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.     

Cautionary Tales From Beginning Practitioners: The Fate of Personal Models of Social Work in Beginning Practice

Summary The relationship between professional education and beginningpractice is examined by considering whether the personal modelsof social work developed and reviewed by the individual duringsocial work education survived the transition from student toautonomous practitioner. Fifteen University of Queensland socialwork graduates were engaged in a task of making explicit theirpersonal models of social work, by way of repertory grid technique,in their first eight months of employment. The repertory gridwas used as a conversational tool to monitor the developmentof and changes in their personal models of social work. Thesocial workers were thus engaged in a process consciously reflectingon the meaning of, and the reasons for, these developments andchanges. Whilst the study found that personal models do survivethe transition to social work practice, it also highlightedareas of concern. On the whole graduates did not feel preparedfor work, and the initial period of practice was one of considerabledifficulty. Many experienced considerable difficulty in subsumingthe organizational context within their personal model of socialwork.     

Social Work: Gender, Care and Justice

Correspondence to: Joan Orme, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, Lilybank House, Bute Gardens, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8RT, UK. Summary This article, in examining gender and justice, seeks to examinethe relationship between feminist theory and social work. Specificallyit reviews writings on social work ethics and suggests thatlittle attention has been paid to feminist scholarship thatresonates with social work practice. Focusing primarily on communitycare, it demonstrates how debates within feminism have becomemore complex and have problematized understandings of both careand justice. It argues that for social work it is unhelpfulto dichotomize justice and care; we should aspire to just socialwork practice.     

Social Work, the State and the University

Summary Some aspects of the triangular relationship between the state,the university and social work are explored. Is it appropriatefor social work to be taught in a university? What are the implicationsof the fact that well over 90% of social workers are employedby the state? And what above all, is the nature of the relationshipbetween critical analysis as the corner-stone of scholarshipand the need to prepare the social work student to functioneffectively in the real world? It is argued that the respectiveattitudes of higher education and government towards socialwork are influenced by the nature of social work's relationshipwith sociology, but that this in turn has not been fruitfulfor practice development.     

Regulation or fragmentation? Directions for Social Work under New Labour

Summary This article reviews the modernizing agenda of New Labour forsocial work which has been articulated in the various changesfor social work and social care announced in the ‘QualityStrategy’. Focusing predominantly on arrangements foreducation and training, the article argues that, rather thanpresenting a coherent strategy, the structures and proceduresare fragmented and unco-ordinated at many levels. A major weaknessis that New Labour has failed to clarify where it places socialwork in the structures of a ‘modernized’ welfarestate.     

Social Work As The Privatized Solution of Public Ills

Summary This paper takes the motivation of the social work recruit asthe point of departure for an exploration of some aspects ofthe low-key politics of social work. Attempting to cut paststereotypical and occupationally agreed conceptions of why socialworkers enter their occupation, it suggests that the socialwork recruit's choice is most usefully understood as an attemptedsolution to central cultural problems in advanced capitalistsocieties, and it directs attention to the moral-political rootsof social work. While the choice of social work as a careerrepresents for some a sort of primitive political rebellion,the implications of this 'rebellion' are not grasped, and itbecomes the privatized solution of a privileged minority     

Some Dominant Perspectives in the Literature Relating to Multi-Racial Social Work

Summary This article represents an attempt to provide an overall frameworkfor the understanding of the social work literature relatingto racial minorities. It traces the main currents of socialwork thought from the earliest contributions of the late 1960sto the more recent work of the early 1980s. Four main themesare identified in the literature, which are referred to as theanthropological approach, liberal pluralism, cultural pluralismand the structuralist position. The conclusion attempts to tentativelydraw out the relationships between the literature, social workpractice and ultimate race relations goals.     

Discrimination in Social Work--An Historical Note

Correspondence to Dr. Bill Forsythe, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, 3rd Floor, Amory Building, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4RJ. Summary It is important to examine the historical tradition of anti-discriminatorytheory and practice in social work in the light of current emphasison this aspect. There were several traditions, one anti-discriminatory,one non-discriminatory and one selfconsciously discriminatoryin nineteenth-century charitable and philanthropic work in England.There was considerable tension between these traditions andthe matter was further confused in that some workers, like ThomasBarnardo, represented an anti-discriminatory stance and yetin some of their work they clearly discriminated on such groundsas religious belief. It is concluded, therefore, that anti-discriminatorypractice can plainly be located in the pioneer phase of socialwork, illustrated by reference to such figures as JosephineButler and Elisabeth Fry.     

SETTING OBJECTIVES AND MEASURING ACHIEVEMENT IN SOCIAL CARE

Correspondence to Tony Bovaird, Public Sector Management Research Centre, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham B4 7EJ Summary This paper examines a systematic approach to formulating andevaluating policies for social work practice in social care.A hierarchy of aims and objectives is advocated, based on theassumption that a clear statement of desired outcomes in socialwork practice with groups of service users is required, togetherwith the establishment of indicators by which their achievementmay be measured. The purpose of the hierarchy is to generatean integrated policy for change and to give a full sense ofdirection to all staff involved, both in policy making and insocial work practice.     

Social Work in the Welfare Network: Negotiating Daily Practice

Summary Interactions with other organisations and occupations in thewelfare network form an indispensable part of contemporary socialwork practice. Yet attempts at collaboration between socialworkers and others are beset by obstacles which create instabilityand potential disorder. The usual organisational responses tosuch problems are of limited relevance. Even so, day-to-daycollaboration is accomplished. This is explained and analysedas a negotiated order which is underpinned by interdependencebut framed by inequality of power and authority. The negotiativedevices of social workers are discussed and some implicationsof the analysis for social work education are identified.     

