‘Even when you know what’s going on, you still feel small. Powerless … ’: using photovoice to understand social work students’ perceptions of political powerlessness

Social Work Teaching Partnerships were developed in 2015 by the Department for Education in England to foster stronger links between social work employers and educators to improve the quality of social work graduates leaving universities. The initiative resulted in practising social workers entering universities in greater numbers to teach social work students. This paper focuses on how two practicing social workers – Elizabeth and Alex - were affected by teaching social work students in a university setting. The paper presents the practitioners’ reflections of teaching and its effects through short vignettes before examining these reflections by drawing on critical social theories. Social work teaching partnerships which encourage practitioners to spend time as social work teachers in the University classroom can produce unanticipated, positive effects for these practitioners. If the university classroom is seen as a “field” (Bourdieu, 1988), it can facilitate social workers to become objects of knowledge for social work students andto themselves. Interacting with students created opportunities for Elizabeth and Alex to reflect on their social work values, knowledge base, role, and practice. By asking unexpected questions in the classroom, students problematize (Foucault, 1984) what it means to be and to practice as a social worker. Consequently, classroom interactions with social work students can lead practitioners to think about how they would like to work. Elizabeth’s and Alex’s reflections of their classroom experiences may also help to inform and strengthen workforce retention policies in social work, as their self-efficacy increased and new possibilities for social work practice emerged.

The aim of the study was to test the U.S.A. Validated 'Attitude Towards Disabled Persons' Inventory (A.T.D.P. Form O) on a British student population to establish norms. The objectives were to test specific hypotheses related to the sex of the respondent, contact with physically disabled people and whether social work students had different attitude scores than non social work students. In addition, a comparison was made between the British and U.S.A. 'norms'. The student population of four specific British Universities comprised the sampling frame. The sample was a non probability accidental sample of social work and non social work students. Standardised A.T.D.P. Form Os were administered in group situations. Each form was accompanied by a letter explaining the study, together with a short questionnaire eliciting the sex of respondent and type and extent of any contact with disabled people. The findings demonstrated that there are probably differences between U.S.A. and British norms but that there are general similarities between the two countries. In both countries females, scored higher than males, which by interpretation indicates possibly a more favourable attitude. Contact with the disabled is also a contributing factor in higher scores. Social work students also tended to score more highly than non social work students. The implications of these findings are discussed with regard to the possible development of professional attitudes for those who work with the disabled. It is postulated that 'idealisation' may be reflected in attitudes of students who intend to work with the disabled which, after general and professional life experience gives way to less favourable attitudes. Closeness of contact of respondents to disabled people is a factor which needs further exploration in connection with changing attitude scores.

Interprofessional education (IPE) ideally trains students from various disciplines together. Social work historically has lower status and power in the healthcare hierarchy, and little is known about how status differentials affect ‘social work voice’ during IPE. We explored ‘social work voice’ during an IPE event through social work students’, other disciplines’ students’, and social work faculty perspectives. We share the lessons learned from reflecting on events that occurred during the IPE event and during students’ and facilitators’ debriefing. Surveys were sent to all social work attendees and a random selection of students from other disciplines, with lower response rates than desired. A focus group was conducted with the social work facilitators. IPE attendees valued learning with varied disciplines. The social work contribution was acknowledged as unique and valued by other disciplines, even when social work students did not expect to be valued. Serendipitously, an interaction between social work students illustrated the obvious yet seldom recognized importance of students’ cultural influences. IPE organizers and faculty must attend to cultural and gender inputs when assisting social work (and other) students to find their ‘voice.’

Social work students in England now have to register with the General Social Care Council and ‘sign up to’ the codes of practice. These specify that social workers must not ‘behave in a way, in work or outside work, which would call into question [their] suitability to work in social care services'. This paper describes a small and ongoing piece of doctoral research into social work students' perceptions of professional regulation. The policy context for social work regulation is outlined, including the implications for social work educators and students. The paper discusses the ethical and methodological issues which arose when planning the study. In conclusion, regulation has benefits for service users and professionals, but its implementation involves difficult ethical decisions. When students' suitability is called into question, there are implications for their personal and professional identities: exploring these implications will be the focus of the next stage of the research.

