Challenges For Social Work Education Research Articles

Challenges of ICT Integration in Social Work Practicums in African Higher Education: A Systematic Review

This systematic review explores the role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in enhancing social work practicums within higher learning institutions across developing African nations. Key challenges identified include the absence of clear institutional policies for ICT integration, insufficient funding for welfare organizations, particularly from the South African Department of Social Development, and unreliable internet access in rural regions. Additionally, the lack of clarity within the Department of Education’s policy framework regarding appropriate technologies for educational curricula hinders students’ practical experiences. Using the PRISMA methodology, this review analyzed 65 peer-reviewed articles selected from an initial retrieval of 320 sources from databases such as Google Scholar, Taylor & Francis, Scopus, ScienceDirect, and ResearchGate. The inclusion and exclusion criteria ensured relevance to the topic of ICT challenges in social work education. The findings highlight a pressing need for revised policies and the introduction of new legislation to address the technological barriers that limit social work students’ access to essential resources like Wi-Fi, digital infrastructure, and institutional support. These challenges are particularly acute in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique, where limited technological infrastructure and financial constraints impede progress. Nonetheless, the development of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) guidelines, the introduction of affordable technologies, and the establishment of a robust national policy framework for ICT integration can significantly improve the quality of social work practicums, facilitating better alignment between theory and practice.

‘Off topic in some places (global warming)’: a critical and radical response to connecting social work teaching to a global climate emergency

In 2012, Lena Dominelli brought us a timely and essential warning that it was time for the social work profession to recognise its role in examining how the environmental crisis will cause hardship and suffering to communities with whom the profession has traditionally worked. It is fair to say that progress has been slow; a search of published module descriptors for social work programmes delivered across Scotland indicates that there remain barriers to engagement with the climate crisis. This article will focus on the importance of incorporating a critical and radical perspective into social work teaching. This will be achieved by reflecting on, first, learning and teaching theory, and, second, psychological theory, such as the theory of normative conduct. Insight into the reasons for resistance to participation in discourse about the impact of the environmental crisis will be explored through reflecting on climate change theory, teaching theory and the curriculum, along with psychological barriers. This article argues that the critical and radical approach to social work teaching is ideally situated to lead on the inclusion of environmental challenges in social work education and practice.

Ethical challenges in social work education and practice in the context of child protection in Nigeria

ABSTRACT Child protection is one of the prioritized principles in the UNCRC. The ACRWC aligns with the UNCRC through concern with the overall protection against socially and culturally harmful practices that may be detrimental to children’s health and general well-being. There are ethical challenges when children’s rights are in conflict with the cultural activities that could lead to the abuse of children within the context of Africa in general, and Nigeria, in particular. Scholars have affirmed that the international standards that respect children’s promotion and protection rights are profoundly shaped toward a Western cultural value system and lack meaningful contributions from Africa, leading to the adoption of the ACRWC. Applying social work theories in social work practice is very challenging within the Nigerian context as there are no legitimized regulations in social work to uphold the profession’s ethics during the practice of social work. A review of literature on the ethical challenges encountered by social workers in the protection of children against child exploitation/abuse such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) during training and/or in their professional duties and responsibilities is examined. The implication of such cultural practices and the relevance of social work education in contemporary Nigerian society is explored.

From block placement to blended model: the way forward for social work practicum in Ghana

ABSTRACT The extant literature on social work education has underscored several factors that hinder the satisfaction of social work students during practicum. Whether or not the adopted social work practicum model influences practice outcomes for students is unknown. Based on the contextual challenges of social work education and the need to ensure culturally relevant social work practice (aka indigenization) in Africa, we explored how the practicum model of a University in Ghana could be modeled to meet the learning outcome of social work students. Thematic analysis from interviews with 18 social work students who had completed their practicum at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi-Ghana, showed a consensus on introducing a blended model to guide the social work practicum in Ghana. The findings from the study underscored students’ advocacy for a blended model, their displeasure with the mismatch of agency and area of interest due to the practicum model and the unexpected challenges and anxieties they face as novice practitioners. The study has profound implications for social work education in Ghana, including the need to introduce models such as ‘my first experience as a social worker’ into the practicum orientation programs for social work schools.

