Phenomenological inquiry into the development of social work students' practice as they progress through training
Abstract
This research is based on fifty one interviews with twenty one students
drawn from two cohorts who were undertaking a two year postgraduate course
leading to the Certificate of Qualification in Social Work. The students were
interviewed in depth about their work with one client or client group at key
stages of their education and training. The aims of the research were threefold:
to ascertain whether different approaches to practice could be described on the
basis of the students' accounts of their work, thus making a contribution to the
development of evaluative methods in the field of social work education; to
explore the influence of training on students' approaches to practice; and to
contribute to understanding of the use of theory in social work practice.
The information generated in relation to the first of these three aims
derives from the construction of a typology of three approaches to social work
practice grounded in the students' accounts of their work. The three
approaches have been termed an everyday social approach, a fragmented
approach and a fluent approach to reflect their key distinguishing features. In
turn, the description of these distinguishing features constitutes a contribution
to understanding of the use of theory in social work practice, since they
revolve partly around the extent to which the students drew on the type of
knowledge which is usually described as theoretical, and partly around the
ways in which this type of knowledge was used.
It was beyond the scope of the research to assess the relative effectiveness
of the three approaches, and the typology cannot, therefore, be regarded as
representing a hierarchy of performance levels. It is, however, a central
premise of the thesis that the typology represents a model within which the
development of the students' ability to make use of course content in practice
can be understood. Three tentative conclusions emerge about the influence of
the students' education and training on the development of their practice in
this respect. Firstly, although some aspects of academic teaching appear to
have played a significant part in the development of the students' practice, the
teaching approaches employed may have imposed constraints on the extent to
which they were able to make use of course content in practice. Secondly, the
practice teaching approaches encountered by the students appear to have been
closely associated with the development of their practice. Finally, the research
suggests that the learning milieux provided by the students' placement
agencies could also have some bearing on the development of their practice.