This assessment aims to provide evidence of your attendance at the Brisbane compulsory residential school. Attending and completing the residential is a compulsory requirement of this unit. Any previous attempts at Field Education 1 and Integrating Theory and Practice 1 that resulted in a Fail grade and any previous residential attendance for this unit are not rolled over or counted towards a subsequent attempt at the course.

Instructions

Ensure that you 'sign in and out' of every residential session. After each session, residential staff will review the attendance sheet report to ensure that students are present for the entire session. Teaching staff will not follow up on absentees; it will be solely your responsibility to ensure that the 'record of attendance' is completed. To meet the requirements of the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW), a student cannot miss any more than two hours of the residential and must provide a reason and sufficient supporting documentation to do so (i.e. significant unforeseen event, illness).

You must pass this assessment to pass the unit. Failure to pass this unit will result in the final grade of 'Fail' for the entire unit.

Context is central to social work practice. Healy (2022) contends that through understanding our context, we can recognise and negotiate how our practice purpose is shaped by context and how we might act as agents of change within and in relation to our context. Therefore, social work theories and practice need to be examined to understand the influence of the political, cultural, social, organisational, and client contexts on practice. This assessment aims to facilitate your critical analysis of the interrelationship between the field placement/human service context and social work practice.

Drawing on unit readings, the knowledge gained from your previous study in the social work program and field placement experiences and resources, critically analyse the interrelationship of context and social work practice, including the relevance of theory and its application in your field placement organisation.

Instructions

In essay format, provide your analysis of the field placement or human service context and how it influences social work practice. The essay should include the following areas:

• A brief introduction of the key elements of the organisation, including its mission, auspice, structure, goals and values.
• Drawing on chapters 1 to 5 of the prescribed text (Healy, 2022), provide a discourse analysis of the dominant ideas, beliefs and assumptions that shape how service user groups and problems/issues experienced are viewed and how these influence social work practice, the use of power and organisational responses. How are other perspectives considered, such as the lived experience and diverse cultural needs of service users?
• An analysis of the social work practice purpose in the field placement or human service context that considers the aims, values, theories, methods, and skills utilised and how it aligns with professional aims, values and standards. Where is the focus of social work change processes, and how is change measured in this context? What power is inherent to the social work role in this context?
• Based on your analysis, what strategies might you employ in your future practice to initiate change processes that address any discrepancies between espoused organisational and professional aims, values and theory and practice in this context? How do these respond to power relations and the diverse needs and lived experiences of service users in this context?

Word Limit

1500 words - Students are welcome to use headings in the essay and include appendices such as diagrams or a brochure to provide additional organisational information. Headings will not be included in the word count.

Literature and references

Use at least eight contemporary references (<10 years) in this assessment to support your discussion. You may also use seminal scholarly literature where relevant. Suitable references include peer-reviewed journal articles, textbooks, and credible websites. When sourcing information, consider the five elements of a quality reference: currency, authority, relevance, objectivity, and coverage. Grey literature from the internet must be from reputable websites such as government, university, or peak national bodies: for example, the AASW.

Requirements

• Use a conventional and legible size 12 font, such as Times New Roman, with 2.0 line spacing and 2.54cm page margins (standard pre-set margin in Microsoft Word).
• Include page numbers on the top right side of each page in a header.
• Write in the third-person perspective.
• Use formal academic language.
• Use the APA referencing style. The CQUniversity Academic Learning Centre has an online APA Referencing Style Guide.
• The word count is considered from the first word of the introduction to the last word of the conclusion. The word count excludes the reference list but includes in-text references and direct quotations.

Resources

• You can use unit materials and other credible sources (e.g. journal articles, books, grey literature ) to reference your argument. The quality and credibility of your sources are important.
• We recommend you access your discipline-specific library guide: the Social Work and Community Services Guide.
• Please go to the Academic Learning Centre Moodle site for information on academic communication. The Academic Communication section has many helpful resources, including information for students with English as a second language.
• Submit a draft before the due date to review your Turnitin Similarity Score before making a final submission. Instructions are available here.

References

Healy, K. (2022). Social Work Theories in Context: Creating Frameworks for Practice, Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Reflection and evaluation of our responses to various practice situations on field placement can become critical learning junctures incorporated into our practice framework. This assessment allows you to demonstrate your critical reflective and reflexive practice by identifying new understandings and knowledge from your involvement in a direct practice experience and how it will inform your future practice and developing practice framework.

Instructions

Using a two-stage model adapted from the Fook & Gardner (2007) and Brookfield (2017) frameworks, you are required to critically reflect on an experience of significance/importance that occurred in direct practice on your field placement or in your work in human services. The experience should be one you hope to understand or learn more about. For example, you may have experienced a gap between your espoused theory, beliefs or values and those in action or reached an impasse in your work with a service user, family, group or project. When choosing an experience, you need to; consider whether it will facilitate your learning, anticipate the potential level of vulnerability you may encounter, and protect the confidentiality and privacy of all those involved (Fook & Gardner, 2007, p. 78). You are advised to revise the critically reflective study module and resources and contact the unit coordinator if you have any questions about choosing an experience. You are required to de-identify and protect the privacy of any persons referred to in your reflective practice.

