Adapting Social Work in Working with Muslim Clients

Current social work education programmes and textbooks often underestimate the hypothesis that providing effective services to different cultural groups requires cultural understanding. One approach that has been recommended is the localization of social work: using a fundamentally different social work knowledge base and approach with different cultural groups. To date, however, little scholarship considers how to localize social work in working with Muslim communities. On the basis of interviews with over 50 social service providers in Canada who work with Muslim clients, the present article provides insight into strategies and methods that involve localizing social work in Muslim communities, focusing on possible client characteristics, challenges, and needs from the perspective of the practising social worker. Issues of racism, spirituality, acculturation, help seeking, and client expectations of service are particularly relevant. Properly responding to these factors ultimately involves the coordinated efforts of educational institutions, agencies, and social workers, but none of this will be possible without a thorough understanding of cultural values meaningful to Muslim clients.     

‘You've Got to be a Saint to be a Social Worker’. The (Mis)operation of Fitness to Practise Processes for Students Already Registered onto English Social Work Training Programmes

This article seeks to promote a debate about the operation of fitness to practise procedures for students who have been registered onto social work training programmes in England. Information is provided about the General Social Care Council (GSCC) requirements, university procedures and five exemplars are used to tease out some of the key issues in relation to the operation of these processes. From this exploratory position major concerns are raised about the operation of the current process which promotes surveillance of students in all aspects of their lives, is secret, and lacks accountability. At present it is unknown whether these processes are being operated in a fair or just manner, whether they target particular student communities or whether they are being operated equitably across England. This is a highly unsatisfactory position and is in sharp contradiction to social work's avowed commitment to social justice.     

Exploring Professional Stereotypes and Learning for Inter-professional Practice: An Example from UK Qualifying Level Social Work Education

This paper explores the concept of stereotyping from UK social work students' and educators' perspectives. It discusses findings from an exploration of inter-professional practice with two cohorts of final year social work students in a UK university. The authors adapted a questionnaire to initiate discussion about inter-professional working with BA and MA students participating in a specialist child and family social work module. This paper analyses students' responses to the questionnaire and explores wider issues relating to professional stereotyping and identity, discussing the usefulness of these concepts for social work education and collaborative practice. Results suggest that student social workers held both positive and negative assumptions about specific occupations/professions (such as medicine), and that these acted as a mirror or tool for reflecting back their own views of social work identity/ies. We argue that this pedagogic exercise in identifying stereotypical assumptions about ‘others’ may encourage the building of a positive sense of ‘own’ professional identity. We further suggest that students should be encouraged to construct a core social work identity that is dynamic and responsive to changing contexts.     

The Right Tools for the Right Job: Social Work Students Learning Community Development

The place of community development within social work varies across nations and time. The tensions in the 1970s in the UK gave way to decades when social work has been dominated by issues relating to protecting and caring for individuals. We now have a resurgence of community development activity, bringing together varied disciplines such as urban planning and health promotion as well as social work. Within the UK there are now requirements for community development knowledge and skills within qualifying social work training. This paper reflects on experiences in promoting community development practice learning in social work qualifying placements within Health and Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland. Issues are raised about the diversity and complexity of expectations on qualifying training, and the challenges that face universities, colleges and employing organisations in developing practice learning in this curriculum area. The prospects for improving community development learning within both qualifying and post qualifying education and training are considered particularly in the light of inter-professional and inter-organisational initiatives that put community development in the context of health promotion, housing, crime, poverty and other social issues that might be addressed at community level to improve the health and social well-being of citizens.     

Managing Risk in Community Care of Older People: Perspectives from the Frontline

Abstract

Since the mid-1980s, Australian governments have focused on expanding community and home-based services for older people. This has led to increased levels of dependency, vulnerability, and complexity to be managed in the community. Consequently, aged care services have had to develop mechanisms for regulating and managing these increased risks, and risk management has become more central to the practices of professional workers in this field. This paper reports on some findings from a large-scale study that explores the way risk management policies have been translated into practice by community-based services in Victoria, Australia. Drawing on interviews with 18 frontline and management professionals employed in community aged care, we found that these workers were wrestling with a diverse and new range of institutional risks beyond those encountered in the actual delivery of frontline care. We found that these workers experienced “risk” in four different contexts, which often created demands for contradictory or conflicting responses. Here we examine these “contexts of risk practice”: professional workers' relationships with their clients, relationships with other service providers, the unregulated nature of the home as a work environment, and community expectations about the management of risk. Despite tensions that frequently arose, workers expressed strong professional commitments to their clients and were motivated to find positive resolutions amid competing interests. We conclude that tensions experienced by workers were embedded in the structural dimensions of institutional relationships and the systematic absence of shared understandings of “acceptable” risks in the community care of older people, rather than in the failure of professional agency.     

辅导员心理需求与职业认同——基于心理契约理论的研究视角

辅导员职业认可度偏低是高校辅导员队伍不稳定的重要原因,文章结合心理契约理论分析了辅导员的职业现状以及满足辅导员心理需求的必要性,从辅导员的专业化、工作成就、个人目标、职业发展、素质提升和学校支持等方面指出了提高辅导员职业认同的具体路径。     

如何在课堂上提高学生学习商务英语的兴趣

在商务英语课堂教学中,如果教师只是讲解课文,灌输理论,而学生被动听课,埋头记笔记,显然这种教学方法不适应新形势的发展需要,也无法激发学生学习商务英语的兴趣。因此本文基于笔者近几年商务英语教学改革的实践,从培养学生用所学商务知识转化为实际运用语言能力出发,探讨了如何在课堂上提高学生学习商务英语的兴趣。     

从人力资源管理的新视角看专业课教学的育人功能

专业课教学对人才的培养起着举足轻重的作用。文章在深入分析专业课育人的必要性和可行性的基础上,从人力资源管理的角度论述了专业课教学在育人方面的作用,为充分发挥专业课的育人功能开辟了新的思路。     

论成套设备工程项目管理的基本模式

本文是以开发成套设备工程项目信息管理系统需求分析阶段的工作内容为背景 ,在分析项目实施的过程内容与特征要求的基础上 ,阐述了项目管理的业务要素和组织体系 ,提出了包括空间思维和时间过程两个方面的基本模式。     

论艺术类师范生人文素质的提高

本文针对目前高师艺术专业学生文化素质偏低的状况 ,分析了造成这一现状的原因 ,以及艺术修养与人文修养之间的关系 ,探讨了提高艺术类师范生人文素质的途径。