Examining the Contribution of Social Work Education to the Digital Socialisation of Students in Readiness for Practice [CONFERENCE PAPER PRESENTATION]

Description

Abstract : This paper provides an overview of a research project designed to investigate the contribution of social work education to the digital socialisation of students in readiness for practice. Furthermore, to examine how equipped students felt on qualification to navigate a practice landscape that is increasingly being infused with issues linked to the technological age (Cooner 2004).In England digital knowledge, skills and ethics for social work education and practice have not been articulated formally, therefore practitioners have been left to roam in unchartered waters. As a result practitioners (Stevenson, 2014; Stevenson, 2016) and students (Schraer, 2015) have been called to account for online behaviours that were thought to leave the users of services, agencies and indeed the practitioners themselves in vulnerable positions. However, as yet little has been done to bridge the knowledge gaps that have come to light through these investigations.This small scale phenomenographic study employed semi-structured interviews to capture the experiences of 11students on qualification. Given that these students would have experienced the curriculum in its fullest it was felt that they would well situated to reflect upon the actualities of digital development. Early findings indicate that the use of technologies for learning and practice requires review. Furthermore, it suggests that a lack of guidance and consistency in technology usage appears to be leading to student ambivalence regarding the affordances of technologies for learning and practice. In as much as this study pertains to social work students and social work education, digital socialisation is gaining recognition as an issue in education more broadly; accurately aligned to employability. It would be useful to share this work with like-minded colleagues and to consider its relevance through a comparative discussion that would be useful to thinking globally about how social work takes this agenda forward.
Keywords: Digital Professionalism , Professional Socialisation , Social Work Education

Period	Jul 2018
Event title	Joint World Conference on Social Work, Education and Social Development 2018
Event type	Conference
Location	Dublin, IrelandShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International