Being, knowing and doing: aligning ontology, epistemology, and axiology to develop an account of social work as practice

Abstract

This article takes as its starting point reflections from social work academics at a Scottish university around persistent tensions between the nature of social work practice and the ways in which social work students and social workers talk about it. Practice (perhaps by definition) is practical, whereas how it is spoken and written about often betrays instrumental, narrow or dated clinical orientations. Picking up on the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) definition of social work as a practice-based profession and drawing on the literature around the scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL), we seek to (re)invigorate the case for social work as practice. We argue that this offers students and practitioners a conceptual framework through which they might articulate and validate what they do. We begin by critiquing current orientations to social work. We then come on to propose a broadly Aristotelean concept of practice. We make some suggestions for how this might better orient social work to the nature and demands of contemporary professionalism. We conclude by considering the implications of our argument for social work education and practice.