Bringing the Agency to the Classroom: Using Service-Learning to Teach Research to BSW Students

2006 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen A. Kapp
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Core Curriculum ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Research Knowledge ◽  
Skill Levels ◽  
Social Work Research ◽  
Course Material

Faculty members teaching social work research courses face a variety of challenges: The material is typically viewed by students as outside their interest area; the technical and complex content is not easy to teach to any audience, especially when students vary significantly in skill levels; and the course material is often taught in isolation from core curriculum areas, especially social work practice. This article describes a service-learning approach for teaching research that allows students to apply their research knowledge to the information needs of an agency while they are developing corresponding knowledge and skills. Additionally, this article highlights the unique features of this approach and presents student feedback from a recent section of this course. Finally, it describes the implications of this technique.

scholarly journals Students’ Perceptions of Service-Learning in an Advanced Research Course

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 456-473
Author(s):  
Stacy M. Deck ◽  
Laneshia Conner ◽  
Shannon Cambron
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Social Work Students ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Research Knowledge ◽  
Social Work Research ◽  
Homeless Men ◽  
Pro Bono

Social work students are often anxious, apathetic, or resistant to learning research knowledge and skills. They may view research courses as irrelevant and disconnected from social work practice. Studies suggest that service-learning improves learning outcomes in social work research courses, but less is known about the processes through which these outcomes are achieved. This study explored the perceptions of 70 Masters-level social work students enrolled in an advanced research course that included a pro bono program evaluation of a shelter serving homeless men. Content analysis of students’ narratives revealed three main themes. First, students perceived that they had changed their thinking about homelessness in positive ways. Second, students made connections between their research experience and the social work curriculum. Finally, an unanticipated theme of curriculum integration emerged. Critical reflection about a meaningful experience—an integral aspect of service-learning—supported students in developing metacognitive insight. This helped students to develop and apply social work research skills. The service-learning project supported students’ mastery of other social work competencies and improved their integrated practice abilities. Because this approach is effective in helping students to embrace research and integrate it with social work practice, application and evaluation of service-learning are recommended for social work education.

scholarly journals Emotional intelligence as a part of critical reflection in social work practice and research

2021 ◽  
pp. 147332502110247
Author(s):  
Mari D Herland
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Emotional Reactions ◽  
Social Work Research ◽  
Emotional Aspects

Social workers often experience higher levels of burnout compared with other healthcare professionals. The capacity to manage one’s own emotional reactions efficiently, frequently in complex care settings, is central to the role of social workers. This article highlights the complexity of emotions in social work research and practice by exploring the perspective of emotional intelligence. The article is both theoretical and empirical, based on reflections from a qualitative longitudinal study interviewing fathers with behavioural and criminal backgrounds, all in their 40 s. The analysis contains an exploration of the researcher position that illuminates the reflective, emotional aspects that took place within this interview process. Three overall themes emerged – first: Recognising emotional complexity; second: Reflecting on emotional themes; and third: Exploring my own prejudices and preconceptions. The findings apply to both theoretical and practical social work, addressing the need to understand emotions as a central part of critical reflection and reflexivity. The argument is that emotions have the potential to expand awareness of one’s own preconceptions, related to normative societal views. This form of analytical awareness entails identifying and paying attention to one’s own, sometimes embodied, emotional triggers.

Calling Social Work to the Movement for Educational Justice

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annahita Ball
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Youth Development ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Educational Justice ◽  
Social Work Research ◽  
Conditions For Learning ◽  
History Of

Abstract The persistent and systemic inequities within the U.S. public education system have grave implications for children’s and youth’s outcomes, yet these inequities go far beyond academics. Marginalized and vulnerable students experience injustices across the educational system, including disproportionality in school discipline, unequal access to advanced courses, and poor conditions for learning. Social work has a solid history of addressing issues that intersect across families, schools, and communities, but the profession has had little engagement in the recent educational justice movement. As educational scholars advance a movement to address educational inequities, it will be increasingly important for social work researchers to provide valuable insight into the multiple components that make up youth development and support positive well-being for all individuals within a democratic society. This article encourages social work researchers to extend lines of inquiry that investigate educational justice issues by situating social work practice and research within educational justice and suggesting an agenda for future social work research that will advance equity for all students.

scholarly journals The Information Behaviour of Social Workers: Needs, Seeking, Acquiring and Using Information in Practice

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 1588-1610
Author(s):  
Niamh Flanagan
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Practice Research ◽  
Information Behaviour ◽  
Traditional Research ◽  
Search For Information ◽  
Information Landscape

Abstract In the debate about what informs social work practice, research remains the dominant discourse. However, the relationship between research and social work practice has always been an uneasy one, arguably passed from other clinical disciplines without resizing to fit social work. Even as social work research matures as a discipline it represents one element in a much broader composite which informs practice. This article takes a unique step back from the traditional research-practice discourse and examines the broader information landscape of social work practice, asking how practitioners inform their practice, rather than how research informs practice. This study explores the information needs that prompt practitioners to search for information, the strategies they employ, their acquisition of information and the uses to which the information is put. This study aims to elucidate the information behaviour with a view to improving dissemination and use. Findings demonstrate that the social work information base is substantially broader than has been suggested. Practitioners employ a pragmatic palette of strategies to navigate the breadth of information that supports practice, from research through to knowledge sharing. This article proposes that a pragmatic framework of information behaviour is required to accurately reflect the information behaviour of social workers.