The digital citizenship of children and adolescents: Challenges for social work education

The digital and superdiverse societies of which we now form part require a redefinition of social work and social services to address the digital citizenship of children and adolescents. This article analyzes the main challenges in this area, which can be addressed through digital social work.

Responding to student mental health challenges during and post-COVID-19

ABSTRACT During the COVID-19 pandemic, educators around the globe seek to understand how to support students whose academic performance is impacted by mental health challenges. This article presents a co-operative inquiry undertaken by colleagues in Canada and Australia, responding to the question; what insights can the existing Carleton University framework of reflective questions offer to educators responding to student mental health challenges in social work education during the COVID-19 pandemic? The risks and complexities of attending to student mental health needs are illustrated by a pandemic-informed case study that extends the framework into this unique context and illustrates the importance of respecting learning requirements, combating discrimination, protecting students’ rights, and honouring the professional and legislative mandates of social work within all responses aimed at supporting student mental health resilience during COVID-19. This article acknowledges the limitations of previous practices guiding work with students with mental health needs during any period of crisis or disaster and demonstrates that the Carleton University framework assists in developing improved processes and policy grounded in social work’s commitment to social justice and critical reflection.

An exploration of the current challenges in social work education in Mainland China

AbstractSocial work education is facing multiple difficulties and challenges in Mainland China. Partly because of a dearth of national studies on the viewpoints of social work educators to explore the alternatives, this qualitative study tried to fill in the gap to interview 23 social work educators to investigate into the issue. Twenty‐three cities, across two municipalities, two autonomous regions, and 11 provinces were covered to provide a full picture of national education practices and trends.

Community service learning in complex urban settings: challenges and opportunities for social work education

ABSTRACT Urban diversity poses significant challenges for social work education in Europe’s major cities. These challenges manifest themselves in an accumulation of conflicts, inequalities, and fracture lines between individuals, networks, cultures, but also different groups and their institutional and political environments. This current challenge for the education of the next generation of social workers is also related to the rapidly changing environmental conditions and complexity of the urban diversity. Urban society is increasingly fragmented and diverse requiring new knowledges and tools to support future social work practice. The aim of the paper is to analyze the potential of Community Service Learning (CSL) as an approach that can be effectively applied in complex urban settings. CSL is an experiential learning format that integrates academic and experiential learning within a community service context. The participative training model identifies three basic principles: civic engagement, cooperative and multiple learning, and the importance of critical reflexive learning. This paper builds on existing CSL literature and represents ongoing discussions in an Erasmus+ project, exploring social work education in complex urban settings.

Teaching Note—Teaching Socially Just Culturally Competent Practice Online: Pedagogical Challenges and Lessons Learned During the Pandemic

ABSTRACT Centering social justice into social work practice is vital to the profession, but both what and how to accomplish this task are pedagogical challenges in social work education. This teaching note introduces an elective course open to both Master of Social Work and doctoral students to develop holistic competence for socially just and culturally competent social work practice. We describe how the course originally designed in an in-person format was redesigned and adapted to an online format during the COVID-19 pandemic. Another consideration during this transition is how this requires social work students who are adult learners to balance family, work, and school demands while attending virtual classrooms in a personal space during physical distancing. We explain metacompetence and procedural competence, which are two competence dimensions conceptualized in the holistic competence model. Each competence dimension was targeted through a variety of synchronous and asynchronous virtual teaching approaches (e.g., intergroup dialog, digital storytelling, and virtual simulation). While these teaching approaches may be applicable to other online courses, we highlight specific considerations for teaching social justice online. We close with a discussion of challenges and new lessons from teaching social justice in social work practice courses online and provide recommendations for future teaching and research.

