Current Social Work Education Research Articles

Learning Green Social Work in Global Disaster Contexts: A Case Study Approach

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.

Social work education in Spain: evaluation and challenges for a new generation of social workers

ABSTRACT The European social integration model was built on two main pillars: employment and access to the welfare state. European social work education was mainly oriented to training professionals in order to promote this inclusion through case management and the provision of benefits. This influence was very intense in the curricular content of Spanish social work programs. The new social risks and the European convergence in higher education have promoted curricular changes, but is it enough?. This paper aims to identify the content and limits of current social work education in Spain. To this end, a comparative analysis of social work education in public universities of Spain was performed. This information has been contrasted with professionals, teachers and social work students. The results evidence the gap of these contents with the real professional needs. This paper proposes several alternatives and approaches in new intergenerational methodologies and technological tools to train a new generation of social workers

Cultural support workers in the Aotearoa New Zealand healthcare setting: Challenge and opportunity for health social work

INTRODUCTION: In Aotearoa New Zealand, as elsewhere in the world, healthcare providers are seeking better ways to engage with increasingly ethnically and linguistically diverse communities. The use of cultural support workers (CSWs) to act as a bridge between services and such communities is proving to be an effective strategy for achieving this. For the social work profession, the advent of CSW roles presents both challenges and opportunities.APPROACH: A review of literature outlines the challenge of delivering culturally responsive and appropriate services to migrant and refugee communities and describes the role played by CSWs to increase the cultural understanding of healthcare providers and improve health outcomes for these communities. The impact of such roles on health social work is explored and how current social work education prepares practitioners for practice in an increasingly multicultural society.CONCLUSIONS: This article outlines the key issues that arise from the introduction of CSWs, the potential for collaboration and the opportunity that exists for health social work to refocus and redefine its role in the healthcare setting.

"Do not Worry Your Head": The Impossibility of Indigenising Social Work Education and Practice in Africa

As the discussions and debates rage on about the content and direction of social work in Africa, the challenges associated with weaning the profession off its Western and North American roots become apparent. The desire to indigenise or make the profession culturally relevant is well articulated in the literature. Some efforts have been undertaken toward achieving this desire. However, it is evident that despite the numerous discussions and publications, it appears that efforts at indigenising, localising, or making social work culturally relevant have not made much progress. While what must be achieved is somewhat clear; how to achieve it and by what process remain a conundrum. The article, therefore, revisits the issue of making social work culturally relevant in Africa and its associated challenges. Despite the indictment of current social work education and practice in Africa, it appears that many academics and professionals have accepted that what is Western is global, fashionable, and functional, if not perfect. Given this, perhaps, “we should not worry our heads” about changing it. Instead, social work educators and practitioners in Africa should go back to the drawing board to determine how current social work education and practice can be blended with a traditional African knowledge base, approaches and models to reflect and align with the critical principles and ideals within the African context. This is with the hope of making the profession more relevant to the needs of the people of Africa.

Horses and baseball: social work’s cultivation of one’s ‘third eye’

Active self-reflection is a sophisticated and subtle, multi-layered process that requires learning the capacity to constantly self-monitor. These fundamental interactive skills, the core of a competent social worker, are important to work in any context. Using two distinct metaphors, one relating to horses, the other to baseball, the article will explore the importance of developing competency skills and utilize a ‘third eye.’ In current social work education curricula the use of self may not be prioritized, practiced, or well understood. Evidence from human and veterinary medicine as well as social work, are discussed. An example of an undergraduate BSW course using simulated clients and standardized measures is discussed. The paper includes a brief review of the preliminary findings for a small pilot study and the relevance to future research is considered.

Are MOOCs the next trend in social work?: Implications for practice education

Higher education continues to evolve responding to technological advances and growing economic challenges. Social work education has been slower to embrace emergent technologies than other fields in higher education. Contributing to this cautious approach may be historical controversy surrounding social work professionalization and practice. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are an important trend gathering recent attention in higher education. The contribution of MOOCs to social work education remains undetermined. This essay explores historical influences impacting current social work education, factors surrounding MOOC utilization, and the relevance of MOOCs for the future of social work education. We provide recommendations for embracing MOOC development in social work education through a deliberative strategy.

Cracking the Code—An Approach to Developing Professional Writing Skills

The development of writing skills sufficient to meet the complexities of contemporary social work practice is a growing demand from employers and practice educators. The paper explores current pedagogical debate relating to student support and the development of writing skills and relates this debate to meeting the needs of social work students engaged in practice learning and professional practice. A number of questions are raised about current social work education in England and the needs of students entering from non-traditional academic backgrounds facing the increasingly rigorous demands of professional report writing. The discussion is then grounded in a practice example of staff from a university social work course and education guidance service working together to meet student need in respect of developing writing skills. The development, implementation and evaluation of a university writing skills programme for social work students are explored. The paper concludes by setting out a range of challenges arising from experience of the programme and a consideration of theory, and points to potential ways forward based on a social practice approach to teaching writing skills.

Predicting India's Future: Does it Justify the Exportation of US Social Work Education?

Current social work education in India reflects globalization priorities and tendencies of neo-colonialism that emulate curriculum priorities and duplicate content developed in countries like the USA. Social work education as implemented by countries like the USA, has limited success in transnational training of social workers and their ability to address emerging social problems and deep rooted structural imbalances within non-USA social contexts. Yet, the concept of the world being an emerging global village is used to justify and reaffirm the colonial goals of universal education and pedagogies within social work and its application to starkly different contexts, such as India. This paper argues against the imperialist nature of social work education through examples from social work syllabi from Indian schools of social work. Secondly, this paper examines the role of academic collaborations and international organizations in addressing the challenges in curriculum development. Finally, through an example from a Curriculum Development Project undertaken in a sub-Saharan African country by one of the authors, the paper demonstrates ways of generating more local content for curricula that would create culturally sensitive social services.

Adapting Social Work in Working with Muslim Clients

Current social work education programmes and textbooks often underestimate the hypothesis that providing effective services to different cultural groups requires cultural understanding. One approach that has been recommended is the localization of social work: using a fundamentally different social work knowledge base and approach with different cultural groups. To date, however, little scholarship considers how to localize social work in working with Muslim communities. On the basis of interviews with over 50 social service providers in Canada who work with Muslim clients, the present article provides insight into strategies and methods that involve localizing social work in Muslim communities, focusing on possible client characteristics, challenges, and needs from the perspective of the practising social worker. Issues of racism, spirituality, acculturation, help seeking, and client expectations of service are particularly relevant. Properly responding to these factors ultimately involves the coordinated efforts of educational institutions, agencies, and social workers, but none of this will be possible without a thorough understanding of cultural values meaningful to Muslim clients.

Preparing for practice: The use of personal learning audits in social work education

Developing a clear understanding of the process of empowerment in practice is one of the key challenges in current social work education and practice. While it is fairly easy for students and practitioners to understand the theoretical concept, its implementation within their practice appears to be more elusive. This article explores how the authors used the process of empowerment as a ‘working model’ for students as a means of helping them engage more actively with the concept. By experiencing the process of being empowered as students within the academic environment, they begin to understand across the range of knowledge skills and values how power systems work. In the opinion of the authors, this better equips them to work in effective partnership with service users.

Evaluation of Distance Education Programs in Social Work

SUMMARY Social work courses and programs delivered with distance technologies continue to increase in number. This article reports on current social work education research on distance courses and programs, and makes recommendations for future distance education research. Distance education research in other fields is described to give context for social work efforts.