Social Work Academics Research Articles

‘Earthquake of the century’ and its aftermath: Reflections on social work practices implemented in the first hours of the disaster at a hospital in Türkiye

This article presents the practice reflections of two social work academics who worked with individuals affected by a recent disaster in Kayseri, Türkiye. The study shares the experiences and insights regarding how hospital-based social work interventions were conducted in the first hours following the earthquake.

Working with Ex-combatants in Ukraine: Implications for Local and International Social Work Academia

Working with Ex-combatants in Ukraine: Implications for Local and International Social Work Academia

Social Work Field Practicum in the Time of Social Distancing: A Case of Bangladesh

Field practicum is an integral part of social work education. Social work students are typically placed with social service organisations to put into practice what they have learned in the classroom and to acquire new skills in the practice setting. However, the COVID-19 pandemic limited face-to-face communications, which affected on-site internships. The purpose of this article is to examine the difficulties in conducting social work field practicum during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh. Based on the in-depth interviews with purposively selected three social work academics, five field practicum students, and three field placement agency supervisors, this article identified the challenges of conducting field practicum during the pandemic. The implications of analysis include creation of a regulatory body and the development and adoption of innovative strategies by social work educators and schools.

Reflections of Social Work Academics on Moving from Social Work Practice to the Academic Environment

The social work academic field, in common with other professional qualification degrees requires academics to have substantial social work practice experience. This reflective paper explores the journey of two social work academics who have made the transition from practice to the academic environment within the last ten years. Having applied a duoethnographical approach, the authors discuss the potential challenges of making this transition but is more focused on the benefits that former social work practitioners bring to the academic and research environment. It discusses practice-based research and appreciative inquiry as beneficial research methods for social work research and the importance of engaging with people with lived experience in a collaborative approach to research. It emphasises that social workers with skills of engagement, critical analysis and managing challenging situations are well placed to undertake research and make recommendations for social work practice from an informed an ‘expert’ position.

‘Meeting them halfway’: legitimation in the discourse of secular social work educators at ultra-Orthodox campuses

ABSTRACT This paper critically examines the discursive practices used by secular social work educators when teaching ultra-Orthodox students, whose strict interpretations of Jewish religious law often clash with professional values. Utilizing data from a qualitative study based on in-depth interviews with 16 social work faculty members, the paper elaborates van Leeuwen’s framework for analyzing legitimation in discourse. The findings indicate that the lecturers often encounter controversial situations that require them to abandon their professional ethics in order to accommodate the differential needs of their ultra-Orthodox students. I contend that in order to legitimize and camouflage conflictual pedagogic actions, such as the exclusion of women, self-censorship or the acceptance of discriminatory attitudes, the interviewees use social work concepts and terminology, such as cultural sensitivity, discretion or rapport. That is, the lecturers paradoxically use their professional identity to suspend social work principles in an attempt to implement multicultural politics in the classroom. The study uses identity construction as a complementary analytical lens to van Leeuwen’s approach and illuminates the use of discursive legitimation in educational and professional settings.

Addressing Barriers to Research-Informed Practice: A Library and Social Work Collaboration to Empower Future Practitioners

Social work education prioritizes the use of research to inform practice. As university students, prospective social workers have a wealth of research available to them as well as librarians to help them find, evaluate, and use that information. However, access to much of this research ends once the student graduates—at a time when it is most needed to inform their professional practice. To address this challenge, a librarian and a social work faculty member worked with one class of students in their final semester of a bachelor’s degree in social work program to promote awareness of information privilege and barriers to access, to expand their understanding of authority to include marginalized voices, and to utilize an open pedagogy assignment as a means of proactively addressing these challenges. This article describes what was learned from this effort, including the results of surveys conducted with students before and after instruction.

