Practice In Social Work Education Research Articles

Journeys into palliative care: Social workers' narratives of mobilising and sustaining practice

INTRODUCTION: With Aotearoa, New Zealand's increasing diversity and ageing population, social work has a vital role in palliative care practice. This study advances the understanding of palliative care social work and its implications for practice, education and support from a practitioners’ point of view. METHODS: Utilising a constructivist case study approach, in-depth data was collected from social work practitioners about their pathways and practices in palliative care. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques were employed, resulting in 12 individual semi-structured interviews and a focus group with 5 participants. FINDINGS: The participants' voices illustrate current social work practice and its implications from personal, pedagogical, and professional perspectives. Participants were often drawn to palliative care social work through career embeddedness and personal experiences of loss and grief. The study revealed how past, present, and future considerations shape palliative social work practice, including journeys to palliative care, mobilising social work practice, and sustaining support. Participants used various assessment tools based on service context, with limited exposure to palliative care in tertiary curricula. Most participants continued to seek post-qualifying professional development opportunities working in this field. CONCLUSION: The study underscores the importance of team support, ongoing education, and self-care for effective social work practice in palliative care. Recommendations include enhancing educational emphasis on palliative care, developing a New Zealand-based assessment tool for palliative care social work, and improving professional encounters related to death and dying. These insights can guide efforts to enhance palliative care social work practice in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

Direct observations of practice in social work education: the role of professional autonomy in policy enactment

ABSTRACT Although the assessment of students via direct observation of practice is a regulatory requirement of social work qualifying programmes in England, there is relative freedom in exactly how this policy is enacted. This study takes a constructionist approach to explore what direct observations are perceived to be and whether this influences their enactment. Interview data was collected from five participants who are all practitioners involved with this assessment method. Training materials were also analyzed and themed along with interview data. Interpretation of the data revealed three themes; participants had a clear concept of direct observations, valued them as an assessment method and they are embedded in social work education. Analysis of the findings revealed that the lack of regulatory expectations supports professional autonomy by enabling the translation of the direct observation policy into practice in a way which supports ownership, commitment and creativity. These findings demonstrate that it can be more beneficial to allow professional expertise to guide policy enactment in educational contexts than the top-down managerial approaches that dominate both educational and practice settings.

From passive subjects to active agents: enabling child-centred recordkeeping in social care contexts

ABSTRACT This paper describes the findings and implications of interdisciplinary exploratory research conducted by social work and recordkeeping informatics researchers in Australia and the UK. It sought to identify the practices, systems, education and technologies that can foster rights-based, child-centred recordkeeping practices in child protection contexts, exploring the transformation and advocacy work that could be achieved in child protection case note recording and recordkeeping practices and systems through interdisciplinary collaborations. Drawing from qualitative interviews, focus groups and surveys with Social Work students, Social Work educators and practice educators, and with practitioners working in children’s social care (in England) and the child protection services system (in Australia), we identify how practitioners are prepared for keeping records that reflect children’s voices and experiences, and identify emerging best practices and persistent challenges. Focusing on the intersection of child rights, archival ethics, and participatory approaches, this paper adds to the discourse on critical archival studies concerning children and calls for an interdisciplinary approach to reimagine future possibilities for participatory and child-centred practice in which children are not just passive subjects but active collaborators in the recordkeeping process.

Exploring child welfare worker wellbeing, organizational social context, and staff recommendations for change: a mixed method case study

ABSTRACT Unpacking evidence-based practice in social work education: a scoping review Child welfare workers are the link between families and the system and are tasked with assessing and mitigating child maltreatment. While US-based research suggests that organizations are prime for child welfare workers to experience poor overall wellbeing, there is a dearth of research in Canada. This mixed method case study explored workers’ levels of burnout, secondary trauma, and compassion satisfaction, and the organizational social context. Qualitative recommendations to promote wellbeing include, Help us help families, Listen to me and appreciate me, Give us time to breathe, Give me my independence, We want to connect, and We are fighting the system.

Using the concept of epistemic injustice and cultural humility for understanding why and how social work curricular might be decolonized

ABSTRACT The notion of decolonizing the curriculum is currently gaining momentum in Higher Education Institutions (HEI) across the world and in the United Kingdom (UK). Fuelled by the movements #RhodesMustFall, ‘Why is my curriculum White?’, and critical incidents such as the killing of George Floyd and the #BlackLivesMatter protests, campaigners for decolonizing the curriculum have all questioned the omission of other perspectives from dominant Eurocentric White curricula at universities around the world, including social work education. This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study that involved 20 in-depth interviews with social work academics, social work students and practice educators (field instructors) in an English HEI social work department about their perspective on decolonizing the curriculum in social work education. The concepts of epistemic injustice and cultural humility were used to examine the data. Findings suggest that social work education is not immune to the centering of a Eurocentric curriculum and White middle-class values and needs to change to embrace other epistemology. The paper concludes by arguing that the concepts of epistemic injustices and cultural humility are especially relevant for understanding why and how social work curricula might be decolonized.

