Group Work in Graduate Social Work Education: Where Are We Now?

This paper presents the preliminary results of a national survey assessing the extent of group work offerings within masters level social work programs in the United States. The study replicates and expands upon a 1994 investigation by Birnbaum and Auerbach. Findings are compared with the earlier study to identify changes and trends in group work education

SOCIAL GROUP WORK IN ACTION: A SOCIOMETRY, PSYCHODRAMA, AND EXPERIENTIAL TRAUMA GROUP THERAPY CURRICULUM

The demand for group work in social work practice has steadily increased while the group work education provided in social work programs has exponentially declined. Social work education and social work practice are intimately linked – one cannot be examined without considering the other. The historical, theoretical, and clinical intersections of social work with groups and the triadic system of J.L. Moreno (sociometry, psychodrama, and group psychotherapy) will be explored. Moreno’s work will be framed through a social work lens with primary concepts defined. Two trauma-specific psychodrama models (Therapeutic Spiral Model and Relational Trauma Repair Model) will be outlined with their emphasis on strengths, containment, and safety. The clinical research and integrated neurobiology research will be presented as a growing evidence base for psychodrama and experiential trauma therapy. Next, an overview of the state of sociometry, psychodrama, and experiential group psychotherapy education will be outlined to provide a global and historical contextualization with an emphasis on experiential education and its complimentary nature with social work education. Finally, an MSW course curriculum will be provided to mediate the existing hole in social work education resulting from the decline of group psychotherapy training

Tackling child sexual exploitation: a study of current practice in London

This report was commissioned by London Councils and the London Safeguarding Children Board and written by Beckett, H; Firmin, C; Hynes, P and Pearce JIn autumn 2013, London Councils commissioned a team of researchers from the University of Bedfordshire to map current responses to child sexual exploitation (CSE) across London. This summary report presents an overview of the key findings of the study; please refer to the full report for further details on, and context to, the study.1 The study was conducted in October / November 2013. The findings are drawn from an in-depth quantitative survey (completed by 30 London boroughs and local safeguarding children boards) and eight semi-structured interviews with statutory and voluntary sector providers. The report provides a snapshot of current responses to CSE across London, in relation to: Local scoping of the issue; Local policies and procedures; Training and awareness raising; Identification and early intervention (re. victims and perpetrators); Responding to cases of CSE (re. victims and perpetrators); and Overarching reflections on progress and challenges. Although there is still much progress to be made, the report encouragingly demonstrates that significant work is underway within this field, with pertinent learning emerging from a number of different boroughs

Equity and quality? Challenges for early childhood and primary education in Ethiopia, India and Peru

Part of the "Studies in Early Transitions" series, this Working Paper draws on interviews and observations carried out as part of Young Lives, a 15-year longitudinal study of childhood poverty in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam based at the University of Oxford’s Department of International Development. This paper focuses on the challenges of translating into practice the potential of quality early childhood care and education to transform young lives. These include building a positive equity agenda, setting clear policy objectives, raising quality standards, building the skills and motivation of teachers, and recognising where equity goals can be incompatible with a market-led private system. The paper asks which children do and do not have access to an early childhood programme, and explores children’s and parents’ views about the quality of what is on offer

Teaching and practicing group-work for social justice: A critical reflection on power and process

In this paper, we argue that groups and group-work practice are potential sites for working towards social justice. This demands a robust understanding and critique of power, reflexively applied into group-work practice. The attainment of social justice presupposes group-work practice that is emancipatory, action orientated, and imbued with individual and collective accountabilities towards understanding privilege and inequalities in power. By way of example, we illustrate our argument by critically examining group-work practice in relation to power and social justice considerations, particularly focusing on clinical, educative, and peer facilitated lived experience groups. Our aim is to teach group-work and apply group-work in our practices in a manner that is transformative, emancipatory, self-empowering and aligned with social justice agendas. Here we explore key themes and principles of group-work theory and practice, through practice reflections to illustrate the potential for groups as a vehicle for social justice praxis

Listening to student opinions about group assessment.

This paper illustrates the way two teacher-researchers are listening to mathematics education students&rsquo; voices in a Masters course. Group assignments have their advantages but it is difficult to ensure strong collaboration, high-level analysis and discussion, a good spread of work between group members, and positive social interactions. This research set out to explore one way of attending to these problems in a mathematics education Masters unit. Students submitted (unmarked) individual essays before combining them to create (graded) group assignments. They completed surveys about group work before and after this activity, and some were interviewed. Expecting individual work before group work led to increased levels of engagement, very high quality work, use of skills in analysis and critique, and good levels of student satisfaction.<br /

Developing on-line e-commerce business plans to provide students with context and job opportunities

This action research presents a description of how an on-line E-commerce business-planning unit was developed. Initially, an intensive ten-day E-commerce course was developed in collaboration with government, industry and university sectors with a view of raising awareness and promoting electronic business planning issues. The course utilised a range of learning approaches, including peer teaching, in which participants were trained as team leaders to facilitate group learning. Based on the evaluation of this course, a full semester course for final year tertiary studentswas developed and evaluated. An overview of both case studies is given with recommendations for future developments