An Imbalanced professional identity: the experience of being social work educators in Mainland China

ABSTRACT This study explored the lived experience of social work educators in China (SWECs). Eleven SWECs participated in individual interviews to describe their experiences under the expansion of social work education in China, particularly related to research-practice-teaching collaborations. SWECs still questioned their social work attributes when facing challenges in social work education as connected to the country’s policy and practise development. They expressed that their faculty identity is much preferred over that of a social worker. They felt that they must weigh the pros and cons of engaging in practice versus research. They emphasised that social work education aimed to help students build personal capacity, while only three mentioned the importance of developing students’ commitment to the profession. Their inputs informed an essential structure for understanding social work as a profession and a discipline in China where there is a need and demand for its population.

Issues and Challenges of Social Work Education in India

Issues and Challenges of Social Work Education in India

Challenges for Social Work Education in a Changing Europe

There can be little doubt that neoliberalism has replaced social democracy as the political consensus across Europe and globally. This has led to levels of inequality and relative poverty unprecedented since the post-war social democratic consensus. It has also led to a common sense, neoliberal narrative essential in garnering support for policies that weaken workers’ rights, deregulate corporations and businesses, and cut budgets for welfare and public services. Essentially, the narrative is that people should be completely self-sufficient and that to depend on welfare or the state in any way is a sign of poor character, laziness and of membership of the ‘underclass.’ It is a ‘moralising self-sufficiency’ narrative (Marston, 2013). Much of social work activity is concentrated in areas of unemployment, poverty and deprivation and what will happen to our values of respect, compassion and care if social workers unquestioningly internalise the above narrative? Maybe a form of authoritarian social work that treats people as ‘less than human’ (Smithson and Gibson, 2016)? Grasso et al (2018) undertook a study using British Attitudes Study data and found that the generation known as ‘Millennials’ were more right-wing authoritarian than all previous generations. What might happen if that trajectory continues? The authoritarian attitudes of our current generation of post-Millennial students, labelled as iGen by Twenge (2018), were studied in one Scottish university and the results will be shared in my talk today. What might the implications be for social work education and are we up to the challenge?

Heterosexist Attitudes amongst Students Entering a Bachelor of Social Work Programme in Switzerland: Exploring Continuing Challenges for Social Work Education

AbstractSocial work programmes are expected to enable students to work adequately with sexual minorities. In Switzerland, however, curricular content on sexual minorities is lacking in BSW programmes. Potential sexual prejudice is not explicitly addressed. This study aimed to assess the attitudes towards lesbian women and gay men amongst students entering the BSW programme of a university in Switzerland to establish a basis for discussing curriculum development. Students entering the programme from 2015 through 2018 were surveyed using an online questionnaire. Heterosexist attitudes were captured using the ‘Multidimensional Scale of Attitudes toward Lesbians and Gay Men’. The responding 955 entering students reported positive attitudes towards lesbians and gay men and evidenced low levels of heterosexist views. However, only 4.3 per cent of the respondents consistently disagreed with all items expressing heterosexist views, whilst 43.3 per cent completely agreed with at least one item. The views expressed by male participants expressed significantly higher levels of heterosexism than did those of female participants. The findings evidence uncertainties and a lack of reflection on unquestioned but heteronormative views. This reflects a need to infuse BSW programmes with sexual minority content, to provide opportunities for critical reflection and to address heteronormative and heterosexist views.

Challenges for social work education in China: findings from three metropolises

ABSTRACT Social work education was reintroduced into China in 1988 by the Communist Party of China. Since then, many research studies have been initiated both in Chinese and English aimed at understanding the development of social work education and practice in Mainland China. However, a growing body of literature has not focused much on the students’ perspective and the challenges they face in social work education in contemporary China. In order to contribute to addressing this gap, the present study reports on qualitative interviews with a group of social work postgraduate (n = 33) students from five schools of social work covering Shandong, Shanghai and Beijing provinces in the country. The study finds that there are four major challenges for social work education in China: (i) the use of Western concepts in the Chinese context; (ii) a journey from the unknown to the known; (iii) first-generation learners; and (iv) the lack of professional identity.

