From institution-centred to place- responsive practicums: Reflections from engagement with the Cherbourg Aboriginal community
Keywords:
Field education, Social work placement, University community engagement, Place responsive, Indigenous social workAbstract
There has been much attention paid to university-community engagement generally and, in particular, to Work Integrated Learning (WIL) partnerships with agencies for social work and human service students. Since late 2013, the social work and human services program at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has been working in partnership with the Australian Aboriginal community of Cherbourg on diverse community-initiated projects. The opportunity arose to locate social work and human service students on placement within Cherbourg agencies. From the outset of the partnership, it was important to appreciate that Cherbourg was evidence that processes of exclusion and marginalisation are often produced and reproduced, and that our approach to student placement might add to this if not reflecting principles of respect, decolonisation, and social justice. A range of constraints have been ident- ified which illustrate the importance of high-level institutional support for such an approach to succeed (Cooper & Orrell, 2016). Hence, a reciprocal approach – a theme from research and strategic developments globally – was a requirement. This article outlines a place-responsive approach to field education that has emerged from the experience with the Cherbourg com- munity, one that privileges the interests and strategic goals of the host community, translates these into community-nominated and supported projects, and links students from relevant disciplines in a series of open-ended processes that transcend institutional requirements.
Social work and human services students on placement play an important role in enabling a place-responsive approach, though there are key implications for how placements are understood and undertaken to achieve this.
References
Australian Association of Social Work (AASW). (2010). Code of Ethics. Canberra, Australia. Australian Association of Social Work.
Australian Association of Social Work(b) (AASW) (2012). Australian Social Work Education and Accreditation Standards (ASWEAS, 4 Revised January 2015. Canberra: AASW. Retrieved from https://www.aasw.asn.au/document/item/3550
Australian Community Welfare Association (ACWA). (2014). ACWA fieldwork placement requirements – Diploma and higher education level courses. Retrieved from http://www.acwa.org.au/course-accreditation/Pdfs/Current%20requirements/ACWA- fieldwork-placement-requirements-diploma-and-higher-education-level-courses-April-2014_V1.pdf
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2012). Catalogue 3309.0 Suicides Australia, 2010. Retrieved from http://www.abs.gov.au/ ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/3309.0
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2017). Child Protection Australia 2015-16. Canberra: AIHW. Retrieved from www.aihw.gov.au/publicationdetail/?id=60129558626&tab=3.
Banks, S. (2010). Integrity in professional life: Issues of conduct, commitment and capacity. British Journal of Social Work, 40, 2168–2184.
Barton. H., Bell, K., & Bowles, W. (2005). Help or hindrance? Outcomes of social work student placements. Australian Social Work, 58(3), 301–312.
Bennett, B., Zubrzychi, J., & Bacon, V. (2011). What do we know? The experience of social workers working alongside Aboriginal people. Australian Social Work. 64(1), 20–37.
Bessarab, D. (2015). Changing how and what we do: The significance of embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being, and doing in social work education and practice [Editorial]. Australian Social Work, 68(1), 1–4.
Blake, T. (2001). A dumping ground: Barambah Aboriginal Settlement 1900–1940. St Lucia, QLD: University of Queensland Press.
Bogo, M. (2015). Field education for clinical social work practice: Best practices and contemporary challenges. Clinical Social Work Journal, 43(3), 317–324.
Brimble, M., & Freudenberg, B. (2010). Will WIL’ing work? B-HERT Newsletter, no. 28, 2–4.
Briskman, L. (2014). Social work with Indigenous communities: A human rights approach. (2nd ed.). Sydney, NSW: The Federation Press.
Chenoweth, L. (2012). Troubling times? Strategies for countering contemporary challenges in social work and human services practice. In V. Pulla, L. Chenoweth, A.
Francis, S. Bakaj (Eds.), Papers in strengths based practice (pp. 66–74). New Delhi, India: Allied Publishers Private.
Cherbourg Health Action Group and Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council (November 2016). Cherbourg Student Placement and Learning Protocol. (Unpublished).
Closing the Gap Clearinghouse. (2013). What works to overcome Indigenous disadvantage: Key learnings and gaps in the evidence 2011–12. Produced for the Closing the Gap Clearinghouse. Canberra, ACT: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
Cooper, L., & Orrell, J. (2016). University and community engagement: Towards a partnership based on deliberate reciprocity, In F. Trede & C. McEwen (Eds), Educating the deliberate professional: Preparing practitioners for emergent futures. Switzerland: Springer International.
