‘Teaching should be observed’: a critical consideration of the issues involved in including teaching observation in the inspection of social work education

Abstract

ABSTRACTSocial work education in England will have a new regulator from 2019. According to official sources, this is ‘as part of wider reforms to improve confidence in social work and raise the status of the profession’. In the background of any changes to social work education are the reports by Croisdale-Appleby (2014) and Narey (2014). Both reported that the existing regulatory regime was inadequate and made a combined total of 40 recommendations for improvement. Specifically, on the subject of social work teaching in higher education institutions, Narey expressed concern about both the content and quality and recommended that the teaching should be observed. If the incoming regulator were to introduce direct observations of teaching in inspections it would represent a new development. Previous regulators have not adopted this method. This discussion paper reviews selected literature on what teaching observation can and cannot achieve as an inspection method. It reflects on how social work education might gain if inspectors observed teaching. However, it also argues that to be a meaningful and credible process teaching observations need to take heed of a range of interrelated issues which, if not thought through properly, will invalidate the whole exercise.