This article presents a discussion of the concept of emotional intelligence and provides a rationale with reference to the relevant literature on the concept and significance of emotional intelligence in social work education. In this piece I argue that emotions can influence moral decision making in social work and may act as moral markers and motivators for social work practitioners and students. It offers my viewpoint on emotional intelligence based on my practice experience as a registered social worker, a social work educator and a learner completing a PhD in social work. Finally, I explicate some suggestions to further include emotional intelligence in the social workers’ ongoing professional development and social work students’ education.

Social work education in Vietnam faces various challenges, including a shortage of qualified educators, limited teaching resources, and a reliance on traditional pedagogical methods. These issues are not unique to Vietnam but are common in many social work programs worldwide, particularly in resource-limited settings. Such challenges can negatively impact social work training programs and students’ learning motivation. Based on the Self-Determination Theory, this study examines the impact of intrinsic and extrinsic factors, including students’ boredom at field placements, faculty encouragement, and emotional support on learning motivation among social work students in Vietnam. A binary logistic regression analysis was conducted using a convenience sample of 541 social work students, ages 18 to 28, from 11 universities across the country. The findings reveal that faculty encouragement and emotional support significantly enhance students’ learning motivation, while boredom at field placements negatively affects motivation. These results underscore the importance of supportive faculty–student interactions and engaging field experiences in fostering student motivation, not only in Vietnam but also in other social work programs. The study’s findings offer valuable insights for improving social work education by highlighting the need for faculty support and more engaging practical training opportunities to enhance student motivation and learning outcomes.

Burnout is a worldwide phenomenon among social welfare workers. This study examined how burnout affects student social workers and professional social workers. It first examined the construct validity of the Maslach Burnout Inventory‐General Survey (MBI‐GS) scale, using data from two Chinese samples (848 student social workers and 748 professional social workers). The original three‐factor model was regarded as superior to other competing models. Investigation of the second‐order factor model indicated that exhaustion and cynicism are core components but that personal efficacy is not. The research also revealed the differential predictability of the three subscales of the MBI‐GS. Our expectation that differential patterns of effects could be predicted was largely supported. Professional efficacy plays a key mediating role in the relationship between student social workers’ professional identity and their satisfaction with fieldwork, while social workers’ cynicism is the main mediator in the relationship between their professional identity and turnover intention. Therefore, identifying at‐risk students and professional social workers to undertake appropriate intervention strategies that focus on both their professional identity and different dimensions of burnout may be an effective way to prevent students’ dissatisfaction and reduce social worker turnover.

