This volume brings together prominent international scholars involved in both Western and indigenous social work across the globe - including James Midgley, Linda Briskman, Alean Al-Krenawi and John ...R. Graham - to discuss some of the most significant global trends and issues relating to indigenous and cross-cultural social work.
Social work field education in Canada is in crisis. New understanding and approaches are urgently needed. Innovative and sustainable models need to be explored and adopted. As professionals, social ...workers are expected to use research to inform their practice and to contribute to the production of research. Yet many social workers are reluctant to integrate research into their practice and into field education. Transforming Social Work Field Education encourages the adoption of research and scholarship into the practice of social work, especially field education. It offers current theoretical concepts and perspectives that shape social work field education and provides case studies of practice research grounded in the experiences of diverse communities and countries. Highlighting cutting-edge research and scholarship, each chapter addresses critical issues in social work practice and their implications for field education. Bringing together scholars at various stages of their careers, this book fosters a meaningful dialogue on the dynamic, complex, and multi-faceted nature of social work practice, research, and innovation in the critical area of field education. A vivid and original work, it stimulates interest and discussion on the integration of research and scholarship in social work field education in Canada and around the world. With contributions by: Wasif Ali, Helen Asrate Awoke, Kelemua Zenebe Ayele, Afework Eyasu Aynalem, Nicole Balbuena, Morgan Jean Banister, Natalie Beck Aguilera, Sheila Bell, Heather M. Boynton, Janice Chaplin Mailing, Emmanuel Chinlanga, Jill Ciesielski, Alise de Bie, Emma De Vynck, Cyerra Gage, Anita R. Gooding, Zipporah Greenslade, Annelise Hutchinson, Christine Anne Jenkins, Vibha Kausik, Ermias Kebede, Edward King, Kaltrina Kusari, William Lamar Medley, Karen Lok Yi Wong, Alexandra Katherine Mack, The Ottawa Adult Autism Initiative, Endalkachew Taye Shiferaw, Richardio Diego Suárez Rojas, Margaret Janse van Rensburg, Jennie Vengris, and Courtney Larissa Weaver
This book collates and analyses the current research, debates, opportunities, and practices in social work field education into one volume and contextualises this material within the broader context ...of social work. Current concerns about risk and uncertainty in field education are explored from multiple stakeholder perspectives.
Social work field education is an integral component of social work education, yet its sustainability is increasingly challenged. Issues such as finding enough quality placements with qualified social workers, curriculum development, student diversity, and placement assessment of learning are being examined by researchers and practitioners alike. This represents a challenge for the social work profession generally. By drawing on traditional and alternative pedagogical perspectives on field education and constructions of risk and uncertainty evident in current discourse, the book presents innovative responses to existing challenges.
Providing a reference point for future knowledge building in sustainable field education pedagogy and practice, this book will interest university field education programs and industry field educators internationally.
Right-wing nationalist populism poses direct attacks on social tolerance, human rights discourse, political debates, the survival of the welfare state and its universal services, impacting on the ...roles of social work. This book demonstrates how right-wing nationalist populism can and must be countered.
Using case studies from around the world, this book shows how a revitalised radical social work involving community organisation, building alliances, trade union commitment and social action can be used as a political force to speak up against discrimination and hate in accordance with human rights, social justice, and social work values. The rise of national populism signals that now is the time for social work to forge and reforge such networks, and create links with civil society and challenge right-wing populist policies wherever they manifest themselves.
It will be of interest to all social work students, practitioners and academics, particularly those working on critical and radical social work, green social work, anti-oppressive practice and community development.
The Routledge Handbook of Critical Pedagogies for Social Work traverses new territory by providing a cutting-edge overview of the work of classic and contemporary theorists, in a way that expands ...their application and utility in social work education and practice; thus, providing a bridge between critical theory, philosophy, and social work.
Each chapter showcases the work of a specific critical educational, philosophical, and/or social theorist including: Henry Giroux, Michel Foucault, Cornelius Castoriadis, Herbert Marcuse, Paulo Freire, bell hooks, Joan Tronto, Iris Marion Young, Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci, and many others, to elucidate the ways in which their key pedagogic concepts can be applied to specific aspects of social work education and practice. The text exhibits a range of research-based approaches to educating social work practitioners as agents of social change. It provides a robust, and much needed, alternative paradigm to the technique-driven 'conservative revolution' currently being fostered by neoliberalism in both social work education and practice.
The volume will be instructive for social work educators who aim to teach for social change, by assisting students to develop counter-hegemonic practices of resistance and agency, and reflecting on the pedagogic role of social work practice more widely. The volume holds relevance for both postgraduate and undergraduate/qualifying social work and human services courses around the world.
