The Centre for Social Work Research (CSWR)

The CSWR is at the forefront of empirical research into pre-qualifying and post-qualifying social work education and continuing professional development. We have had a major focus on practice learning and assessment which is of importance given "the practice placement" is a key component of not only social work but other cognate professions.  Practice learning, i.e. assessed periods of practice in the field, despite its centrality in pre-qualifying social work training, can still be considered an under-researched phenomenon, which is a concern given the importance of the practice learning site as a key site of gatekeeping for many caring professions. This workstream, emerging originally, from Jo Finch's 2010, Professional Doctorate in Social work, has since developed further in a number of groundbreaking and exciting ways, for example utilising a range of methodological approaches, including ethnographic and practice-near, and utilising psychodynamic theory to interrogate the findings further. Recent work by other members of the centre has centred on supervision of qualified staff and innovative approaches in qualifying social work education.

The Experience of Failing a Student in a Placement: Jo Finch's doctorate explored the experiences of practice educators (those tasked with the task of assessing social work students in practice) of working with a struggling or failing student in a practice learning setting. The experience was often felt to be stressful and practice educators experienced a range of strong and overwhelming emotions, which, the thesis argued, could serve to impact adversely on a fair and transparent assessment process. Concern was raised that some students may be passing the placement when the evidence suggests they were not yet ready. The findings were further reported in a Special Edition on Field Education, of the influential and International Social Work Education Journal.

A further empirical study was also undertaken of social work tutors' experiences of working with students struggling or failing in practice learnings settings.  A key finding suggested that at times, tutors struggled to manage the demands of their profession (i.e. social work) and the key aim of ensuring service users are protected from harm, with the demands of their universities with the focus on students' rights.

"Supporting Struggling Students on Placement: A Practical Guide" (Policy Press, Bristol) is also by Jo Finch and was published at the end of March 2017. This book is very much aimed at practice educators from social work and cognate disciplines, who assess students in clinical or practice placements.

International Comparative Study (Practice Educators Experiences):  This empirical study, compared the findings of the British study documented above, with the experiences of Italian practice educators working with struggling or failing students. Similarities and differences in the experiences of British and Italian practice educators emerged in the findings and the study explored the possible reason for the differences. A key finding suggested that both groups of practice educators did not actively embrace the gatekeeping role. Further theorisation and analysis of the findings can be found in the following book chapter: 

Finch, J. and Poletti, A. (2016)  Italian and English Practice Educators Experiences of Working with Struggling or Failing Students in Practice Placements in  Taylor, I .et al (Eds) Routledge International Handbook of Social Work Education, Routledge, London

Theorising Practice Assessment:  Work has also focused on theorising the experiences of practice educators utilising psychodynamic approaches. For example, consideration of how far projective identificatory processes may account for the dynamics that can emerge when a practice educator works with a struggling or failing student. Further theoretical work has utilised Menzies–Lyth seminal study on organisational defences against anxiety, to consider whether the projective identificatory processes identified previously, may be seen as manifestations of particular organisational and societal defences, against the anxiety induced by the social work task. See the following book chapter:  

Finch, J. & Schaub, J. (2015) Projective Identification as an Unconscious Defence: Social Work, Practice Education and the Fear of Failure. in Armstrong, D. & Rustin, M.(eds) Social Defences against Anxiety: Explorations in the Paradigm, Karnac, London

Decision Making: A further focus in this work stream has been on decision making processes with regard to failing students.  Empirical work, utilising practice-near and ethnographic methodological approaches, explored group decision making about failed students, in a university context.  The research on Practice Assessment Panels, funded by the Higher Education Academy, was the first ever research on these panels, a long standing feature on social work training programmes.  This work was then subsequently further theorised utilising psychodynamic theory (article not available due to publisher’s embargo) and appeared in the Journal of Social Work Practice.

Innovation in Social Work Education, Supervision and CPD: The work of the centre has also focused on innovation in qualifying social work education, supervision and continuing professional development.

Dr Stuart Stevenson for example, has explored supervisory processes, constraints and challenges when offering supervision to organisations working with mental health issues in the context of organisational dynamics that hinder performance. This included a discussion on the issues that emerged in three different contexts.

      -   Supervising Mental Health Professionals in the Context of Complex Organizational Dynamics: Journal of Social Work Practice. (29) 4, pp.445-456.

Dr Dawn Ludick
Dawn Ludick's presentation at the Annual Health and Social Care Conference 2016. Inspire to succeed: Transforming teaching and learning in Health and Social Care. Presentation Paper Title: 'Embedding employability' starts on the first day of the first week in the first year for Social Work students on the BA (Hons) in Social Work degree at the Higher Education Academy can be found here.
 

Public Dissemination:
Jo Finch has spoken at many public events about her research on practice learning, including key note speeches, research seminars, invited conference speaker and peer reviewed conference presentations.  For further details see Jo Finch's UEL profile.   

Training and Consultancy:
Jo Finch currently offers training and consultancy to organisations wishing to focus on managing struggling and failing students in practice learning settings.  Please contact Jo Finch for further information (J.Finch@uel.ac.uk)