Crane, P., & Brough, M. (2016), The Cherbourg Aboriginal community experience and requirements of tertiary education students. QLD: Queensland University of Technology (Unpublished).
Crane, P., Fox, S., Spencer, A., Hardy, F., & Campbell, C. (2014). Enhancing social work interprofessional learning through cross university and industry collaboration: Early steps in the Advanced Health Directives Project. Advances in Social Work and Welfare Education, 16(1), 81–96.
Crane, P., & O’Regan, M. (2010). On PAR: Using participatory action research to improve early intervention. Canberra, ACT: Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Australian Government.
Crisp, B., Taket, A., Graham, M., & Hanna, L. (2014). Implementing a social inclusion agenda. In A. Taket, B. Crisp, M. Graham, L. Hanna, S. Goldingay, & L. Wilson (Eds.), Practising social inclusion, (pp. 249-256). London, UK: Routledge.
Davey, L., & Day, A. (2008), Reflections on methodology and process: A non-Indigenous perspective. In A. Day, M. Nakata, &
K. Howells (Eds.). Anger and Indigenous men: Understanding and responding to violent behaviour (pp. 151–157). Sydney, NSW: Federation Press.
Duthie, D., King, J., & Mays, J. (2013). Raising awareness of Australian Aboriginal peoples reality: Embedding Aboriginal knowledge in social work education through the use of field experiences. The International Education Journal: Comparative Perspectives, 12(1), 197–212.
Eyler, J. (2002). Reflection: Linking service and learning – Linking students and communities. Journal of Social Issues, 58(3), 517–534.
Fejo-King, C. (2013). Let’s talk kinship: Innovating Australian social work education, theory, research and practice through Aboriginal knowledge: Insights from social work research conducted with the Larrakia and Warumungu Peoples of the Northern Territory. Torrens, ACT: Christine Fejo-King Consulting.
Fisher-Borne M., Cain, J., & Martin, S. (2015). From mastery to accountability: Cultural humility as an alternative to cultural competence, Social Work Education, 34(2), 165–181.
Fredericks, B. (2008). Making an impact researching with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Studies in Learning, Evaluation, Innovation and Development, 5(1), 24–33. Rockhampton, QLD: Central Queensland University.
Giles, R., Irwin, J., Lynch, D., & Waugh, F. (2010). In the field: From learning to practice. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. Green, S., & Baldry, E. (2008). Building Indigenous Australian social work. Australian Social Work, 61(4), 389–402.
Harris, L., Jones, M., & Coutts, S. (2010). Partnerships and learning communities in work-integrated learning: Designing a community services student placement program. Higher Education Research and Development, 29(5), 547–559.
Healy, K. (2004). Social workers in the new human services marketplace: Trends, challenges and responses. Australian Social Work, 57(2), 103–114.
Hegarty, R. (1999). Is that you Ruthie? St. Lucia, QLD: University of Queensland Press.
Hill, N., Egan, R., Cleak, H., Laughton J., & Ervin, L. (2015, May). The sustainability of social work placements in a shifting landscape. In Abstracts from the International Conference on Discovery and Innovation in Social Work Practicum Education. Hong Kong, China. Retrieved from
Johnstone. E., Brough, M., Crane, P., Marston. G., & Correa-Velez. I. (2016). Field placement and the impact of financial stress on social work and human service students Australian Social Work, 69(4), 481–494.
Kornelsen, D., Boyer, Y., Lavoie, J., & Dwyer, J. (2016). Reciprocal accountability and fiduciary duty: Implications for Indigenous health in Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Australian Indigenous Law Review, 19(2), 17–32.
Kowald, C., Bielby, J., Cart, R., & Laffoley, N. (2017). Cherbourg Youth Council: Cherbourg QUT Project Report April – June 2017 to Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council. Kelvin Grove, QLD: Queensland University of Technology.
Mannion, G., Fenwick, A. & Lynch, J. (2013). Place-responsive pedagogy: Learning from teachers’ experiences, Environmental Education Research, 19(6), 792-–809.
Mok, J. (2005). Cherbourg dorm girls. Multicultural Community Centre: Fortitude Valley Brisbane.
Morley, C., & Dunstan, J. (2013). Critical reflection: A response to neoliberal challenges to field education? Social Work Education, 32(2), 141–156.