Collaborative practice within the practice teacher-student relationship in social work field education: Reflections, learning and possibilities

This article will present a reflection on the benefits of a collaborative approach in the field of social work practice education and learning. It will specifically outline how collaborative practice, centered around a practice teacher and their student, was developed in a hospital neurorehabilitation setting. This will be demonstrated via the innovations which took place in establishing a peer support group for a cohort of patients under the age of 65. We will discuss with the reader, our framework which was developed with the intention of promoting an investment by practice teachers, students, field agencies and college educators in taking part in collaborative practice within the education environment. We will outline and reflect on the 3 main principles of our framework for collaborative practice within the realm of social work. These include: 1) Individual Traits, 2) Reflective Practice and 3) Learning and Professional Development. This article will highlight the benefits of embracing a collaborative approach in practice education by focusing on the principles above, within an interdisciplinary work setting.

“Why Don’t We Learn About the Black Social Work Pioneers?” The Erasure of Black Social Workers’ Histories and Contributions—Implications for Social Work Education

ABSTRACTWhile there is mounting research on the well-known white founders of social work, documentation of Black social work pioneers and their contributions is scarce – in both social work education and the broader telling of the profession’s history. Given the systemic exclusion of Black social workers in the dominant narrative of social work history, there is a critical need to understand how social work education perpetuates and centers whiteness in the teaching of historical and contemporary social work. This article uses Critical Race Theory to interrogate the role of racism and white supremacy in maintaining the Eurocentric hegemony undergirding the pedagogical and epistemological canons of social work. Moreover, the authors call for a radical shift from social work’s white-centered discourse and curricula to an equitable praxis, centering Black social work pioneers and their contributions to the profession. Implications for decolonizing pedagogy and anti-racist practice in social work education are also discussed.

Artificial intelligence in social work practice education. The potential use of Generative AI for learning

This article is an account of a social work academic’s first engagement with generative Artificial Intelligence (AI). The aim is to introduce this emerging and fast-growing technology to the social work community in order to promote a dialogue about its potential use for learning in social work practice learning placements. Examples are included to stimulate ideas and motivate educators to use generative AI for teaching and learning. The case is made that students and educators need to understand how to use AI responsibly and skilfully to be agile and equipped for the workplace of the future. Although AI can be useful, it has limitations and cannot replace human interaction which is a fundamental aspect of social work education in the workplace.

Reflexive professionalisation in social work practice development, research, and education: the vital challenge of democratic citizen participation

ABSTRACT This paper examines how the renewed critical emphasis on reflexive professionalisation in the field of social work can take into account the challenges regarding the politics of democratic participation of service users as citizens while working towards social justice. Our contribution is based on the findings of a collaborative European research project involving researchers, students, public service organisations, service user organisations, and educators from various European countries. The aim of the project was to gain a differentiated and in-depth understanding of how reflexive professionalisation in social work may function as a concept and practice that stimulates social care that integrates a commitment to democratic citizen participation. Based on a qualitative content analysis of 21 transnational empirical case studies, we identify four vital dimensions of developing reflexive and democratic participatory approaches in social service contexts: (1) cultivating a historical awareness of how the professional identity and mandate of social workers has been and is currently (nationally) defined; (2) articulating the professional positions and normative value orientations that underpin (participatory) practice development; (3) reflecting on the constructions of problems, service user identities and related actions; and (4) creating space for ambiguity, risks and mistakes.

National Practice Teaching in Social Work Initiative; a rare opportunity to shape the development of social work student placements and practice teaching in Ireland

This article reflects upon the work of the National Practice Teaching in Social Work Initiative (NPTSWI), established following collaboration between the six universities in Ireland that deliver social work education. Working in partnership with social work employers and practitioners, NPTSWI aims to enhance the profile of Practice Teaching within the Social Work profession in Ireland, provide ongoing supports for practice teaches and potentially increase the supply of placements. As a multi-stakeholder collaboration and in the context of the Irish Government’s commitment to increase the number of Social Work graduates, NPTSWI represents a significant innovation in the development of social work practice education in Ireland. This paper reflects on the achievements of the initiative and barriers to building a culture and context for practice teaching and learning within social work services are considered and strategies to address these challenges explored.

