Forgiveness and Reconciliation in Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples: The Client Change Process and Therapist Interventions

This article presents psychotherapy process research findings related to the forgiveness and reconciliation model, known as the Attachment Injury Resolution Model (AIRM), within the context of emotionally focused therapy for couples (EFT). Outcomes for EFT as an intervention for general relationship distress and AIRM have been successfully tested. Audiotapes of nine resolved and nine nonresolved EFT couple cases were used to study the client change process, the validity of AIRM, and EFT interventions used at each stage of the model. Study findings suggest resolved couple clients engaged deeply with their internal experience were more deliberate and controlled in their processing and more affiliative in their interpersonal responses in comparison with nonresolved couples. Resolved versus nonresolved client in‐session performances were discriminated on the basis of four model components. These were associated with significant shifts from secondary reactive emotions to primary attachment–related emotional processing of the injurious incident and with interactions that focus on shaping emotional responsiveness. Key EFT interventions employed in successful attachment injury resolution are also identified.     

Tutor and Student Experiences of Teaching and Learning Law in UK Social Work Education

In a project researching the outcomes of teaching law in social work education, students and tutors were asked to reflect on their experiences of both the academic curriculum and how learning was translated into practice. Curriculum documents in the eight participating universities were also analysed.

At times distinctive orientations emerged from approaches to teaching and practising social work law articulated by tutors and students, and captured in course documentation. On what contributed to effective teaching outcomes, both students and tutors emphasised the application of law learning to practice and the importance of considering learning styles. For students, law learning remains a complex challenge but with a clear interface with social work values. Teaching can help to reduce anxiety about practising social work law but familiar barriers to learning and its application in practice also surfaced. In addition to the time allocated to law learning, development of legal knowledge and skills was greatly affected by the priority given to this aspect of practice during placements.

The openness of practice assessors and managers towards the legal rules and students who use their legal and ethical literacy to advocate for particular outcomes for service users was a crucial factor positively affecting the student experience.     

Outcomes of Law Teaching in Social Work Education: Further Findings from a Cohort Study

This paper reports further findings from research on the outcomes of teaching law to social work students on UK programmes. This paper compares the results for students on undergraduate and postgraduate routes to an initial social work qualification. It also analyses the similarities and differences in outcomes between the seven universities that participated in the study. Statistical analysis of students' self-audits of their legal knowledge, skills for practising social work law, and their perceptions of the relationship between law and practice, is explored further by drawing on observations from students in focus groups and interviews with their tutors. The differences which emerge between undergraduate and postgraduate students highlight the importance of practice learning opportunities in reinforcing acquired legal knowledge and in developing skills for applying that knowledge in practice. Law teaching can clearly be seen to impact on confidence levels but to be constrained by lack of time and sustained focus throughout the overall curriculum. The similarities of outcome between different universities suggest the impact of particular orientations towards, and an acknowledged core curriculum for, teaching law within the academic curriculum.     

Coverage of Women's Issues in Social Work Journals: Are We Building an Adequate Knowledge Base?

Abstract

The authors of this article conducted a review of selected social work journals published between 1982 and 1991 to determine the coverage given to women's issues during this period. Because this study was similar to one conducted for the previous decade, the authors were able to analyze trends over time as well as differences among various journals. The findings indicate that articles focusing on women's issues comprised less than 10% of all articles published in the sampled journals during the decade. The study also found that women authored over 75% of the articles and books on women's content, but that only about 15% of the articles women write are on women's issues.     

Evaluating a Measure of Student Field Performance in Direct Service

This study examines the reliability and validity of a measure to evaluate student field performance. Results demonstrated a consistent factor structure with excellent internal consistency, however, there was inadequate consistency between ratings of individual students in their first and second field education experiences. The measure had some predictive validity in that it could differentiate between students identified as having difficulty in Year 1 of the program, but not in Year 2. Scores were significantly associated with academic grades. Implications for future instrument development and the process of evaluation are considered.     

Achieving pay equity: Strategic mobilization for substantive equality in Aotearoa New Zealand

In an unprecedented move the New Zealand Government in 2017 announced a $2 billion pay equity settlement for 55,000 healthcare workers in aged and disability residential care and home and community support services. The settlement reversed the Government's previous austerity stance that pay equity for carers was too expensive, and that pay parity in the sector was out of the question. The political concession followed five years of intensive equal pay feminist activism. While pay equity settlements overseas have generally used either legal opportunity structures or government intervention, this article argues it was the combination of complementary and intersecting elements of mobilization that led to the negotiated settlement. These elements include a statutory human rights inquiry; legal opportunity; civil society coalition building; increased women's voice; and a government‐led negotiated settlement. The novel theoretical contribution of this article is its empirical support for the concept of substantive equality.     

Sex-Role Stereotyping and Social Work Education

The article presents the results of a nationwide study that examined the written criteria that is currently being used by graduate schools of social work for the appointment, retention, and promotion of their faculties. A content analysis of the study is discussed, and a unique behavioral model for the evaluation of faculty competence is offered.     

Maintaining front-line workers in child protection: a case for refocusing supervision

This paper suggests that a refocusing of supervision be seen as one possible strategy for lowering high attrition rates among child protection workers. Research findings from a qualitative study undertaken in two rural regions in the State of Victoria, Australia illustrate that the current model of supervision gives insufficient attention to the emotional intrusiveness of the work, to building resilience in workers and the implications of adult learning theory. An argument is made for a refocusing of supervision which moves beyond task, encompassing much of what is already known from the supervision literature. The supervisor can be thought of as a messenger who must send and receive messages to and from workers. What message is sent and how supervisors respond to what they receive are critical if the objective is to retain front-line staff. Critically, the supervisor must affirm both the merit and necessity of exploring the impact of feelings and thoughts on action and perception. A key message for supervisors to deliver is the value of individual workers to the organization, leading to increased self-esteem and self-efficacy. The paper also argues for adult learning via reflective supervision. This change to supervision involves a fundamental shift in organizational priorities and an acceptance throughout of the impact of anxiety on all those working in this field. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.