Responding to Uncertainty

Abstract

This paper examines the educational implications of recent transformations in the organization of welfare services. Three educational approaches are identified: acquiescence to the managerial ethos that increasingly characterizes public welfare provision; renewed commitment to critical social work principles; and new approaches which combine critical and postmodern perspectives and embrace uncertainty and dialogue as a basis for educational practice. The paper argues that postmodern ideas, though continuously problematic, can be used within critical social work education to continue progressive struggles under conditions of rapid change and uncertainty. The authors use excerpts from their dialogue with each other which reflect some of the differences between them and their own particular responses to uncertainty.