Beyond Rhetoric: Equipping Social Work Students to Work with Children

Author

Dr Brenda Clare , Associate Professor Kate Mevik (Co-author)

Speaker

Dr Brenda Clare

Organisation

The University of Western Australia Perth Australia
Bodø Regional University, Bodø Norway

This paper seeks to explore the ways in which the education received by student social workers equips them to work with and for children. It presents the findings of the first stage in a comparative study, which looks at how student social workers are prepared for this work in Australia and Norway.

The study is based on two related premises:

That an understanding of constructions of childhood and of children as citizens must underpin all social work practice;
That if the discourse of inclusive practice with children is to be more than empty rhetoric, social workers need to know how to communicate with children and to understand their developmental needs.

Two questions are addressed in the paper: what are students taught about children; and how are they taught to work with children. The paper looks first at the curricula of social work courses in Australia and Norway to see how children and childhood are represented. It then presents the findings of several research conversations with academics working on social work courses.

The paper argues that despite the differences in social work education and in the broader welfare system within which it is embedded in Norway and Australia, students are not well equipped to know about or how to work with children in either country. The authors consider some possible reasons for this situation. They finish by looking at the implications for practice - with children and with the adults that they later become - of the failure of social work courses to focus on what they consider to be essential foundational knowledge and skills for all social workers.

Presentation

Paper

Biography

Brenda Clare qualified as a social worker in 1974. She qualifying, she has specialized in child protection and child placement, in England and Australia. In 1990, she moved into the non-government sector to develop and manage a number of Family Preservation and Reunification programmes. In 2000 she joined the staff of the social work course at The University of Western Australia. She continues to have a strong teaching and research interest in child and family welfare with a particular focus on decision-making from the child's perspective. Her other key interest is social work education and professional identity.