COVID-19 Research Trends in Social Work: LDA Topic Modeling Analysis in South Korea

This study utilizes LDA topic modeling to examine research trends related to COVID-19 within the field of social work, analyzing these trends through peer-reviewed articles from the Korea Citation Index database. Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling, a statistical method for discovering abstract topics within a collection of documents, is applied to categorize and summarize the thematic concentration of the literature. Five themes have emerged: healthcare service and digitalized methods, exploring mental health status, qualitative approaches to social service program responses to COVID-19, evaluation of care services, and public service and program responses to COVID-19. Key findings reveal that the Korean social work academia focused on digital-based non-face-to-face services, evaluating the adequacy of public social services, and analyzing mental health and caregiving services during the pandemic. These findings indicate a reassessment of social work practices in response to the pandemic, underscoring the need to explore the challenges and opportunities presented by varied national responses. Additionally, the application of Python and machine learning in this research has shown significant benefits for social work studies, enabling a deeper analysis of complex, big data and facilitating more informed decision-making.

African Knowledge Production Incubators: Approaching Indigenous and Decolonized Social Work from the Ground Up Through Stories of Our Lived Experiences

ABSTRACT Six social work academics from five universities in South Africa embarked on an African Knowledge Production Incubators project using PALAR methodology. We acknowledged the imperative to decolonise social work curricula in South African universities with the goal of centering African knowledges. This article reports on our project’s first objective viz. telling stories of our lived experiences of being an African. Our stories reflected the richness in the traditions and rituals we inherited from our ancestral and local knowledge holders and wisdom bearers. The key learnings translated into guidelines for the extended incubation and the decolonization of the social work curriculum.

Being, knowing and doing: aligning ontology, epistemology, and axiology to develop an account of social work as practice

This article takes as its starting point reflections from social work academics at a Scottish university around persistent tensions between the nature of social work practice and the ways in which social work students and social workers talk about it. Practice (perhaps by definition) is practical, whereas how it is spoken and written about often betrays instrumental, narrow or dated clinical orientations. Picking up on the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) definition of social work as a practice-based profession and drawing on the literature around the scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL), we seek to (re)invigorate the case for social work as practice. We argue that this offers students and practitioners a conceptual framework through which they might articulate and validate what they do. We begin by critiquing current orientations to social work. We then come on to propose a broadly Aristotelean concept of practice. We make some suggestions for how this might better orient social work to the nature and demands of contemporary professionalism. We conclude by considering the implications of our argument for social work education and practice.

Interweaving Narratives of Lived Experience in Mental Health Social Work Curriculum

ABSTRACT This study explored the metacurriculum of an undergraduate mental health social work subject that was developed and delivered collaboratively by lived experience and social work academics in a regional Australian university. Metacurriculum refers to implicit messages about how students learn how to learn that is, the ontological and epistemological positioning of curriculum. In this subject, students were invited to reflect on multiple, diverse, lived-experience narratives of mental distress as they developed their understanding of mental health social work practice. Using cooperative inquiry, we collectively critically reflected on the experience of teaching and learning with this curriculum. Coresearchers included a student who had completed the subject; a mental health social work practitioner/tutor, a social work academic, and a lived-experience academic who coproduced the subject material; and mental health academics acting as critical friends. Findings revealed engaging with lived-experience narratives was experienced as generating compassion for all humanity; challenging stigma by sharing the responsibility of positioning; and enabling critically reflexive dialogue. We concluded that diverse, lived-experience narratives can be incorporated to enact metacurriculum that aligns social work teaching and learning with emerging transformative approaches to mental health. IMPLICATIONS Incorporating diverse narratives of mental distress into curriculum can highlight the operation of intersectionality and privilege. Engaging with multiple narratives of mental distress undermines the binary construction of “them” and “us”. Metacurriculum enacting inclusive, collaborative knowledge development aligns teaching and learning with transformative mental health.

