Abstract
Interweaving community engagement into education coheres with social work’s commitment to social justice. This paper focuses on a visit to an academic department in India. The visit focused on understanding the placement of students in a community context and its related projects. A qualitative design was used to conduct interviews and focus group discussions with academics, students and a community leader. Data were also gained through a field visit in the village. Valuable lessons emerged regarding the importance of community engagement in social work education and how social justice, advocacy and empowerment were interweaved into students’ learning experiences.
Highlights
Social work education stands at the juncture of international calls to prepare students to work with diverse populations in various community contexts (Cox & Pawar, 2006)
Three indepth interviews were held with senior management, which included the head of the Social Work Department and the former Vice-Chancellor of the University, a focus group discussion with five academics, one of whom was the Vice-Chancellor, and unstructured interviews with five social work students
The data derived through this inquiry are presented according to these broad themes in the subsections that follow. This is followed by the conclusion, which presents important points for enabling academic-community engagement
Summary
Social work education stands at the juncture of international calls to prepare students to work with diverse populations in various community contexts (Cox & Pawar, 2006). Interviews with academics indicated that these villages form the context for the practicum sites of first-year Social Work students.
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