Muller, L. (2014). A theory for Indigenous Australian health and human services: Connecting Indigenous knowledge and practice.
Sydney, NSW: Allen & Unwin.
O’Connor, E., Smith, J., Crane, P., Brough, M., Shaw, N., & Franz, J. (2013). Valuing student and community voices in the university: Action research as a framework for community service-learning. Action Learning Action Research Journal, 18(2), 123–159.
Oliver, C. (2013). Social workers as boundary spanners: Reframing our professional identity for inter-professional practice, Social Work Education, 32(6), 773–784.
Pearson, C. A., & Daff, S. (2011). Collaborative delivery of work-integrated learning to Indigenous Australians in a remote community. Asia Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 12(2), 126–145.
Queensland State Library. (2017). Community and personal histories removals database. Brisbane, QLD: Queensland Government.
Ramsden, I. (2003). Cultural safety and nursing education in Aotearoa and Te Waipounamu. (Unpublished Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from http://culturalsafety.massey.ac.nz
Ration Shed Museum Book Committee. (2013). On the banks of the Barambah: A history of Cherbourg, Murgon. Cherbourg, QLD.
Scougall, J. (2008). Lessons learnt about strengthening Indigenous families and communities. Canberra, ACT: Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.
Sherwood, J. (2010). Do no harm: Decolonising Aboriginal health research. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation), University of New South Wales, Sydney.
Shulman, L. (2005). Signature pedagogies in the professions. Daedalus, 13(3), 52–59.
Smith, L. T. (1999). Decolonising methodologies: Research and Indigenous peoples. London, UK: Zed Books.
Spencer, A., & McDonald, C. (1998). Omissions and commissions: An analysis of professional field education literature.
Australian Social Work, 51(4), 9–18.
Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision (SCRGSP) (2014). Overcoming Indigenous disadvantage: Key Indicators 2014. Canberra, ACT: Productivity Commission.
Stewart, H., Meadows, M., Bowman, L., Van Vuuren, K., & Mulligan, P. (2010). Indigenous voice: A work-integrated learning case study in journalism education. Australian Journalism Review, 32(2), 1–18. Retrieved from https://research-repository.griffith. edu.au/bitstream/handle/10072/38935/67770_1.pdf? sequence=1
Stewart, H., Williams, M., Cullen, T., Johnston, M., Phillips, G., Mulligan, P., & Meadows, M. (2012). Teaching journalism students how to tell Indigenous stories in an informed way: A work integrated learning approach. Asia Pacific Media Educator, 22(1), 55–67.
The Ration Shed Museum. (2013). On the banks of the Barambah: A history of Cherbourg. The Ration Shed Museum, Cherbourg. Thompson & Duthie
Wayne, J., Raskin, M., & Bogo, M. (2010). Field education as the signature pedagogy of social work education. Journal of Social Work Education, 46(3) (Fall), xx–xx.
Yow Ye, K., MacNeill, E., & Lawton, K. (2014). Barambah Justice Initiative handover report. Kelvin Grove, Queensland University of Technology and Barambah Local Justice.
Zendell, A., Fortune, A., Mertz, L., & Koelewyn, N. (2007). University–community partnerships in gerontological social work: Building consensus around student learning. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 50(1/2), 155–172.
Zubrzycki, J., & Crawford, F. (2012). Collaboration and relationship building in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social work. In B. Bennett, S. Gilbert, D. Bessarab, (Eds.), Our Voices: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Work (pp.191–205). South Yarra, Melbourne: Palgrave Macmillan.
Zubrzycki, J., Green, S., Jones, V., Stratton, K., Young, S., & Bessarab, D. (2014). Getting it right: Creating partnerships for change. Integrating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges in social work education and practice: Teaching and Learning Framework. Sydney, NSW: Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching.
Zuchowski, I. (2016). Getting to know the context: The complexities of providing off-site supervision in social work practice learning. British Journal of Social Work, 46(2), 409–426.
Zuchowski, I., Cleak, H., Nickson, A., & Spencer, A. (2016, September). Preliminary results from a national survey of Australian social work field education programs. ANZSWWER Symposium, Advancing our critical edge in social welfare education research and practice, James Cook University: Townsville.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2018 Australian and New Zealand Social Work and Welfare Education and Research
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Advances in Social Work & Welfare Education by Australian and New Zealand Social Work and Welfare Education and Research (ANZSWWER) is licensed under CC BY 4.0
