Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Increasing the depth of field
T2 - the Voluntary Sector Pathway
AU - Anderson, Jill
AU - Brady, Paula
PY - 2002
Y1 - 2002
N2 - There is a danger in discussion about social work that it becomes seen as a monolithic activity, one which is the monopoly of Local Authority Social Services Departments. Voluntary sector social work is, inevitably, a casualty of this view: overlooked within accepted definitions of social work and marginalised within the teaching and placement organisation of the DipSW curriculum. The Voluntary Sector Pathway, an option in the second year of the MA/DipSW course at the University of Nottingham, inverts this situation, promoting the longstanding and unique contribution of the voluntary sector to social work. Voluntary sector placements provide the culmination of a learning experience which places the sector at its heart. This article has its roots in a workshop run at the JSWEC conference at Derby University in the summer of 2001 on the theme of partnership. This provided an opportunity for the authors, joint co-ordinators of the Pathway, to reflect, together with Voluntary Sector Pathway students, on their learning. The workshop was conceptualised, planned and delivered in partnership with three students from the 1999-2001 student cohort - Jane Gorst, Jonathan Lung and Alice MacGregor - with input from a number of other students on the Pathway. It describes the work of the Voluntary Sector Pathway and considers its effectiveness in preparing students for practice in a range of settings. In the light of forthcoming changes to social work education, we consider the lessons to be learned from this unique Pathway.
AB - There is a danger in discussion about social work that it becomes seen as a monolithic activity, one which is the monopoly of Local Authority Social Services Departments. Voluntary sector social work is, inevitably, a casualty of this view: overlooked within accepted definitions of social work and marginalised within the teaching and placement organisation of the DipSW curriculum. The Voluntary Sector Pathway, an option in the second year of the MA/DipSW course at the University of Nottingham, inverts this situation, promoting the longstanding and unique contribution of the voluntary sector to social work. Voluntary sector placements provide the culmination of a learning experience which places the sector at its heart. This article has its roots in a workshop run at the JSWEC conference at Derby University in the summer of 2001 on the theme of partnership. This provided an opportunity for the authors, joint co-ordinators of the Pathway, to reflect, together with Voluntary Sector Pathway students, on their learning. The workshop was conceptualised, planned and delivered in partnership with three students from the 1999-2001 student cohort - Jane Gorst, Jonathan Lung and Alice MacGregor - with input from a number of other students on the Pathway. It describes the work of the Voluntary Sector Pathway and considers its effectiveness in preparing students for practice in a range of settings. In the light of forthcoming changes to social work education, we consider the lessons to be learned from this unique Pathway.
KW - Social work education
KW - voluntary sector studies
KW - Pedagogy
U2 - 10.1080/02615470220126453
DO - 10.1080/02615470220126453
M3 - Journal article
VL - 21
SP - 233
EP - 245
JO - Social Work Education
JF - Social Work Education
SN - 0261-5479
IS - 2
ER -