Advances in Social Work and Welfare Education

Reducing Stress and Improving Learning

David Betts, Rebecca Bojkowski, Brad Peschar (Author) — Fri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Fieldwork placement is essential for social work education. It serves to connect theory and practice, enabling the development of student professional identity. However, unpaid placements can negatively impact students, particularly students who are carers, women, and live rurally. This reflective case study describes how an undergraduate social work course in Australia adapted its curriculum and assessments to support students during their placements. The changes were made in response to placement stressors, while utilising best-practice principles for online pedagogy. These adaptations allowed students to engage with the course at their own pace, and with accessible and flexible course materials. Assessments were directly aligned with placement experiences and due dates and late penalties were removed to promote autonomy and respect student discretion. This case study presents reflections from the teaching team, alongside student feedback, to explore strategies for supporting social work students during placements. Although unpaid placements are likely to continue due to accreditation standards and requirements in many countries, educators can be active in supporting student wellbeing during this time.

Field Education and Covid-19

Rob Cunningham, Margareta Windisch, Ronnie Egan, Betty Haralambous (Author) — Fri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The Covid-19 pandemic has shone a stark light on the pre-existing crisis in social work field education, and deepened it, resulting in many programs globally having to cancel and/or postpone placements. This article describes the experience of a university field education team in Melbourne, Australia, and the strategies they employed to provide students with a meaningful field education experience, despite being located in one of the most locked-down cities in the world. Key reflections include that it was collaborative industry partnerships, as well as added flexibility in the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) field education standards, that were instrumental in weathering the storm of Covid-19. The authors also suggest temporary changes do not go far enough in responding to the crisis in field education, and that a major re-structure of current requirements is needed at a national level to meet the needs of students and the social work sector.

Social Work Self-Disclosure

Elinya McDonnell, Sarah Wayland (Author) — Fri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The concept of self-disclosure has been a controversial issue that remains highly debated by current practising social workers and researchers alike. Yet an increasing number of lived experience practitioners or peer support workers are being employed in many human services areas, including mental health, suicide prevention, bereavement services, drug and alcohol recovery, criminal justice, and emergency services, alongside or in complement to, social worker roles. Peer or lived experience roles seek to enhance the recovery journey for clients by sharing lived experience commonality, whereas social workers seek to enhance the recovery journey through psychosocial engagements. Both may have relevant lived experience to their role. The aim of this paper is to explore how sharing lived experiences, also referred to as self-disclosure, between social workers and client/service user can enhance the relationship, with attention paid to safety and recovery. A narrative review of the literature identified that there is a lack of empirical research undertaken exploring how disclosures impact the service users and what decision-making strategies can assist social workers in deciding how and when to share. The current AASW Code of Ethics offers no clear practice standards or ethical guidelines for effective self-disclosure. The analysis of the literature results in a reflective supervision tool for social workers in pre-service training and early career social workers, with the aim of assisting decisions that may prompt lived experience sharing. Recommendations for further research and development are included.

Kiārahi and the Family Court in New Zealand

Hannah Greally, Dr Kathryn Hay (Author) — Fri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The Kaiārahi, or Family Court Navigator, is a newly established role within the Ministry of Justice in New Zealand. The role of the Kaiārahi is to provide guidance and information about the resolution and support options available to parents, caregivers, and families who are considering applying to the Family Court. This research sought to understand how the introduction of the Kaiārahi role may be improving experiences of Family Court users. A qualitative methodology guided the research process and in 2022, four Kaiārahi engaged in semi-structured interviews. The findings suggested that the Kaiārahi role is contributing to an improved experience for people engaged in the Family Court in New Zealand. The level of impact is, however, affected by the strength of collaboration with community services such as social work organisations, and several implementation factors, including a lack of strategic direction, difficulty sourcing clientele, and variable support from the Ministry of Justice and the judiciary. Addressing these issues would further strengthen the effectiveness of the Kaiārahi role.

A New Perspective Regarding the Impact of Rural Disadvantage on Accessing Services

Fri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This participatory research project, a co-operative inquiry, was led by seven social work students whilst on placement. They investigated the research question: How do rural advantage and disadvantage impact access to services from an Australian and Irish social work student perspective? Students were either on placement in Australia (n = 6, fully online placement) or in Ireland (n = 1, on-site practice placement with an online research component). The seven students, supported by seven academics, met weekly online to conduct in-depth conversations, share knowledge and their own observations, and connect these with the available literature regarding rural advantage and disadvantage. Grounded by a social determinants of health framework, the purpose of the inquiry was to highlight issues that affect isolated communities, their access to services, and explore these issues across two cultural and geographical contexts. The key themes that emerged included: i) the complexities of access to rural services; ii) the advantages and disadvantages of rural connectedness; and iii) the impact of these advantages/disadvantages on rural social work practitioners. These findings are significant for educators and rural practitioners, adding to the social work knowledge-base a unique student perspective of the issues that affect isolated communities and their access to health and social work services.