The 5 + 1 Practice Research Model in Health Social Work: The “Eye of the Storm”

Purpose: The 5 + 1 Collaboration is an initiative where five teaching hospitals and a leading Melbourne university collaborate to promote and strengthen research, clinical practice in health social work, teaching, and collaboration. This collaboration fosters greater connection between academics, practitioners, and social work students. The 5 + 1 Collaboration provides a unique platform for the advancement of effective practice, practice-driven research, and student field education placements. Method: In a prospective study (2020 through 2021), employing the 5 + 1 model, at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, over 100 frontline hospital social workers from five Melbourne hospitals participated in this study to determine, in detail, how the pandemic had affected their work. Results: This provided at a granular level, significant insights relating to the impact of the pandemic on the provision of social work services in the acute hospital setting. Additionally, during the study period, academic social work student placements were made at the five participating hospitals, with the students actively participating as part of the research team and providing feedback about their own experiences. Discussion: The study documented the challenges to hospital social work practice because of the pandemic, how hospital social workers rose to the challenges, and, importantly, adapted their practice and acquired new skills. This information may inform future hospital social work practice. The study also demonstrated that effective on-line student placements were possible, even in the setting of a pandemic.

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.

Beyond a commitment of teaching critical reflection: a scoping review of social work education literature

ABSTRACT There has been a commitment to critical reflection research, theory, education, and practice development in social work in the last 15 years, yet less is known about how we effectively teach and assess critical reflection with students in a neo-liberal context. Following the Joanna Briggs framework for scoping reviews, 50 social work education articles from the last 15 years were identified and thematically analyzed, to explore the current knowledge on teaching and assessing critical reflection. This scoping review was co-designed and undertaken by two social work academics and two social work students. Diverse teaching strategies employed within the classroom, field education, and on-line learning spaces and individual written pieces dominated assessment were identified. The voice of social work educators, however, were centered. The results raise questions about the impact of power not only within the educator-student relationship, but also who is conducting the research. The findings point to the importance of social work educators’ role modeling critical reflection, tailoring teaching strategies to respond to students’ learning preferences, and ethical considerations regarding assessment. We consider challenges resulting from neo-liberal pressures within universities and present reflective questions for educators to consider the needs of students and do justice to critical reflection education.

ArcGIS Survey123: A Case Study Using Spatial Technology to Examine Food Access

Geospatial technologies have seen increased utilization in the social work profession for a variety of topics. Most of this usage has centered around the creation of digital maps to visualize social issues and/or affected populations. Innovative technology allows for the collection of field data resulting in real-time creation of such maps. ArcGIS Survey123 is a mobile app that allows for traditional survey data collection to be conducted digitally in the field, while also providing the ability to obtain photos and spatial coordinates. Resultant outputs can include traditional tabular datasets, photo arrays, and digital maps. A pilot project using ArcGIS Survey123 as the data collection tool was conducted in a rural area of Southwest Florida to examine access to food by establishment type as well as to expose social work students to a novel data collection technique. The result of the project was a comprehensive food system map that provided data on availability of certain food products as well as anecdotal data on the relationship between housing locations and food prices. Given the ease with which surveys could be employed for data collection purposes, it is recommended that ArcGIS Survey123 be considered for inclusion in research curricula in academic social work programs.

Action replay role-play: promoting social work students’ communication skills through video enhanced reflective practice

ABSTRACT This article evaluates a collaboration between social work academics and educational psychologists using Video Enhanced Reflective Practice (VERP) to support the development of social work students’ communication and interpersonal skills. VERP is a strengths-based model of reflective practice and professional development that involves a specific method of video reflection to enhance individuals’ capacity for ‘attuned interactions’. An adapted model of VERP was implemented with first year UK-based undergraduate social work students during a ‘Readiness for Direct Practice’ module. The project was evaluated with a focus on eliciting the views of the students on how using the approach had affected their development of communication skills. The findings, based on a qualitative analysis of students’ self-reflection forms and a focus group, indicate the potential of this model for developing students’ awareness of the micro-skills involved in sensitive, attuned interactions, and building their confidence and sense of agency in using these skills. Potential benefits and limitations of using VERP in social work education and practice are discussed.

