Whiting & Birch (E-Journals)
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Composing an aesthetics of performance pedagogy
Get PDFAbstract: We present a collaborative audio and video-based performance ethnography and companion essay that expands upon our experiences in a graduate-level performance ethnography seminar. Our performative text explores the potential for audio and video-based performance ethnography as an important pedagogical tool that prioritizes alternative ways of knowing that are deeply related to nondeliberative groupwork practice. Following a review of our process, we propose an aesthetics of performance pedagogy and discuss the importance of liminality in our work. Implications for practice include providing educators with critical opportunities to contribute to students’ awareness and understanding without demanding conformity to particular ways of knowing.Keywords: liminality; nondeliberative practice; performance pedagogy; social groupwork; wabi-sab
My whirlwind journey to understanding and loving groupwork
No full textAbstract: This essay covers a three day conference held by the International Association for Social Work with Groups (IASWG) Group Work Camp on Lake Geneva. The essay describes the activities, schedule and emotional state of the participants. The author, as one of the participants, displays her emotions and thoughts about the process and supports it with theoretical inserts about group work process and stages.Keywords: groups; therapy; group therapy; social work; stages; mutual; motivation; exploration; play; self consciousness; transformation; camp; evidence; groupwor
Camps aren’t just for kids: The power of group work as an adult at IASWG Group Work Camp
No full textAbstract: This is a reflection of an emerging professional social worker on her development of understanding groupwork through experiences at camp growing up in north-central United States as well as attending the International Association for Social Work with Groups’ inaugural Group Work Camp in 2009. The experience of Group Work Camp was such a meaningful experience of the power of groups, she took on a leadership role in planning Group Work Camp 2013. This reflection also describes the importance of ice breaker activities and how they connect with groupwork principles. It details one specific ice breaker, chosen intentionally to lay the groundwork for group cohesion at Group Work Camp 2013.Keywords: ice breaker; groupwork; reflection; camp; group wor
Reviews
No full textReviews of:Group Activities for Latino/a Youth Strengthening identities and resiliencies through counseling, Edited by Krista M. Malott and Tina R. PaoneInclusive Group Work, by William Pelech, Robert Basso, Cheryl D. Lee, and Maria Gandarill
The practice educator lens: Bringing student practice into focus using the direct observation
Get PDFThis paper is based on the presentation given at the 11th International Conference in Belfast (April 2016). The article explores the experience of the direct observation from the practice educator perspective with students undertaking practice placements as part of the pre-qualifying programmes for Social Work within England. It seeks to explore some of the issues present within the direct observation as a tool ‘for’ and ‘of’ assessment and how fundamental it can be to ascertain competence within a real experience for students working with service users. It raises the question of what is a ‘good enough’ direct observation from a service user perspective and how this informs the recommendation of a pass of the practice placement. It proposes that there are some latent challenges in setting a benchmark within the direct observation however doing so would allow a clearer focus on the assessment process.Keywords: practice education; direct observation; placements; assessment; service user
From lessons to sessions: How does second language teaching experience translate to psychoeducational group facilitation?
Get PDFAbstract: Reflection on the planning and facilitation of a social work psychoeducational group led to an examination of the transferability of teaching experience. Social interaction in second language studies allows for the learning of skills and knowledge through the mediation of teachers and fellow students. Likewise, psychoeducational groups, in having educational and instructional elements, encourage members to employ learning skills in jointly constructing ideas and strategies related to strengths, emotional resilience and thinking habits. Groupworkers seek to identify and activate the strengths present in members just as teachers do with the knowledge present in students. The communicative approach to language teaching encourages student comfort with working with peers in group tasks so that the teacher becomes facilitator and this translates to psychoeducational groups in terms of mutual aid, anxiety reduction, inclusion and altruism. Group members embrace this and groupworkers benefit from challenging themselves in planning such group sessions. Keywords: social work;, teaching; psychoeducational; mental health; strengths; resilience; groupwork; group wor
How Group Work Camp Began
Get PDFAbstract: This paper describes the origins and evolution of Group Work Camp, an experiential training program sponsored by the International Association for Social Work with Groups (IASWG). The founder’s many experiences with camping and experiential learning had convinced her that experiential learning was essential to groupwork education, and that a camp setting was its ideal environment. Group Work Camp evolved out of a pre-symposium institute at the 2009 International Symposium for Social Work with Groups. This institute was held at George Williams College of Aurora University, a beautiful lakeside campus steeped in groupwork history. This one-time event was received so well that participants advocated for its continuation. The Board of Directors of IASWG agreed to offer the institute again as a pilot program. When it was again successful the organization began to sponsor it biennially. The model was adapted and called Group Work Camp. It has been offered three times in its current form. In 2015 the first European Group Work Camp was held in Lithuania, adapted to local needs. It was also very successful, suggesting the flexibility of the model. It is hoped that in the future there will be many adaptations in different parts of the world.Keywords: Group Work Camp; groupwork education; groupwork training; experiential learning; mentoring; camping
Editorial:A groupwork of things
Get PDFThe editorial considers the use of objects to illustrate abstract and complex ideas and its applicability to groupwor
Ageing and Learning ICT Skills: Implications for social care
No full textThis paper explores the narratives of older women engaged in learning at an Age UK Community Centre, in England in 2014. The participants of this small pilot study were primarily learning ICT (Information and Communications Technology) skills. This study contextualises lifelong learning by acknowledging that learning is a need of older adults in the context of the personalisation agenda, the Care Act 2014, and human rights. We analyse the data by drawing on two broad understandings of the different motives for learning: instrumental and expressive (Londoner, 1978). This provides a useful framework to explore the social and cultural influences behind motivations to learn. The study suggests that the two categories of learning motives overlap, yet the rationales given by older adults depicted how learning was not conceived solely as the acquisition of formal knowledge; instead, it was essentially driven by a socially enacted process. We conclude by emphasising how learning is an indispensable aspect of social care. We suggest that a re-conceptualisation of ‘care’ and ‘need’ may be required during assessment practices when working with older adults’, as motives for learning here were grounded in social participation and the search for a sense of meaning and purpose towards their identity in older age.Keywords: Older adults, Identity, Narrative, Lifelong Learning, Personalisation
Building a safe and confident future: Social work reform in England and late modernity
Get PDFSince 2009 social work has undergone significant changes. However, it remains unclear whether these reforms have reached a conclusion. There appears to exist a state of continuous reform, which may impede the opportunity to embed reform into social work education and practice. This paper aims to apply the theoretical model of late modernity to social work in England. Using this approach may offer a way to understand social work reforms as a feature of contemporary societies rather than a situation unique to English social work. The paper applies late modern thinking on risk, pedagogy and ambivalence to make sense of the change process in social work. Finally, a proposal to engage critically with social work reform is sketched out. The key message of this paper is that social work reform in England can be seen as a response to the dilemmas of late modern society. It attempts to eliminate risk in social work education and practice. However, this goal is doomed to failure and social work reform can be seen as stuck within a cycle of reform and change.Keywords: social work reform, late modernity, risk, pedagogy, ambivalence, iron