Eight decades of existence and search for an identity: educators perspectives on social work education in contemporary India

ABSTRACT This article discusses social work educators’ perception of the challenges for social work education in India. Literature on social work education, including the curriculum, practice and pedagogy, provided the framework for the study. The study reported on the results of qualitative interviews conducted with 33 social work educators across five schools of social work located in three metropolitan cities in India ‒ New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. The study finds that there are four major challenges for social work education in India: (i) the problem of definition; (ii) the lack of a regulatory framework; (iii) diversity among the schools; (iv) the lack of professional identity.

Implementation of Practice-Based Research in Social Work Education

Research is an integral component of social work education, yet social work students often experience considerable fear and anxiety when faced with the prospect of engaging in research and research-related activities. Student reluctance towards research can cause significant challenges for social work educators. Literature suggests that certain pedagogical practices can increase engagement and improve student learning outcomes, such as integrating experiential practice components and creating practical opportunities for students to apply their classroom knowledge to real life settings. This paper describes the development and implementation of practice-based research curricula and practica in the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary to enhance student experiential learning.

Teaching Note—The Ethnographic Interview as a Method in Multicultural Social Work Education

ABSTRACTThe ever growing diversity poses challenges for social work educators, who are engaged in developing new pedagogical methods for enhancing multicultural practice. Within the framework of a diversity course, I have developed a pedagogical practice for training social workers to work in a diverse, multicultural reality. Students conduct an ethnographic interview with a person from a different, unfamiliar group, creating an encounter with the other. They then analyze the interview and complete a written reflective assignment. The interview and accompanying assignment allow students to reflect critically on how their image of the other is socially constructed and on the essential role of context and power relations in the construction of the other, the self, and the relationship between them.

Implications and challenges for social work education in Greece in the time of austerity

ABSTRACTFollowing a discussion of the implications of one of the largest fiscal adjustments in modern times the paper identifies current challenges to social work practice and social work education in Greece and discusses the future of social work with radicalism as one of the central themes emerging during the crisis. It is argued that while at the moment radical social work has barely found any support from Greek social work practitioners, the implications of the socioeconomic crisis have given a significant boost to radical and critical social work on the educational front. It is further argued that in order to enhance these developments future efforts should concentrate on providing an effective guide for everyday practices that acknowledge the particularities of the specific context and will also include humane and holistic value-based approaches as well as the promotion of emancipatory values such as authenticity. In a progressively depoliticized public sphere that fosters the spread of individualism the above elements might be a critical step toward a more politically engaged social work education.

Social work education through open and distance learning in India: opportunities and challenges

ABSTRACTThe paper has traced the history of social work education through open and distance learning in India. In addition, it has critically discussed the opportunities and challenges of social work education offered through open and distance learning mode particularly offered by Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU).1 The study highlights the contributions of IGNOU in the area of social work education through open and distance learning as well as the extent of developing literature in social work and has further suggested various ways of enhancing the overall quality of social work education. The findings reveal that social work education offered by IGNOU has become a popular but it also raises various deficiencies in field-work education, supervision, quality of materials, and quality of instruction.

Social Work Education through Open and Distance Learning: An Indian Perspective

The paper traces the historical perspectives of open and distance education in India. It also discusses the various modalities and standards followed by various universities in offering social work education through open and distance learning (ODL) mode. It also highlights the achievements and challenges of social work education through ODL mode in India. The article will be extremely helpful to the academicians and policy makers in understanding the various dimensions of social work education through ODL mode in Indian context. The study recommends that Indira Gandhi National Open University model is one of the successful models of offering social work education through ODL mode.