Understanding social work education in China - a field snapshot

ABSTRACT Social work education in China has undergone rapid development and faced its multiple growth constraints since the 2000s. This study is an attempt to understand the social work educator’s perspectives on the development of social work, its challenges and prospects in China. Based on the results of qualitative interviews (n = 33) across five schools of social work in three regions (Beijing, Shanghai and Shandong) of China, the study found that social work academia in China is still in the process of organizing and is currently facing numerous practical challenges. This study addresses the definition of the profession in contemporary China, explores the unorganized school curriculum and examines the need for localization to develop China’s own models. Drawing on participants’ testimonies, insight into implications for social work education, pedagogy and practice are outlined in this article.

Navigating a Colonial Legacy and Issues of Race and Racism as a South African Social Work Academic

A colonial legacy, the nature of which subliminally instils ingrained reproductions of racial inferiority and superiority, makes it necessary to highlight the need to focus in more depth on the race and racism discourse of social work academics. As social work educators within the current South African higher education, the importance of social justice cannot be overemphasised. Considering the colonial undertones of South African social work education and the multicultural nature of South African society, in this article, I focus on the ethical implications of a colonial legacy and lingering race and racism issues for social work education. The article is derived from part of a qualitative study on discourses about race and racism with 16 academics within the higher education arena. In the article, I employed a non-probability sampling method, face-to-face interviews and a discursive data analysis approach. An excerpt of the interview with one academic Claire (white) is analysed by the researcher (black) with specific focus on Claire’s race and racism discourse. The focus is on critically and reflexively engaging with the ethical implications this has for social work education in the current era. It also contains my reflections as a social work academic navigating issues of race and racism. The findings evidenced seeming obliviousness to coloniality for Claire, which I inadvertently channel. This reflects the challenges of the South African commitment to moving beyond colonialism and the challenge this poses for social work values and ethics.

Using an anti-racist, equity-minded lens in assessment of teaching and learning

ABSTRACT Recent materials from the U.S. Council on Social Work Education note that regardless of some successes, racial equity in higher education has not significantly progressed. Recent scholarship has noted racial discrimination in social work academia. However, we were not able to find any publications about racial disproportionality in social work education grading or educational attainment. In this article, we document an intentional anti-racist, equity-minded practice in considering academic outcomes by race and ethnicity in individual professors’ students over a two-year period. We detail simple analyses educators can use to examine assessment practices—the use of population percentage comparisons/disproportionality analysis to assess for the potential presence of disproportionality. These analyses are intended as a simple starting point for considerations of what is going on pedagogically in the classroom and the mind and actions of the professor as an equity-minded, anti-racist practitioner. We model the use and consideration of assessment data with examples from our own teaching. We found our empirical inquiry focused on racial equity to be instructive in both process and outcome considerations. We consider the ways in which our findings may or may not be related to implicit bias and/or structural racism in the social work education setting.

Research with cancer patients and their caregivers: A dyadic reflection by social work researchers

In this article, two social work academics reflect on their experiences conducting qualitative research with cancer patients and their caregivers. Reflections and insights from their experiences are provided for social work students, researchers, and social workers who want to conduct their research and/or practice in oncology.

Striking Ethical Balances: The Contribution of ‘Insider’ Practitioner–Academic Social Work Research in England

Abstract Clinical-academics are well established and expanding in English health settings. However, despite growing evidence that research-active organisations improve service quality and outputs, research by social work practitioners remains relatively rare in social work practice in England other than as part of qualifying or post-qualifying study. In this context, the National Institute for Health and Care Research developed new funding streams to support the development of ‘practitioner–academics’, as an equivalent to clinical-academics in health settings. As early career practitioner–academics, who undertake research whilst remaining employed in our social work organisations, we present a case for practitioner–academic research, via two small research projects within our teams based on creative methods and focus groups. These projects illustrate the benefits of practitioner–academics in the knowledge production process, improving access to hard-to-reach research areas, developing swift rapport, which facilitates the production of rich and reliable data, and providing a novel means to navigate ethical issues including researcher positionality and research sensitivity. We also highlight challenges around informed consent, employee roles and researcher bias, including where practitioners are critical of practice within their service areas or are exposed to criticism themselves.