and nature of a social work group. Observational data from process recordings of a thirty-week group of mothers at a child guidance center are systematically analyzed. This paper addresses a number of issues: (1) the need to explore and further articulate the role of worker vis-à-vis the dynamic of mutual aid in social work groups, particularly in regard to the concept of exercising 'control;' (2) the applicability of qualitative research methodology as a means of conceptualizing aspects of group work practice, thus contributing to our theory base and knowledge and tools for practice; and (3) the wealth of data for such research lying available in the written recordings of every group practitioner, and the natural logic that the development of theory in social work with groups comes most aptly from the practice domain.     

"Not prepared to care" and "raising the bar": case examples of building university-community partnerships in gerontological social work research

This paper examines university-community partnerships in gerontological social work research. Utilizing a case study approach, the process of collaboration is explored within the context of a two-phase research project conducted jointly by agency social workers, social work students and a social work faculty member. The benefits and challenges of the university-community research partnership are discussed along with the implications for gerontological social work research, education and practice.     

Activation and ‘coercion’ among Swedish social assistance claimants with different work barriers and socio‐demographic characteristics: What is the logic?

Nybom J. Activation and ‘coercion’ among Swedish social assistance claimants with different work barriers and socio‐demographic characteristics: What is the logic? The study analysed how the work barriers and socio‐demographic characteristics of both activated and non‐activated social assistance claimants influence their participation in activation and exposure to coercion, measured as two opposite indicators – sanctions and exemptions. The study covered 372 social assistance claimants in four municipalities during a period of 1 year. The results suggest that resource activation, which entails education and/or work practice in regular workplaces, often targets claimants who lack work motivation, whereas job activation, which aims at quick entry into the labour market, targets young claimants and claimants who lack formal skills (education and/or work experience). Swedish men older than 25 years appear to run the highest risk of facing sanctions irrespective of participation in activation. Exemptions vary more than sanctions between activated and non‐activated claimants. The results are discussed in terms of five logics operating in social work.     

An Unfinished Reflexive Journey: Social Work Students' Reflection on their Placement Experiences

The fieldwork placement is recognized as one of the major componentsof social work education and a major determinant of its quality.A key aspect of the learning process in the fieldwork placementis the exposition of practice encounters to the students’critical reflection. Given the importance of the process of‘reflection’ or ‘reflective learning’,a qualitative study based on the reflective logs of social workstudents was conducted to explore the meaning of social workfield education and the learning experiences of social workstudents during their placement. The study findings revealedthat disturbing events experienced by students in their fieldworkwere a catalyst to their reflective process. Meanwhile, theirundue concern with knowledge and skills application within acircumscribed knowledge frame suggests the dominant influenceof scientism and competence-based practice in social work, inwhich learning outcomes and instrumental and technical reasoningare highly emphasized. Discovery of ‘self’ was alsothe major premise in the students’ reflection logs, inwhich a majority of them took their prevailing self-identityas a constant state to be verified in interaction with othersin the fieldwork placement. Reflexivity is manifested in askingfundamental questions about assumptions generated by formaland practice theories; it addresses the multiple interrelationsbetween power and knowledge, and acknowledges the inclusionof self in the process of knowledge creation in social workpractice. Its realization in social work education requiresthe social work educators’ reflexive examination of thedynamics that influence the construction of curriculum, whichin turn construct our prospective social workers.