Developing Social Work Students’ Awareness of their Spiritual/Religious Identity and Integrating It into Their Professional Identity: Evaluation of a Pilot Course

Abstract

Abstract Recent literature on social work reveals an increasing interest in including spirituality/religion in practice and social workers’ need to engage more actively with clients’ religious traditions and spirituality. However, very few current practitioners have been taught how to do so. This qualitative study, conducted in a school of social work in southern Israel, evaluates the effect of an elective pilot course on social work and Judaism aimed at enabling students to develop an awareness of religion and spirituality. The data were gathered through a brief questionnaire administered at the end of the course, after final grades were assigned. The findings indicate that at the start of the course the students’ perception was that a separation existed between religion/spirituality and social work. As the course progressed, they reflected on their religious/spiritual identity in its encounter with their professional identity. They were able to connect religion/spirituality and social work and to consider the spiritual/religious world of clients. It is recommended that social work schools develop courses that link religion and spirituality to the profession.