Revitalizing social work education through global and critical awareness: examples from three Scandinavian schools of social work

Flem

2018

Social Work Education

Self Cite

This paper examines the influence of and need for a critical and global-oriented social work education on students' learning and developments in the context of international field training. The study uses mixed methods strategy of web survey, focus groups and document review of field reports. Participants in the study are social work students from social work programs in Norway and Sweden who have conducted their international field training in the Global South. The results of the study show that in order to obtain a critical and postcolonial understanding of global inequalities and the role of social work, students need to be truly prepared for international field training by critical and postcolonial knowledge, which will challenge many students' West-centric perspectives and facilitate them by a self-reflective positioning throughout their field training. The imagination of traveling to and 'learning about the others' should be then replaced by a move beyond 'us-and-them' divides in line with the ethical principles and values of social work.

Section: Compatibility Of Critical and Global Approaches With Needs Imentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

International field training in social work education: beyond colonial divides

Flem

2018

Social Work Education

Self Cite

“…Hurley och Akin (2019) menar att nuvarande kritiska utbildningsinslag för socialarbetare misslyckas med att hantera vad de menar är skillnaden mellan att å ena sidan identifiera strukturella ojämlikheter och å andra sidan fatta beslut kring vad som bör göras i det faktiska mötet med klienter. På ett liknande sätt argumenterar Flem et al (2017) för nödvändigheten att överbrygga uppdelningen mellan utbildning och praxis genom att integrera globala och maktkritiska perspektiv i socialarbetares utbildning och färdighetsträning (se även Jönsson & Flem 2018, 2020. Att ge studenter tillgång till kritiska och radikala teoretiska perspektiv inom ramen för sin utbildning fyller en viktig funktion om socialt arbete ska kunna utvecklas till att bli den aktiva kraft för social förändring och rättvisa som den skulle kunna vara (se t.ex.…”

Section: Tidigare Forskning Om Kritiska Och Radikala Perspektiv I Socialt Arbeteunclassified

Rustad för morgondagen?

Lauri

2021

SVT

During the last couple of decades, the state of the Swedish welfare society has deteriorated. Political decisions concerning the labour market, housing and education have significantly increased precarious conditions for many people. Income inequality and economic difficulties have increased. Changes in the welfare system make it harder to receive adequate support, while the repressive elements have also increased. We argue that critical and radical perspectives in social work can help reverse this negative development. What students learn in their social work education will affect their ways of understanding social problems, their practice, and their ability to work for change. We therefore regard social work education as an important arena for social change. But what is the state of such perspectives at our Swedish universities? This article examines the presence of critical and radical perspectives in the Swedish social work curriculum and attempts to answer the question ”How well equipped are future social workers to work in a critical and radical way?” The study shows that a critical perspective is common in the social work curriculum of some universities, but that critical and radical perspectives in general are absent. We argue that this

“…Yet applying radical educational approaches requires understanding social work as a movement for social change and social justice in the context of global structural changes and capitalist ideology and practices in a West-centric and postcolonial world (Ferguson et al, 2018;Kamali and Jönsson, 2019) The way in which educational institutions in the Nordic countries respond to this global context is not homogeneous: some institutions have marginalised critical and global perspectives, and have adapted themselves to operating in a national and neoliberal climate; others, meanwhile, have responded by adopting a curriculum that encompasses explicitly critical and global components in theoretical courses and professional and field training (Alseth et al, 2018;Flem et al, 2017;Jönsson, 2015).…”

Section: Unequal Power Relations In Social Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global social work ethics and international field training: The experiences and practice dilemmas of Norwegian and Swedish social work students

International Social Work

Flem

2020

This article explores global social work ethics and international field training based on the experiences and practice dilemmas of Norwegian and Swedish social work students. It employs a postcolonial perspective to answer ‘What are key ethical challenges for the students?’ and ‘How can social work educators promote ethical awareness in international field training?’ based on focus group interviews and field reports. The results show that international field training contributes to both deepening some students’ critical knowledge and reinforcing others their colonial discourses. It is argued that social work educators play an important role for students’ critical positioning and knowledge.