Nursing and social work students' initial orientation towards their studies

COVID-19 is not only a health-related issue but it has come along with a couple of problems to everyone may it be children, youth, adults (women, men), or elderly but only youth and students of social work in particular are considered in the present study. The researcher has taken into consideration the students of social work as students are viewed as the future of any nation and when the students are from the field of social work, they are expected to work for the betterment of society, hence their perception and their viewpoints both are important. Many researches have been made to acknowledge the situation of youth, their coping strategies, and suggested interventions during this pandemic, while majority of researches focus on mental health and fewer studies shows the overall challenges on youth and on social work students in particular nor about the contribution of social workers towards society betterment. The present study is designed keeping in view the above-mentioned gaps and thus framed the objectives based on these gaps pertaining to the purpose of the study. Objectives: The present study aimed to focus on the following domains of the pandemic situation: 1. To explore the lived experiences of social work students during lockdown. 2. To determine the various challenges faced by the social work students during COVID-19 Pandemic. 3. To ascertain any contribution(s) made by the social work students towards society during COVID-19 Pandemic. 4. To know about any change into the lives of social work students in post-lockdown period. 5. To collect a viewpoint of social work students about their perception of public reaction during and after lockdown. Methodology: The present study was conducted with the students of social work and was purely quantitative in nature. The questionnaire pertaining to the independent and dependent variables and related to the objectives of the study was prepared via google forms and the link was then sent to 120 social work students from different universities of north India through email out of 87 were received back with fully informed consent. The spread sheet of the data collected was then extracted from google forms which was then edited, classified and analyzed using Microsoft Excel and tabulated for univariate and multivariate data analysis. Results: Results shows that the students of social work have experienced various challenges during the lockdown period. These challenges were categorized as physical, psychological, financial and the studies related issues. Major problems experienced by the social work students were physical inactivity (60.9%) and due to that they are gaining weight leading to obesity (42.5%). To cope up with these problems, majority of the students opted for yoga, and exercise (43.68%). Talking about psychological problems, the students developed stress (56.32%) and anxiety (40.23%). Attending online classes is an added challenge for students as it is a new concept and out of the routine activity and thus, they face difficulty in concentration (63.22%) as there are several distractions present at home (44.83%). Majority of the students complained that their studies got affected in online classes as there was signal problem (66.67%). Sitting at one place for the whole day leads to back pain and increased screen time for the attending online leads to impact the eyesight of the students (32.18%). Besides, the student social workers reported that they have developed a distance from their social relations (37.93%) and they are experiencing social isolation (20.69%). Financial depreciation was most common among general public and so on students as they reported that they were not getting pocket money due to financial crisis in their families. Besides all these problems the student social worker have done their duty and majority have contributed to the society in one or the other way. When lockdown got over, majority (74.71%) of the student got relaxed and felt that their life will get resumed now while 25.29% were still anxious. Majority (80.46%) have started their concurrent fieldwork with all the precautionary measures. The students’ perception regarding public behavior was also assessed and they perceived that 59.77% public was relaxed to hear that the lockdown is over and feel that COVID-19 is over while the rest 40.23% were showing the same behaviour as earlier; aggressive, irritable and anxious about the disease.

The Rapid Social Immersive Learning (RaSIL) framework is an innovative pedagogical intervention aimed at rapidly fostering critical competencies in social work students with no prior formal social work training. The RaSIL framework integrates experiential learning through intensive 12-hour immersive fieldwork, enabling students to engage directly with marginalized communities and confront real-world social challenges. Grounded in Kolb’s theory of experiential learning, the framework emphasizes the development of compassion, social intelligence, and professional readiness in a compressed time frame. The study employed a single-arm pre-post design to assess the impact of the RaSIL framework on 37 first-year Master of Social Work (MSW) students in India. Social intelligence and compassion were measured using the Tromso Social Intelligence Scale (TSIS) and Compassion Scale (CS) before and after the intervention. Results demonstrated significant improvements in social intelligence and compassion scores, with multiple regression analyses highlighting key socio-demographic factors influencing these outcomes. The findings suggest that the RaSIL Framework can effectively cultivate essential competencies in social work students, contributing to their professional development within a constrained educational timeframe. This study offers valuable insights for educators and policymakers seeking to innovate social work education through experiential and immersive approaches.

Confidence has been identified as both a positive outcome of social work education and as a factor which in excess (defined as overconfidence) can lead to diagnostic error. This study sought to better understand the nature of professional confidence and investigate factors that might be associated with confidence in performance in a clinical interview among social work students and experienced social work practitioners. In this study, thirty-seven final-year Masters of Social Work (MSW) students and thirty-four experienced social workers who participated in two simulated interviews rated their confidence in their performance in the interviews and discussed their subjective views of the interview. Factors associated with confidence fell into three themes: emotional self-regulation; the acquisition and application of knowledge; and relational skills which are the intersection of knowledge and emotional regulation. Emotional regulation appears as a primary factor that differentiates high and low confidence as it affects participants’ perceived ability to continue to draw upon knowledge and integrate client reactions into their assessment. Social work education that focuses on self-awareness and the regulation of emotional responses may contribute to increased abilities to manage high-anxiety clinical experiences.

