Knowledge Bases and Knowledge Biases in Social Work

Abstract

Summary: The conception of a knowledge base for social work is explored within a multinational/multicultural context. Findings: Flaws in the idea of a knowledge base include the conception that social science knowledge is being continually reconstructed rather than acting as a base, the impossibility of defining a separable body of knowledge and the difficulty of seeing some knowledge as basic to all social work practice. Four arenas of debate within social work where the concept is particularly used are in defining the processes of professionalization, defining training and education curricula, identifying what knowledge is useful in practice and defining professional roles within multidisciplinary teams. Study of the construction and politics of knowledge biases within social work, through examination of the use of knowledge in practice and through consideration of the influence of stakeholders in creating biases, permits understanding of social work knowledge as a continuing interactive process among practitioners and other stakeholders rather than as an established base. Applications: Knowledge in any particular country or specialization of social work may be seen as biases within a broader conception of knowledge.

My Stage: Participatory Theatre with Immigrant Women as a Decolonizing Method in Art-based Research

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Current Education/Training Available for Professionals Working in Mental Health Services in the Republic of Ireland: A Scoping Study

“…These changes present substantial challenges to how services are conceptualised, organised and delivered (Government of Ireland 2006;Department of Health and Children 2008). Commentators have highlighted the ways in which social work practitioners, researchers and educators have responded to the challenges both in the Irish context and internationally (Payne 2001;Stanhope and Solomon 2008;Steiner et al 2008). Recent social work discourses have explored practice developments in Ireland linked to deinstitutionalisation, community care and the voice of the service user (Wilson & Kirwan 2007).…”

Dialectics—The Arts of Teaching and Learning in Social Work Education

“…Social work and social work education in the past few decades have paid much attention to issues such as theory and practice integration, competence-based and evidenced-based practice (Sheppard, 1998;Munro, 1998;Tsang, 1998a;Payne, 2001;Fisher & Somerton, 2000;Parton, 2000). The notions of technical-rationality, reflective practice, and critical pedagogy are discussed and used to examine curriculum design and methodologies in teaching and learning.…”