Mark Doel

Practice learning and teaching

Preface Acknowledgements PART 1: CONTEXTS Beginnings... The Context of Practice Learning: The Recognition and Celebration of Difference PART 2: A MODEL FOR PRACTICE LEARNING Theories and Models of Practice Learning Understanding Learning Using a Curriculum for Practice Learning Methods of Learning Examining Practice Competence Difficulties with Learning: What Can Go Wrong? ...Endings References Name Index Subject Index

Modern social work practice : teaching and learning in practice settings

Contents: Introduction. Part I Foundations of practice: new opportunities for practice learning: Knowing the service user and carer Knowing your self Knowing the role. Part II Direct practice: inter-professional learning and practice: Preparation Generating options Making assessments in partnership Working in and with groups Working in difficult situations. Part III Agency practice: creative practice and procedural requirements Making priorities Managing resources Accountability Whistleblowing. Part IV Themes of practice: evidence-based practice Working with risk Anti-oppressive practice Law-informed practice Generalist and specialist practice Comparative practice Appendix: National Occupational Standards Glossaries Bibliography Index.

Curtain down on Act One: practice learning in the first year of the new social work award

The curtain has come down on the first year of the new social work degree in England. This paper presents the findings of a survey of social work educators in academic and practice settings to find out how practice learning in this year has been experienced and the shape of plans for the rest of the new degree. The paper reflects on the enormous diversity of arrangements for practice learning, in terms of patterns of delivery, assessment, funding, and service user and carer involvement. One pattern that is emerging strongly is a more experimental flavour to this first year, with new practice learning sites being developed, and the use of group arrangements to supervise and support students. However, there is also the potential for inconsistency in standards, especially in the ways that students are judged as ‘fit for practice learning’. There are concerns that the new partnerships are increasingly driven by universities and colleges, with some agency partners unclear about what is happening and why. There are also indications that the postgraduate programmes will have less room for experimentation than the three‐year undergraduate courses and this may become a source of divergence between the two routes.

The Task-Centred Book

1. Development 2. Study 3. Analyse 4. Teach 5. Learn 6. Do 7. Review 8. Support 9. Redevelop

Task-Centred Social Work

Contents: Introduction A practice model The mandate for work Exploring problems The written agreement Tasks Ending the work Pointers for practice Appendices References Index.

Technical assistance, neo-colonialism or mutual trade? The experience of an Anglo/Ukrainian/Russian social work practice learning project

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union there has been a steady stream of Western consultants ready to work in Eastern Europe and Russia and share professional and academic expertise and experience. Social work, unknown as a discrete discipline or profession in the Soviet Union, has been a growth area with funding from a variety of sources to help promote East–West partnerships. Social work theory and practice emphasises critical appraisal of policy and embraces issues of power, discrimination and oppression. Social work educators should therefore be especially alert to the complex ethical questions which these kinds of collaborations raise, and adept at finding practical solutions or workable compromises. This article explores these ethical and political issues with reference to a project to develop social work practice learning in a Russian oblast’ (region). The project was an ambitious partnership of British, Ukrainian and Russian educators, involving numerous Russian social work and related agencies, and four Russian universities and colleges in one oblast’. The authors use a series of vignettes to help the reader achieve insights into these East–West transactions. The article concludes with a discussion of different interpretations of these dealings, using three prisms: technical assistance, neo-colonialism and mutual trade.

Students’ perceptions of international social work: A comparative study in the USA, UK, and Georgia

The field of social work worldwide has been increasingly influenced by globalization, migration, and other conditions that require professionals to be responsive and knowledgeable in addressing them. This collaborative project examined students’ perceptions of international social work at three universities in the United States, United Kingdom, and Georgia. Students’ responses indicated an overall strong interest and widespread agreement that there is a link between local and global social issues. The findings suggest that social work education needs to be globalized and tailored to students’ needs, which will help them identify social work strongly as part of a profession and affect change across the globe.

Task-centred work

One of the biggest challenges facing the social work profession is how to square professional practice with the ‘circle’ of organisational constraints. The break-up of social work into its constituent tasks and the increasingly proceduralised nature of the work of agency practitioners are two factors which lead back to Brewer and Lait’s question of 1980, Can Social Work Survive? (Brewer and Lait, 1980).

Simulated and live practice teaching: The practice teacher's craft

The paper considers the assertion that students can learn how to practise exclusively through simulations, without working with real clients. The authors look at the benefits and difficulties of both live and simulated practice for the students learning, and discuss two fallacies which, if left unchallenged, could threaten the existing arrangements for practice learning in social work. Finally, the paper describes practice teaching in terms of a craft. This paper was first presented to a Conference of practice teachers and it preserves some of its original informality.

Professional social work

Professional social work and the professional social work identity Being a social work professional Practising reflexivity: nurturing human practice Understanding contemporary social work: we need to talk about relationships The emotionally competent professional The new radical social work professional? Ethical tensions in social work Professionalism and practice-focused research Understanding continuing professional development Understanding and using supervision in social work Working with the media Fifty years of professional regulation in social work education Professional social work in the future