ABSTRACTGeneral career research suggests that many factors may influence how people select a career, including information about or exposure to the career. The focus of this paper is upon how exposure to a social worker personally (e.g. friend or family) or in a therapeutic capacity (e.g. received social work therapy) may influence the decision to become a social worker, when compared to other disciplines. The results showed that 63% of 64 social work students had personal and/or professional exposure to social work prior to making a career decision. When compared to other students (n = 447) the social work students were significantly more likely to have accessed social work services (themselves or a family member). The influence of a friend who was a social worker and working with a social worker was noteworthy for mature-aged students. These results highlight that every interaction social workers have with the community provides valuable information about the profession and gives insight into social work as a career. Additionally, the results suggest that the increase in numbers of social workers and the influence of that exposure to a social worker have resulted in an increase in the use of social work services by students, and may continue to rise in the future.

This study evaluated the application of the Peer Learning Bubble Model as experienced by 43 social work students on placement with a community and voluntary sector placement provider in Northern Ireland over three placement cycles from 2023 to 2024. Data were collected via an online survey completed by students who participated in Peer Learning Bubbles as part of their professional social work education (n = 35). Individual interviews were conducted with social work students (n = 8), and a focus group was facilitated to collect rich data on the experiences of being a learner in the Peer Learning Bubble. The results demonstrate that the Peer Learning Bubble is effective in supporting the development of safe and supportive relationships between facilitators and peers. While peer learning is an established pedagogic approach, to our knowledge, this is the first model that combines four interconnected learning and development domains (support, learn, participate, and develop) to produce a safe experiential learning environment that has demonstrated effectiveness as an innovative hybrid education model for social work students on placement. These results contribute to the evidence base which can inform social work educators, practice teachers, placement providers, and students about utilizing peer learning initiatives as an additional resource to support professional learning.

Government policies have emphasised the importance of patient and client involvement in all aspects of health and social care delivery, with a corresponding impetus for their involvement in the education of practitioners. Professional education programmes adopt andragogical, student-centred approaches and incorporate both academic and practice based learning and assessments. Practice experience is recognised as a crucial aspect of student learning and has become a major focus of quality reviews in health and social care education. Whilst it might seem self-evident that students on practice placements will learn from their interactions with patients and clients, this is a relatively neglected area for formal modeling, evaluation and research. This study, therefore, explores pre- qualifying nursing, midwifery and social work students’ experiences of learning from patients and clients during practice placements. The research project is underpinned by a descriptive phenomenological approach and the extensive data are analysed using phenomenological reduction (Giorgi, 1989a; 1989b). Two key themes and six categories emerged from the data. The first theme is presented as the ‘Ways of Learning’ and this comprises the categories of: facilitation of learning; critical incidents/patient stories; and role modeling. The second theme is presented as the ‘Nature of Learning’ and comprises three categories: professional ideals; professional relationships; and understanding patients’ and clients’ perspectives. It is evident that contemporary theories, including andragogy, social learning, experiential, reflective and transformative learning theories, remain relevant to professional education. The new knowledge obtained in this research is that the

Green social work (GSW) is a nascent framework within the social work field that provides insights regarding social workers’ engagement in disaster settings. Although this framework has recently garnered more attention, it remains under-researched and underdeveloped within the context of social work research, education, and practice in Canada and internationally. To further develop GSW in social work education and professional training, we considered how social work students and practitioners can use a learning framework to understand the impact and build their capacities to serve vulnerable and marginalized populations in diverse disaster settings. To do this, we developed a four-step case study approach, as follows: (1) provide detailed background information on the cases, (2) describe how each case is relevant to social work, (3) discuss how each case informs social work practice from a GSW perspective, and (4) provide recommendations for social work practitioners and students using GSW in future disaster-specific efforts. This case study approach centers on natural, technological, and intentional/willful hazards that examine current GSW research–practice engagement in Canada and internationally. Applying this four-step case study approach to three extreme events in Canada and internationally (a natural hazard, a technological hazard, and an intentional/willful hazard) illustrates it as a potential method for social work students and professionals to build their GSW capacities. This will assist in building the resilience of Canadian and international communities—especially those who have been historically marginalized. This article sheds light on how current social work education and professional training should develop new approaches to incorporate the GSW framework into the social work curriculum at large in order to prepare for future extreme events while incorporating environmental and social justice into research and practice.