learning to be a social worker in the 21st century

Learning to be a social worker
in the 21
st
century
Lesley Cooper and Joan Leeson
Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontario,
Canada


The 21
st
century workplace

Recognition that learning occurs in every workplace.

Government policy acknowledges value of workplace
learning.

Changing patterns of technology and competitiveness in
global economy demand immediate work skills and
workplace knowledge.

Job specific skills: to an organization and industry.

Workers require ability to continuously learn and reconstruct
practice in the light of these challenges.

Linking of individual learning needs with the organization:
cannot be provided by educational institutions.

The 21
st
century workplace

Greater emphasis on ‘learning organizations’ and their
continual evolution of practice throughout the
workplace.

The importance of learning with others to ensure
competition and innovation in a global world.

From training (transmission learning) to using the
construction and reconstruction of knowledge in work
places.


The 21
st
century workplace

Human service organizations: also respond to competition for
funds and other resources and demands for efficacious services
eg. foundations.

Doing much more with much less.

Structure of agencies changing with less hierarchy, flatter
structures, devolution of decision making, increasing number of
work teams, collaborative workplaces and cross functional

decision making.

A more diverse workforce; less toleration for workers not adding
value (IR legislation)

What is the impact of these changes on the practicum and the
educational institutions’ relationship with the sector and can we
maintain separatist structures?


Is what we profess, what we practice?


Paradigm for social work practice
education

The profession, university and students value
learning in the workplace.

Focus is on instruction, teaching and supervision

Roles are supervisor, instructor, practice teacher
and student

A one-to-one learning relationship with the instructor
only being a social worker

Development of professional identity

A professional curriculum, regulated by government,

registration boards, or the profession


Paradigm: theory to practice
The transfer of knowledge from the classroom to the
placement, the acquisition of an application of skills
and the development of a professional identity are
considered to be the essential learning processes in
practice learning regardless of the country of origin
(Rogers 1996)


Paradigm continued

Approaches to practice learning grounded in
psychotherapeutic practice often irrespective of the
setting.

Theoretical frameworks based adult education
frameworks including Kolb, Knowles and more
recently Schon

Students as learners.


Work based learning

Definition of work based learning:

Acquisition of knowledge and skills by learners as they

learn authentic practice whilst being supported by
skilled peers and experts (Billett 1994)

Theoretical framework: situated learning and the
importance of a community of practice


Situated learning and community of
practice

Situated learning: Dewey, Vygotsky, Bateson, Lave
and Wenger and social construction of ideas and
knowledge.

The focus is on how learning occurs and the way
knowledge is constructed. It is a dynamic process,
that includes talking, responding, interacting,
reflecting and thinking about what is happening.

It happens in workplaces with novices, peers and a
range of experts. Knowledge construction in an
evolutionary process.


Concepts underpinning situated learning

Learning involves the whole person in a complex
system of social interaction with others

We learn from others in a process of guidance,

scaffolding and immersion in activities

We learn through our interactions with others in a
culture whether that is a team, office, project group
or professional collective

We learn with others so that practice becomes part
of the knowledge of the collective.


Research on work based learning

Affordances and engagement in a process of co-
participation.

Unintended and intended learning.

A process of guided learning (coaching, scaffolding,
cognitive apprenticeship).

The workplace curriculum: a socially organised
stock of knowledge in use in the work place as
experienced by participants especially newcomers
(Billett 2001).

The work based curriculum has several stages.


Analysis based on changing workplaces
and situated learning


Learning in workplaces is valued.

Move from teaching, instruction and supervision to
learning.

Move from transmission and expertise to learners and
learning and co-construction of knowledge.

The learner to be at the centre not the supervisor,
practice teacher or instructor.

Review our theories of social work practice education
to include situated learning and communities of
practice. In addition include understandings of
cognition, meta-cognition and human development for
adults.


Analysis based on changing workplaces
and situated learning

Students do learn from every person in the workplace:
other students, work groups, other professionals, peers
and those with greater expertise. There are multiple
learning relationships.

Identity comes from work place culture and from SW’s, the
field of practice, the occupational area, other professionals
and the community of practice.


Rethink concept of curriculum: it comprises core
occupational skills (problem solving, communication, group
work skills) required for all SWs, the regulated curriculum
and the work place curriculum.


Analysis based on changing workplaces
and situated learning

Revalue the constructed knowledge from practice.

Revisit the separatist nature of theory and practice.

Revisit placement process by acknowledging concepts
of affordances, engagement and co-participation.


Where to from here?

Review our mental schemas on social work practice
education and re-conceptualize.

A collective change process for social work educators,
profession, industry, and government.

Higher education has to review its separatist views on
learning and respond to the changing workplace.

International research…in a community of practice.


An invitation for other researchers and practitioners?