Exploring Student Engagement with the Social Work Ecosystem: Challenges in Democratization of Social Work Knowledge

Background and Purpose:

As a discipline heavily relying on multidisciplinary knowledge, social work has evolved through evidence-based knowledge creation and established its social work science. However, more research is required on how social work students understand social work science through integrated pedagogical experience and how it reflects in their work. This paper is an early-stage effort to explore how students’ engagement with the social work ecosystem reflects their understanding of social work science. This study explores social work students’ understanding of social work research and its utility across social work interventions and allied ecosystems. Drawing upon students’ graded work, the study maps the reflection of research with a particular reference to policy practice and presents an assessment based on a conceptual framework devised from the existing social work literature. In addition, the study offers insights into the integrative pedagogical approach with a central focus on addressing the intricate challenge of democratizing social work knowledge.

Methods:

This study is a content analysis of 18 MSW students’(n=18) papers on "Analysis of a Social Service Delivery System: Defining Social Issue, System Purpose, Functions, and Components" that was aimed at assessing the ability of students to analyze a social service delivery system of their choice by systematically applying concepts related to ecological and systems perspectives, theories of poverty, and sectoral political economy. Using NVIVO software, coding, and thematic analysis were performed. This study used a conceptual framework that endorsed social work as a discipline with impactful engagement with stakeholders grounded in social work science.

Findings:

Data analysis of the study revealed that the students needed a greater understanding of social work science and its application in policy practice. Although the students could apply theoretical concepts, they needed a deeper understanding of social work science and its application in real-world settings. The study also found that students’ engagement with the social work ecosystem was limited to their academic coursework, and they needed more exposure to diverse social work practice settings. Several participants faced problems in synthesizing the social work science from literature in an effective manner, whereas some students were able to relate to social work science more compared to others due to their prevalent engagement with the population at risk of the problem they investigated for the academic work.

Conclusion and Implications:

Findings highlight the importance of exposure to diverse interventional models on varied social problems and affected populations at an early stage of social work education. Such a systematic pedagogical approach will likely help students critically analyze social work science and its application across the social work ecosystem. Based on these findings, the study suggests that social work education needs to adopt an integrative pedagogical approach that focuses on social work practice as a core ground to nurture social work science. The study recommends that social work education should provide students with more opportunities for hands-on experience in diverse social work practice settings to deepen their understanding of social work science and its application in policy practice.