Finding God in illness

In our &lsquo;Spirituality and Living&rsquo; strand, Beth Crisp offers an account of her experience of serious illness, and asks whether, without romanticising, it can offer an opportunity to &lsquo;find God in all things&rsquo;.<br /

Belonging, connectedness and social exclusion

Promoting connectedness and/or a sense of belonging are strategies used in addressing social exclusion. While belonging and connectedness are often used interchangeably, this paper demonstrates that while they may be co-existent, it is equally possible to have one without the other. Hence, this paper contends that these two concepts need to be carefully distinguished by those planning and delivering social work services. Furthermore, consideration of both connectedness and belonging enables a more nuanced understanding of social exclusion which challenges the assumption that inclusion and exclusion are binary opposites, and that it is possible to be both included and excluded at the same time.<br /

Is it worth the effort? How feedback influences students\u27 subsequent submission of assessable work

This paper explores the extent to which students appear to their assessors to act on feedback they have received, and questions the assumption that providing feedback alone is sufficient to effect higher standards of work by students. Feedback provided to 51 undergraduate social work students, on two consecutive assignments involving a similar task, was examined to ascertain the number of problem areas noted from seven predefined categories. While the greatest increase in marks was associated with the greatest reductions in the number of problem areas identified in the comments, overall two-thirds of all students (66.7%) were awarded marks for both assignments within four percentage points. As such, this study found only limited support for the idea that students respond to feedback by making changes which are consistent with the intent of the feedback received. Hence the assumption that providing feedback alone is sufficient to effect higher standards of work by students was not supported. These findings invite educators to critically reflect on their own practices in providing feedback to students. <br /

If a holistic approach to social work requires acknowledgement of religion, what does this mean for social work education?

There is growing recognition that promoting wellbeing requires a holistic approach to social work practice which includes understanding the role of religion in the lives of service users. This is reflected in a number of mentions of religion in the new code of ethics produced by the Australian Association of Social Workers. However, any consideration of whether religion has a place in social work should not only occur at the individual level, but also consider faith-based agencies. This paper considers the implications of this for social work education in respect of developing curriculum which acknowledges the religious dimension of the lives of many service users; skill development to enable social workers to broach issues of religion with service users; and working in or with faith-based agencies.<br /

Beyond the seminary : new frontiers for teaching spirituality

Once taught almost exclusively in seminaries, spirituality is now finding its way into the curricula of professional training for health and welfare workers. How this should occur, particularly within the context of the secular university, raises many questions and may require different approaches to those used to teach spirituality to theological students. This article introduces a framework of lived experience, which was developed to stimulate social work students to consider the importance of spirituality in both their own lives and in the lives of clients, and concludes that these are exciting times for the teaching of spirituality.<br /