Unpacking evidence-based practice in social work education: a scoping review

ABSTRACT Social work practitioners play a significant role in society, supporting individuals, families, groups, and communities. To meet the goals of well-being and equity, social workers address life challenges, including substance addiction, maltreatment, mental health, and poverty, and are embedded in communities via hospitals, schools, and nonprofit and for-profit organizations. Thus, social work practice has a wide scope and requires comprehensive education. Given the complex nature of social work practice, it has the potential for bias and error resulting in poor user outcomes. Evidence-based Practice (EBP) has been widely identified as a framework to promote deliberate practice. However, the use of EBP in social work practice is lacking. This scoping review, therefore, explores the intersection of how EBP has been conceptualized and taught in social work education. A total of 49 manuscripts were included in the final qualitative content analysis. The results suggest an inconsistent and often conflicting conceptualization of EBP. Furthermore, teaching strategies are also inconsistent and may contribute to the lack of EBP utilization in practice. It is suggested that social work regulatory bodies consider addressing disparities in EBP conceptualization.

Mapping blended learning in social work practice education to national standards - a Hybrid Placement Model Teaching and Learning Resource

In Ireland as elsewhere, the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing public health restrictions, gave rise to an unprecedented crisis in health and social care service provision, leading to cessation of student social work placements in March 2020. The Hybrid Placement Model Teaching and Learning Resource was developed to ensure that quality practice-based placements could resume and continue to be viable during subsequent phases of the Covid-19 pandemic. Combining four elements of onsite practice, off-site practice, online practice, and reflective practice the model provided a ‘road map’ that supported both practice teachers and students as they navigated placements within this context. Through provision of a user-friendly diagram and detailed practical examples of blended learning opportunities mapped to each of the eighty-three national standards of proficiency, the resource enabled practice teachers and students to visualise a range of practice learning opportunities that could be undertaken as part of a blended placement and provided assurance that blended learning met regulatory requirements.
 In this article the authors discuss the context and rationale for the model and describe its four integrated components. The usefulness of the model in supporting optimal learning on hybrid placements is addressed and its potential post Covid-19 restrictions is considered.

Understanding practice placements where students falter and fail

This paper offers a theoretical exposition of critical realism for social work practice education. The specific focus is on faltering students at the cusp of placement failure, and the urgent supportive role of practice educators and tutors in promoting learner’s reflective capacity as active agents in their learning. A key premise of the paper is that eliminating the oftentimes contested space between what key parties think is happening, and what is actually manifest in reality, is an imperative that can be supported by critical realism. Here critical realist scholars argue that one’s social reality is manifest in proximity to both an observable and socially constructed world, alongside an actual real world, with the former sometimes at odds with the latter. In concluding, the case is restated for critical realism as a theoretical tool for practice education with students who falter and fail.

Using the sand tray method as a reflective learning tool in social work practice education

ABSTRACT The article explains a creative technique I developed to reflect on cases in a sand tray during practice supervision. Sand has been used in play therapy since the early 20th century to help children and adults create a visual representation of their world for the purpose of healing personal trauma. I often used the technique in my earlier career as a direct work and life story work tool with children. The sand tray becomes a three-dimensional picture, which the therapist and child explore together. I learned it from an experienced play therapist who took me on my own journey through the sand. The pictures I made were powerful and helped me to explore personal/professional realms. The sand tray becomes an artifact, an object rich with significance and imagery that acts as a metaphor for its maker, providing opportunities to crystalize complex stories in our case work for examination. The article provides instructions for Practice Educators who would like to explore the technique with their students in practice supervision.

The Working Mechanisms Underpinning Mental Health Experts by Experience Involvement in Direct Teaching: An Abductive Conceptual Framework

Abstract Expert by experience (EBE) involvement in direct teaching is a widespread pedagogical practice in social work education. Whilst the educational outcomes of EBE involvement are established, less is known about the working mechanisms through which these outcomes are obtained. By utilising an abductive approach, this research presents a conceptual framework of the working mechanisms underpinning EBE involvement in the mental health context. Thirty-nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten Mental Health Experts By Experience (MHEBE), ten social work educators, ten Bachelor of Social Work students and nine Master of Social Work students. Findings from thematic analysis are combined with previously published knowledge from the EBE involvement literature to construct the conceptual framework. The framework comprised three working mechanisms: (i) sharing experiential knowledge; (ii) meeting and interacting with the MHEBE; and (iii) challenging traditional roles and power/knowledge hierarchies. The relationship between mechanisms and learning outcomes, as well as the interrelationship between the mechanisms themselves are explored and discussed. The conceptual framework advances theoretical understandings of EBE involvement and can contribute to the design and implementation of educationally effective involvement.