Stage 1 – Deconstruction

Deconstruction involves exploring the role of society, culture and beliefs have played in shaping our practice experience (Fook & Gardner 2007). It also necessitates reflexivity to identify and understand the influence of our assumptions, beliefs and values and use of self on practice (Fook & Gardner 2007).

a) Exploring your experience

Writing in the first person, use the framework and questions adapted from Fook & Gardner (2007) and Gardner (2014) to write a brief description of what happened, your reactions, its meaning and the context of the experience.

• Experience - What was the experience? What happened?
• Reactions - How did you react? How did you feel? What were you thinking? What did you do? How did you influence the situation?
• Meaning - Why was the experience important/significant to you? What did it mean to you? What does your account and language tell you about your underlying values, theories, and assumptions? Does the experience highlight any gaps or contradictions in how you planned to practice (espoused theory and values) and your practice (theories in action)?
• Context - What is the background of this experience? How did your history and social context influence your experience? How did discourses operating in the organisational, practice, and society influence it (Healy, 2022)? How was power experienced by those involved? (Fook & Gardner, 2007; Gardner, 2014)

b) Exploring other perspectives

This step, adapted from Brookfield's (2017) four lenses of critical reflection, aims to facilitate the exploration of other perspectives to help you identify and examine assumptions influencing your experience and practice. While optional, you are encouraged to explore your experience in supervision or with a 'critical friend' (Fook & Gardner, 2007), such as a student peer in this unit familiar with the critical reflection model. Identifying influences, assumptions, and other perspectives can be 'unsettling'; therefore, a private space where you feel comfortable engaging in this process is recommended. Your supervisor or critical friend's role is not to problem-solve or offer advice but to support you in gaining a greater understanding and learning from the experience (Fook & Gardner, 2007).

• Client or x's eyes - How do you think the client or x (person/s involved) saw or understood what happened? How do you think they saw your reaction and responses? What may have influenced their responses?

• Supervisor's eyes - What feedback did you receive from your supervisor about the situation? If you did not share the experience in supervision, how do you imagine your supervisor would see the situation? What do you think has influenced their view?

• Personal - What personal experiences of learning influenced your views and response to the situation?

• Theory - What theory and literature have you considered? Identify relevant theories or literature that could make sense of the situation or provide another view. How do these perspectives and theories shape how you now see the experience? How do these theories and perspectives understand power relations in practice? (Brookfield, 2017; Bassot, 2020)

Stage 2 – Reconstruction

This stage of Fook & Gardner's model (2007) is focused on change, requiring you to consider how your new understandings of your experience will inform your future practice and developing practice framework.

• Did you encounter a gap between espoused values and theory and practice? Is this ok or not ok with you? If not, why not? If so, why?
• What does your experience tell you about your emerging professional identity and practice framework?
• How do your new understandings of the experience inform a different way of responding? What needs to change about my assumptions, theory, actions and skills as a result of this reflection?
• What are the anticipated consequences and hopes for this new way of working?
• What values, theoretical approaches, skills and strategies will you utilise or seek to develop to proceed with this new approach?
• Are there any opportunities for 'broader-level collective' change? If so, what action could you take? To initiate change, who would you try to influence or involve? (Fook & Gardner, 2007; Gardner, 2014)

Word Limit

2000 words

Literature and references

Use at least eight contemporary references (<10 years) in this assessment to support your discussion. You may also use seminal scholarly literature where relevant. Suitable references include peer-reviewed journal articles, textbooks, and credible websites. When sourcing information, consider the five elements of a quality reference: currency, authority, relevance, objectivity, and coverage. Grey literature from the internet must be from reputable websites such as government, university, or peak professional and national bodies, e.g. the AASW.

Requirements

• Use a conventional and legible size 12 font, such as Times New Roman, with 2.0 line spacing and 2.54cm page margins (standard pre-set margin in Microsoft Word).
• Include page numbers on the top right side of each page in a header.
• A combination of the first-person and third-person perspectives. The first-person is to be used when describing your experience; however, the third-person perspective is required when analysing the relevance of theory and literature for understanding the situation.
• Use formal academic language.
• Use the APA Referencing Guide. The Academic Learning Centre has an online APA Guide.
• The word count is considered from the first word of the introduction to the last word of the conclusion. The word count excludes the reference list but includes in-text references and direct quotations.

Resources

• You can use unit provided materials and other credible sources (e.g. journal articles, books, grey literature ) to reference your argument. The quality and credibility of your sources are important.
• We recommend you access your discipline-specific library guide: the Social Work and Community Services Guide. ·
• Please go to the Academic Learning Centre Moodle site for information on academic communication. The Academic Communication section has many helpful resources, including information for students with English as a second language.
• Submit a draft before the due date to review your Turnitin Similarity Score before making a final submission. Instructions are available here.

References

Bassot, B. (2020)., The Reflective Journal, Macmillan Education Limited, London.

Brookfield, S. (2017). Becoming a critically reflective teacher, John Wiley & Sons Inc, US.

Fook, J. & Gardner, F. (2007). Practising critical reflection: a resource handbook, McGraw-Hill Education, UK.

Gardner, F. (2014). Being critically reflective, Springer Nature Limited, UK.

Healy, K. (2022). Social work theories in context (3rd Edition). Bloomsbury, UK.