scholarly journals A small scale project that involved citizens in the education of social work students during their placement in Northern Ireland

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-138
Author(s):  
Paul McCafferty

This article outlines my attempt to create a small scale project, with the aim of involving citizens in the education of student social workers whilst on their placement in Northern Ireland. The article outlines the literature on the subject, describes how the project evolved and discusses how citizens were involved in the direct teaching process. The article continues by describing how the teaching input of the citizens was then transferred into educating five students. The article evaluates the educational impact on the students and discusses the value of involving citizens in the education process during placement. This project was part of my dissertation for my Joint Advanced MSc in Social Work, presented to The University of Ulster and Queens University Belfast.

2012 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 401-402
Author(s):  
Unity Nkateng ◽  
Sue Wharton

The main purpose of this study is to identify the professional writing needs of undergraduate students studying social work in the University of Botswana. In order to do this, it seeks to analyse the types of texts produced by social workers in their professional setting, to find out what relationship exists between the writing done by professional social workers and the writing taught in the dedicated English Language Support unit at the University of Botswana, and to explore the similarities and differences between the documents written by the students and those produced by professional social workers. It also examines current approaches to teaching writing in the University, with the aim of identifying the writing needs of social work students and exploring how these can be effectively addressed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 233
Author(s):  
Denise MacDermott

Public perceptions, increased scrutiny and successive governments’ reshaping and attempting to define what is and what is not social work has eroded the progressive and radical force of the profession. This article explores how students’ perceive the profession and presents evidence from a small-scale study conducted in a Northern Ireland University with 37 undergraduate social work students and 25 postgraduate student social workers (training-as-practice educators) on their perceptions of the characteristics of a professional social worker. A quantitative research design was used, consisting of a face-to-face survey distributed to respondents following an input on the Place Model, (Clarke, 2016). Respondents also shared their perceptions in relation to Freidson’s (2001) three logics: professionalism, bureaucracy and the free market, with Ternary graphs and word clouds used as a novel way to present this data. Several themes emerged as important characteristics of social work professionals including reliability, accountability, ethics and appearance. At the other end of the scale, respondents identified unprofessional, de-personalised and cynical as the least aspirational qualities of the profession.


2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 81-85
Author(s):  
Jackie Sayers

During the 1980s I enthusiastically embarked on study at master’s level. My passion was anti-racism training for social work students. But work commitments, family, the complexity of the subject and life in general interceded and I failed in my commitment to complete my thesis despite having done most of the work. I feltI let the students down. Reflecting on this with colleagues recently,I was challenged to write something forthe 50th anniversary journal publication of Social Work Review. These are my memories backed up with a little bit of checking in past publications of NZASW (New Zealand Association of Social Workers) as it was then known.


2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 55-72
Author(s):  
Paul McCafferty

Partnership Care West is a voluntary organisation that contracts with the Northern Ireland Social Care Council (NISCC) to provide ten placements for social work students. NISCC is a statutory organisation, with responsibility for registering and regulating social care/work, improving standards in education and training and standardising practice in Northern Ireland NISCC (2003).The students attend the practice learning centre and are then given placements in voluntary sector sites established by the centre. Traditionally, the students were supervised on a one to one basis using the long arm approach. In recent years however, the centre has developed a model for supervising these students in groups.Building on my positive experience of conducting group supervision and to further my knowledge, skills and values in this area, I recently undertook an international comparison with the School of Social Work in Haifa Israel. This School has an already well established model for supervising students in groups and I hoped that I could learn something to help me develop my model further. I would like to thank Nava Arkin at the University of Haifa for her willingness to take part in this comparison and for her encouragement throughout. This article aims to outline my findings of the comparison and outline the theoretical constructs that make international comparisons in social work possible.


Author(s):  
Joe Duffy

This paper examines how service users and carers can contribute to social work education in a post conflict society. A small-scale study undertaken in Northern Ireland is used as a case study to show how such citizens can potentially critically contribute to social work students’ understanding of the impact of conflict on individuals, groups and communities. The need to appreciate the effects of such community division is now a core knowledge requirement of the social work curriculum in Northern Ireland. The article reports on research findings with service users, carers and agency representatives which points to ways in which social work students can achieve a critical understanding of the impact of conflict. Northern Ireland, in this way, is presented as a divided society, still in a state of adjustment and evolution, following a period of protracted community strife and violence. The author suggests that individuals who have been directly affected by conflict can contribute in an informed and critical way to social work students’ developing knowledge and experience in an important area of their professional competence and understanding of anti-oppressive practice more broadly.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 70-70
Author(s):  
Cathy Berkman

Abstract As the population ages and more people live longer with chronic and life-limiting illnesses, more healthcare professionals with palliative care skills are needed. Social workers are part of the palliative care team, but there is little, if any, content on palliative and end-of-life care in MSW programs. A 24-minute video featuring nine palliative and hospice social workers was produced with two goals: 1) increase knowledge of social work students about palliative and end-of-life care; and 2) interest social work students in a career in palliative social work. MSW students from three schools, in NY and Alabama, viewed the video. After viewing the video, 94 students participated in the mixed methods study, completing the brief, anonymous, online survey. The mean level of understanding about what palliative social workers do, rated from 1 (no understanding) to 5 (very good understanding), was 2.96 (SD=.99) before viewing the video and 4.31 (SD=.61) after, for an increase of 1.35 points (95% CI=1.14, 1.55) (p<.001). The mean level of interest in a career in palliative care social work and working with seriously ill persons and their family members, rated from 1 (Not at all interested) to 5 (Extremely interested), was 2.52 (SD=.99) before viewing the video and 3.45 SD=.80) after, for an increase of .91 points (95% CI=.79, 1.07) (p<.001). Qualitative data supporting the quantitative findings will be presented. This study suggests that a video intervention may be an effective tool to increase knowledge and interest in palliative and end-of-life care among social work students.


1995 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 44-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vicky W.K. Leung ◽  
Bill Y.P. Lay ◽  
Anne Ketchell ◽  
Cindy Clark ◽  
Robert Harris

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 100
Author(s):  
Paulette Andrea Henry

<p>The understanding of human rights are important to social work education and practice especially since the global definition of social work highlights the dual role of social work as a practice based profession and academic discipline emphasizing the principles of social justice, human rights, collective responsibility and respect for diversity. Concomitantly, social work education must ensure that students know and understand human rights laws especially since human rights are inherent to all human beings and are often expressed and guaranteed by international law which Governments are expected to uphold. Social workers have a commitment as duty bearers in supporting governments in the upholding of those agreements pertinent to the wellbeing of the people. Using the University of Guyana as a frame of reference this paper examined students’ knowledge on international agreements prior to leaving the University since these laws not only speak to nation states but to universal practices and many social work issues transcend borders. This paper utilized a mixed method approach to ascertain students’ awareness of international human rights laws and their perceptions on the applicability to practice. The findings show that there is limited knowledge amongst social work students on human rights covenants and conventions. This assessment is instructive to social work educators locally and internationally pointing to the need for integration into the curricula. It is imperative that generalist practitioners leave the University with a clear understanding of these laws as many practice issues are transnational. There will be the need for international social work to be a taught course for undergraduates training to become generalist practitioners.</p>


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