Blended Social Work Placements: New Opportunities

Social work student placements were significantly impacted over the past two years as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, but a ‘new normal’ of placement provision has started to emerge. This conference paper provides reflections on the experiences of social work education providers, placement providers and practice educators on the new opportunities that have been created as a result of flexible responses to the changing landscape of blended placement provision necessitated by the pandemic, which were gathered at two international workshops held virtually at academic conferences in 2021. The workshops identified common responses from higher education institutes (Higher Education Institutions) and practice educators, where loss and change created the need for connectivity and flexible and creative solutions. This article will present the themes identified within the teaching partnership as well as findings from the two workshops to enhance understanding of the sustainability of blended social work placement provision.

Critical ethical reflexivity (CER) in feminist narrative inquiry: reflections from cis researchers doing social work research with trans and non-binary people

ABSTRACT This paper explores issues of reflexivity and knowledge production when cisgender researchers conduct social work research, using feminist narrative methods, to advance understanding about trans and non-binary people’s identities and experiences. Cisgender (or ‘cis’) refers to people who identify with the gender identity assigned to them at birth. The paper examines cis identity, privilege and positionality arguing for a reflexive engagement of the ways in which these influence ethical decision-making and research praxis. In this way, we speak to existing critiques that suggest that only trans and non-binary people should research their own experiences and identities. To address the neglect of gender diversity in education for social work practice and research, we propose that doing social work research with trans and non-binary communities requires cis researchers to adopt critical ethical reflexivity (CER) to scrutinise the impact of gender normativity and its effects in knowledge production for social work.

Engaging in critical consciousness in social work education: reflections from a student-academic international refugee activist project

ABSTRACT Engaging in critical consciousness has been central for anti-oppressive practice in social work education. This article presents reflections on migration and (anti-) oppressive social work practices based on a student-academic activist project beginning in the North-East (NE) of England. The project involved MA social work students and two academics from a NE university, organizing a series of events aimed at raising awareness in relation to the refugee crisis. In addition, the project crucially involved a study trip to Athens, Greece, where the discussions with frontline professionals, refugee activists and social work students were utilized as an opportunity for co-learning and anti-oppressive praxis. Using Freire’s (1970, 1994) analysis for oppression and critical consciousness, understandings of social work across international boundaries and contexts of practice were developed, revealing the need for social work education to undertake a more activist and politicized approach.

Anti-Transgender Policies and Practices in Social Work Education, Accreditation, and Licensing: A Call for Change

The social work profession is guided by the values of social justice and the dignity and worth of the person. The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics requires that all social workers act in a professional manner consistent with these values. These values mandate that social workers “challenge social injustice on behalf of and in concert with vulnerable and oppressed individuals and groups.” Yet, historically, and contemporarily, the social work profession and national professional organizations (i.e., NASW, the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), Associate of Social Work Boards (ASWB), Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR), and the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (AASW) have failed to advocate for and work in solidarity with transgender and gender expansive (TGE) individuals and groups to advance social justice. This commentary will examine how the social work profession and its national professional organizations have not followed the NASW Code of Ethics as it relates to T E communities. Specifically, the article ill (1) unpack the ways in which explicit and implicit social work curriculum and standards in accredited US social work programs do little to equip students to effectively serve transgender clients and communities upon graduation, (2) discuss the lack of advocacy for and solidarity with TGE communities from professional social work organizations, and (3) review policies governing the licensure of social work practitioners related to culturally responsive social work practice with TGE clients and communities. This commentary provides a set of recommendations for countering and reducing transphobia in the social work profession in the areas education, practice, and policy. We conclude with a call for change for the social work profession that achieves the values of social justice and dignity and worth of TGE individuals, groups, and communities.

Collaborative autoethnography and social work

Like autoethnography, (AE), collaborative autoethnography (CAE) results in highly personalised narrative accounts of the researcher’s engagement with specific sociocultural contexts. CAE adds a collective interpretation to that engagement. While CAE has thus far been little used in social work practice and education, it is an emerging methodological approach that offers new and different insights and opportunities. This paper discusses CAE and its relationship with social work practice and education. In it I discuss how CAE allows for a collective exploration of an individual experience and how these explorations, and the process of obtaining them, have many benefits for social work practitioners and social work students alike. The similarities between CAE and social work are highlighted, by focussing on some of the very core skills and values that lie at the heart of social work, such as listening, collaborating and showing empathy, CAE would seem a natural progression for inquiry within social work. This contribution to the special issue has implications for both social work practice and social work education.