Social Work Students During COVID-19

Fri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Student wellbeing and mental health is recognised as a significant issue, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. Caring for your own wellbeing is key to effective social work practice and is the focus of Reflective Communication, a La Trobe University Social Work undergraduate subject based on a First Nations Family Wellbeing Program. This study explored the impact of this subject on student wellbeing during the pandemic. This mixed-methods study utilised an online questionnaire that measured students’ experiences of wellbeing before and after participation in the subject. Forty-three students completed online questionnaires, with 13 completing at both pre- and post-participation in the subject. Five focus groups comprising 14 students were conducted, as well as interviews with three subject tutors. Survey results indicated a stable and moderate level of mental distress amongst students, but a small sample size prevents conclusions from being drawn. The qualitative analysis indicated that students valued the subject for its promotion of social connection during the pandemic, but did find online classes challenging, with staff and students preferring in-person learning. Results support the subject’s value, and by implication, the relationally based Family Wellbeing Program, in enabling students to develop and/or maintain wellbeing during a challenging and unpredictable time.

A Self-Reflexive Narrative of Queer Insider-Outsider Social Work Research

James Lucas (Author) — Fri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This article outlines a self-reflexive narrative for queer social work research students navigating the dynamics of conducting queer-led “insider-outsider” research. Personal reflections of conducting queer-led research as a queer gay man within the context of Nelson’s novel queer insider-outsider reflective framework are provided. Key insights involved: (a) The author’s felt sense of joy, belonging, and purpose from connection with other queer Folx; (b) navigating disclosure of the author’s sexuality and positioning as “expert” of their lived experience within a shared queerstory; (c) the meaningful emotional labour of listening to and reading participants’ queerstories; (d) continual vacillation between an “insider” and “outsider”; and (e) a shift towards reclaiming the word “queer” in the author describing their identity. Essential to this experience was challenging the notion of absolute researcher neutrality and being open to questioning and shifting identities in social work research. This article further adds to embedding queer voices and the value of insider-outsider perspectives in the teaching and learning of research in social work education.

Collaboration with Librarian in Online Social Work Research Course

Tae Kyung Park, David Arredondo (Author) — Fri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Teaching literature review skills in social work research course often utilises a one-shot instruction session such as a guest speaker from the library or a visit to the library. However, this model is not practical for students in asynchronous online courses. While it has become common for research courses to include assistance from libraries through one-shot instruction sessions, the effectiveness of such assistance, whether in the one-shot model or through embedded librarianship, has not been studied or shared in the social work education literature. This teaching note shares our experiences and lessons learned from an online undergraduate social work research course that adopted embedded librarianship. The collaboration with the librarian through the embedded librarianship had a noticeable impact on the quality of student assignments in the research course. As online education continues to grow rapidly in social work, embedded librarianship through technology presents a promising tool to help social work students become familiar with literature search and library resources through learning by doing.

Transplanting TISSA

Haidee Hicks, Associate Professor (Author) — Fri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In this article, we reflect on the development of New Voices in Social Work Research, a PhD research symposium that has been transplanted from the European TISSA (“The International Social Work & Society Academy”) model to the Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand contexts. We also explore our experience of working collaboratively with academics, researchers, and the emerging community of doctoral scholars who are engaged with the Australia and New Zealand Social Work, Welfare and Research (ANZSWWER) organisation. In our reflection, we consider the early stages of the New Voices in Social Work Research symposium and argue the importance of a space for PhD and Early Career Researchers (ECRs) to build research capabilities and provide opportunities for research dissemination. Finally, we introduce ideas for further research in order to strengthen the New Voices in Social Work Research initiative to better support doctoral researchers in social work education in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

A Poverty Informed Social Work Practice Framework

Lesley Pitt, Yvonne Crichton-Hill, Jane Maidment (Author) — Fri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This article outlines a framework for poverty informed social work practice which was developed out of doctoral research about poverty in Aotearoa New Zealand. The framework is based on critical and feminist theory which informed the research process, and data drawn from 28 interviews with people who identified as living in poverty. The article begins with a brief review of relevant literature related to social work with people living in poverty, followed by discussion of critical theory and feminism. Semi-structured interviews were carried out using a feminist qualitative approach and an applied thematic approach was used to analyse the interview transcripts. From the interview data, and the theoretical underpinnings of the study, a poverty informed framework for social work was developed. There are six components to the framework: compassion, material support, advocacy, critical reflection, intersectionality and consciousness raising. The framework is practical and conceptual, a tool for social workers and educators to use when working in solidarity, or teaching about, working in solidarity with people experiencing poverty.

Defending a broad definition of social work scholarship

Mim Fox — Fri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000