Christine Morley

Critical Reflection: A Response to Neoliberal Challenges to Field Education?

This paper explores the ways in which neoliberal thinking and practices have impacted upon Australian social work, with a particular emphasis on field education programmes. We outline a number of challenges that neoliberalism presents for maintaining quality field education programmes in social work and, within this context, explore the opportunities for social work educators to respond creatively by using practices informed by critical pedagogy and critical social work approaches. We do this by reporting preliminary findings from original research that examined the possibilities for critical pedagogy and critical reflection to deconstruct myths and counteract some of the consequences of neoliberalism. We position such critical practices as forms of resistance within critical social work programmes, to maintain and protect the integrity and quality of field education in contemporary social work programmes.

Engaging practitioners with critical reflection: issues and dilemmas

This paper presents a reflective account of my teaching practice with health practitioners who work as school nurses in the secondary education system in regional Victoria, Australia. It highlights some of the issues and dilemmas that emerged during my experiences, as a social work educator, facilitating workshops about critically reflective learning as a cross‐disciplinary enterprise. Using critical reflection, this paper also raises questions regarding how we might respond to some of the challenges to improve future approaches to teaching critical reflection.

Engaging with social work : a critical introduction

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the diverse and contested world of social work. It explores the key concepts and theoretical frameworks underpinning contemporary social work practice, as well as relevant professional skills and strategies from a critical perspective. In a rapidly changing world, it locates critical social work as a part of broader and ongoing struggles for social justice and human rights. Readers are encouraged to think about what social work is or should be, and what sort of social worker they would like to become. The book covers a broad range of topics, including the history and development of social work as a profession, values and ethics, theories for practice, and the fields and context of practice. Definitions of key terms, reflective exercises and case studies are integrated throughout the text. Written by a diverse team of experienced educators, this is a stimulating, rigorous and student-friendly resource.

Practising Critical Reflection to Develop Emancipatory Change : Challenging the Legal Response to Sexual Assault

Overwhelmingly, critical practitioners working across a range of human service fields, who are committed to emancipatory and progressive social change ideals, report feeling powerless, alienated from the means of change, and hopeless about their capacities to make a difference in the lives of the individuals, groups or communities with whom they work because of restrictive contexts that ultimately determine the nature and parameters of their work. This ground-breaking book addresses this dilemma by demonstrating how critical reflection as an educational tool enables practitioners to envision possibilities for change. The legal system, particularly in its response to sexual assault provides a perfect example of this type of context and this volume explores the work of sexual assault practitioners that are engaged in supporting victims/survivors of sexual assault through the legal process. By reshaping ideas that have previously been considered as predominantly theoretical and abstract, Morleys work provides an innovative framework that enables social work and human services practitioners to find hope, agency and practical strategies to work towards change, despite operating in contexts that appear immutably oppressive. © Christine Morley 2014. All rights reserved.

Critical Reflexivity and Social Work Practice

Critical reflexivity is an epistemological position that brings together the social constructionist stance of reflexivity with the emancipatory goals of critical social science. Critical reflexivity is a vial precondition for critical reflection, yet not sufficient in its own right to activate the transformative deconstruction and reconstruction processes that critical reflection enables. The related concepts of reflection, reflexivity, and critical reflection will also be discussed. A critically reflexive stance is essential to further a critical social work agenda that is committed to social justice and human rights, despite the challenges presented by the contemporary, neoliberal context.

Engaging with social work: a critical introduction

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the diverse and contested world of social work. It explores the key concepts and theoretical frameworks underpinning contemporary social work practice, as well as relevant professional skills and strategies from a critical perspective. In a rapidly changing world, it locates critical social work as a part of broader and ongoing struggles for social justice and human rights. Readers are encouraged to think about what social work is or should be, and what sort of social worker they would like to become. The book covers a broad range of topics, including the history and development of social work as a profession, values and ethics, theories for practice, and the fields and context of practice. Definitions of key terms, reflective exercises and case studies are integrated throughout the text. Written by a diverse team of experienced educators, this is a stimulating, rigorous and student-friendly resource.