Social Work for Social Fitness

Summary Social work has lost the perspective of social relationshipsas ends in themselves, and has become predominantly an impersonal,individualistic technology. Several interpersonal dimensionsare outlined to help fill this social value vacuum, and it issuggested that these can be held together by the concept ofsocial fitness. This is defined as the mutual development ofthe individual and his total network to a fullness of identitywhich is an end in itself and does not depend on the achievementof any other objectives. The kind of power produced by thisfitness is distinguished from power of the impersonal kind,and its meaning for social workers is discussed in relationto material need. Finally, the future development of socialwork is considered briefly in terms of promoting social fitnessthrough work with various kinds of social networks.     

Social work, individualization and life politics

Summary This paper (re)conceptualizes the fundamental concerns of socialwork in late-modernity as 'life politics'. Drawing on theoriesof reflexive modernity and risk society, the emergence of lifepolitics is placed in the context of processes of 'individualization',a transformation of intimacy, and a new kind of reflexivityand concern with risk which have moved to the centre of howboth institutions and selfhood are constituted today. The paperaims to move understandings of the radical potential of socialwork beyond a one-dimensional view of power and risk which arisesfrom an over-structural focus on 'emancipatory politics'. Atthe heart of late-modern life politics, expertise and lay people,in which social work increasingly takes the form of being amethodology of 'life planning' for late-modern citizens. Thepaper aims to advance forms of practice which take the lifepolitical domain, emotionality and the depth of social relationsas their primary focus, thus enhancing the capacities of (vulnerable)clients to practice effective life-planning, find healing andgain mastery over their lives.     

Career Patterns of Qualified Social Workers: Discussion of a Recent Survey

Summary The article presents some of the findings of a recent surveyon the career paths of qualified social workers. The factorsinfluencing career progression, and particularly moves intomanagement, axe explored. Wastage rates and the relationshipbetween job characteristics and people's decision to leave socialwork are also discussed. Finally, the article looks at levelsof job satisfaction among social workers.     

Social Service Teams and their Managers

Summary A study is reported of the perceived effectiveness of teamsof social workers and their managers. Prior studies are reviewedand shown to give disproportionate emphasis to the supervisionelement in the manager's task. It is shown that in the sampleof teams studied the correlates of perceived team effectivenesswere quite different in area teams from those found in socialwork teams. Social work teams required a manager who was primarilysupportive, whereas in area teams the manager's role was foundto be less important than were group process variables.     

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.     

The State of Welfare

Summary The word ‘welfare’ is difficult to define becauseit combines within it a range of ideologies and actions. Twoconclusions are drawn from this: first, that social servicesshould be regarded as contributors to, but not providers ofwelfare; second, that the study of social work and social administrationshould be concerned not only with the relationship of ‘service’to ‘need’ but also with societal movements and pressureswhich determine the emergence of both. The article reviews theprofessed values of the welfare state, particularly ‘socialequality’ and the problems associated with its achievement,namely public attitudes, and the discontinuity between intentionand practice in the welfare services. The implications for socialwork education and practice are considered.     

Social Workers Talking to Clients: A Comment

Summary I read Baldock and Prior's article with interest in view ofthe shortage of studies examining day-to-day practice in socialwork, but the authors' analysis leaves me reflecting uneasilyupon the state of uncertainty into which social work has fallen.The authors conclude by describing as ‘skilled’,practices which they say resulted in confusion for clients andwhich only apparently reflected social work principles. We arenot told whether the authors checked their analysis with workersor clients and it is possible that the clients were not as confusedas we are led to believe, given their long term contact withthe workers. If, however, the picture is an accurate one, shouldit really be described as representing skilled social work?Baldock and Prior do so but neglect to examine the ends towardswhich interviewing skill should be directed in social work.The result is a strangely ambiguous statement about practice,particularly in the light of research findings on effectivenessand client satisfaction, and one which offers little scope forcomplacency.     

Constructivism in Social Work: Towards a Participative Practice Viability

Summary Social work has traditionally drawn upon an expansive rangeof social science research and theorizing as its claim upona ‘knowledge base’. Recent debates have exploredthe need for the profession to develop its own theory of socialwork knowledge arising from practice. This paper seeks to extendthe boundaries of these ideas through an operational and epistemologicalelaboration and critique of Sheppard's (1995a; 1998) notionof a practice paradigm. In an examination of the contributionof constructivism and the seminal work of George Kelly's (1955)Psychology of Personal Constructs, arguments are put forwardfor social work practice to focus upon the co-construction ofviable working relationships with service users as the basisfor an anti-oppressive and participative professionalism. Itargues that the sterile philosophical dichotomies between objectivism/realism-subjectivism/interpretivismand the equally unhelpful social work division between practice-theoryshould be integrated within a situated, participatory, constructivistapproach to knowledge creation in social work practice and continuingprofessional development.     

Practice Validity, Reflexivity and Knowledge for Social Work

Correspondence to Professor Michael Sheppard, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, Devon PL4 8AA, UK Summary In the last few years there have been significant developmentsin conceptualizing the role and nature of knowledge in socialwork. This has been based on a fundamental review of epistemological,ethical and theoretical facets of social work and its knowledgebase. Amongst some of the most significant developments havebeen the emergence of new concepts (for social work) such asprocess knowledge, reflexivity and a range of ideas relatingto hypotheses. In a recent article, Susan White (1997) soughtto critique some of my ideas on this matter. This article representsa response to her paper; one which uses the opportunity to drawout wider issues for a general theory of social work knowledge.In particular, it focuses on three key dimensions: the centralityof the concept of practice validity, the importance of a conceptof reflexivity which is not simply transferred from the disciplineof sociology but which has a social work-specific meaning, andthe dangers of an unrestrained relativism.