scholarly journals Data science for social work practice

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 205979911881439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar Cariceo ◽  
Murali Nair ◽  
Jay Lytton
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Data Science ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Machine Learning Techniques ◽  
Social Work Research ◽  
Data Driven Decisions ◽  
Social Work Interventions ◽  
Key Terms

Data science is merging of several techniques that include statistics, computer programming, hacking skills, and a solid expertise in specific fields, among others. This approach represents opportunities for social work research and intervention. Thus, practitioners can take advantage of data science methods and reach new standards for quality performances at different practice levels. This article addresses key terms of data science as a new set of methodologies, tools, and technologies, and discusses machine learning techniques in order to identify new skills and methodologies to support social work interventions and evidence-based practice. The challenge related to data sciences application on social work practice is the shift on the focus of interventions. Data science supports data-driven decisions to predict social issues, rather than providing an understanding of reasons for social problems. This can be both a limitation and an opportunity depending on context and needs of users and professionals.

Scaling Up Social Problems

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Y. Rodriguez ◽  
Laysha Ostrow ◽  
Susan P. Kemp
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Progressive Era ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Scaling Up ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Social Work Research ◽  
Meaningful Engagement

The Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative aims to focus the profession’s attention on how social work can play a larger role in mitigating contemporary social problems. Yet a central issue facing contemporary social work is its seeming reticence to engage with social problems, and their solutions, beyond individual-level interventions. Social work research, we contend, must more consistently link case and cause, iteratively developing processes for bringing micro-, mezzo-, and macrostreams of information together. We further argue that meaningful engagement with the initiative requires social work scholars and practitioners to actively scale up practice and research inquiry. We detail two key strategies for employing a scaled-up social work practice and research ethos: (a) employing a critical economic lens and (b) engaging with diverse publics. As proof of concept for these arguments, we offer an early example of progressive era social workers scaling up responses to a pressing social issue: infant mortality.

All Awareness and No Action: Can Social Work Leverage Creative Arts’ Potential?

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 708-720
Author(s):  
Raphael Travis
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Creative Arts ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Research Education ◽  
Social Work Research ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Explicit Recognition

Social work is grounded with an emphasis on promoting the well-being being of individuals and families with an explicit recognition of how the environment plays a significant role in the unfolding of well-being. Unfortunately, the profession’s commitment to maintaining the infrastructure for social work research, education, and practice that helps students and professionals focus on the environmental forces that create, contribute to, and address problems of the living sometimes feels superficial. These trends have made it difficult to realize the effectiveness and promise of integrating creative arts into social work practice. The present article discusses how social work efforts with creative arts will have limited influence if their context, underlying assumptions, and framing are misaligned with the experiential realities of clients; if gatekeeping is too rigid or biased to effectively grow the arts-based infrastructure; and if the underlying assumptions that define well-being outcomes are proportionately narrow, deficit oriented, and short-term focused.

The State of Social Work in Egypt

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamido Megahead
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Synthetic Approach ◽  
Social Work Research ◽  
Work Intervention ◽  
Work Education

Although professional social work in Egypt has a 100-year history, there is a dearth of information in English about social work in Egypt and other non-Western countries. Five domains of social work in Egypt are (1) the international flow of Western social work practice into Egypt, (2) modern social work, (3) social work research and social work interventions, (4) social work education, and (5) fields of practice. These five domains that inform modern social work in Egypt were produced from international flows of Western social work practice into Egypt. It was also produced from social work research and social work intervention. Modern social work also comes from teaching bachelor of social work students professional social work courses. Social work knowledge was adapted, authenticated, and indigenized to meet local context. These five dominated themes have been detailed and explained. International flows of Western social work practice into Egypt include transmission (transplantation), authentication, and indigenization. Modern social work in Egypt includes social work practice and social welfare policy. Social work research has included explanatory, descriptive and experiment social work research studies. Social work intervention has included social work intervention of aiming at solving problems and stressors and social work intervention of aiming at applying resources for change. Fields of social work practice includes family and child Social Work and school social work. Social work education is focused only on Bachelor of Science in Social Work covering the professional social work courses group work practice, social casework practice, community organization, social welfare planning, policy and administration, fields of social work practice. A synthetic approach that knits together these five themes entail that modern social work has been produced from international flows of Western social work practice into Egyptian context. It is also produced from social work research and social work intervention. Modern social work also comes as results of teaching Bachelor Social Work (BSW) students the professional social work courses.

The Assessment of Environment in Social Work Research

1974 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Davies
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Research ◽  
Made In

There is need for the adventurous development of theoretical constructs to challenge, clarify, and build on the assumptions made in social work practice today

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