Abstract
This article is focused on the concern about the retention of child and family social workers in England. Retention of workers is seen as a major issue for the delivery of quality services ...for service users, stability of workforces and development of social work. The article reviews international studies in relation to retention identifying a gap in relation to studies that have followed up those who indicated they were going to leave child and family social work but were unable to say whether they acted on this intention or not. This study focuses on forty semi-structured interviews with child and family social workers in year 2 of a five-year longitudinal study half of whom had indicated they would remain or leave social work practice and followed them up to as whether they did so or not. The findings indicated that there were major similarities between those who left and those who stayed. However, the importance of the interaction of organisational, job role and individual factors provides organisations with opportunities to mitigate such challenging aspects of children and families social work so that their workers feel supported, and able to respond to these challenges positively.
This article focuses on the retention of child and family social workers. Such retention is important as it can impact upon service user experience, potentially result in an inexperienced workforce and in the local authority. This is not only an issue in the England, but also internationally. The article identifies the key issues from these international studies but notes that the intention to ‘stay’ or ‘leave’ has not been followed up to find out whether these intentions were carried out. This study follows up forty social workers who said they would leave or stay one year after this decision those identifying who actually left or stayed and why. In so doing, it provides an insight in key issues for social workers in relation to the culture of their organisation, managers support, supervision, the stress involved in the job and personal issues like caring responsibilities, health issues, reaching the age of retirement and most importantly the impact of the role on their families which can lead to ‘lightbulb moments’. Whilst local authorities cannot manage all these issues, the article argues that there are opportunities for local employers to make it more likely that their workers will remain with them.
Increasing attention has been paid to advancing new knowledge and teaching technologies in social work education. However, there is relatively less concern about social work educators' possession of ...social work qualities to demonstrate social work elements in teaching. This article argues that social work educators should regard themselves as both university teachers and 'social work teachers' using 'social work methods' to teach. Social work educators should model the core social work elements in their daily interactions with students. This article suggests that social work education should be regarded as a practice based on the characteristics of social work. It discusses the relationship between social work education and the foundations of social work and identifies the need to direct social work educators' attention to the meaning and importance of integrating core social work elements in social work education. It proposes nine core social work elements to advance the quality of social work education and presents effective ways to bring back social work elements into social work training.
The Routledge Handbook of Social Work Practice Research is the first international handbook to focus on practice research for social work. Bringing together leading scholars in the field from Europe, ...the USA and the Asia Pacific region, it provides an up-to-the minute overview of the latest thinking in practice research whilst also providing practical advice on how to undertake practice research in the field.
It is divided into five sections:
State of the art
Methodologies
Pedagogies
Applications
Expanding the frontiers
The range of topics discussed will enhance student development as well as increase the capacity of practitioners to conduct research; develop coordinating and leadership roles; and liaise with multiple stakeholders who will strengthen the context base for practice research.
As such, this handbook will be essential reading for all social work students, practitioners and academics as well as those working in other health and social care settings.
The Routledge Handbook of Postcolonial Social Work reflects on and dissects the challenging issues confronting social work practice and education globally in the post-colonial era. By analysing how ...countries in the so-called developing and developed world have navigated some of the inherited systems from the colonial era, it shows how they have used them to provide relevant social work methods which are also responsive to the needs of a postcolonial setting.
This is an analytical and reflexive handbook that brings together different scholars from various parts of the world - both North and South - so as to distill ideas from scholars relating to ways that can advance social work of the South and critique social work of the North in so far as it is used as a template for social work approaches in postcolonial settings. It determines whether and how approaches, knowledge-bases, and methods of social work have been indigenised and localised in the Global South in the postcolonial era.
This handbook provides the reader with multiple new theoretical approaches and empirical experiences and creates a space of action for the most marginalised communities worldwide. It will be of interest to researchers and practitioners, as well as those in social work education.
Social work education now operates within a complex array of higher education imperatives while the practice context has changed to adapt to a culture with an emphasis on technical and instrumental ...approaches. In response, one Australian social work program has embarked on a curriculum redesign project to incorporate a consistent theoretical framework across the whole program. This paper presents the results of a scoping review, which aimed to inform the redesign by the identification of theoretical orientations of other social work programs. Anti-oppressive, critical and postmodern, critical race, First Nations and eco-social work frames dominated the literature. Positive psychological theories to support graduate resilience were present, as were a small number of systems frameworks. The analysis identified the relevance and importance of the 'implicit curriculum' concept that brings attention to the organizational cultures in which learning takes place. The multitude of conceptual papers compared to the dearth of implementation and evaluation papers may suggest institutional barriers to the implementation of whole curriculum theoretical frameworks. More implementation research is needed to better inform coherent theoretical orientations for social work education.
