How South African social workers assess their professional education in the light of practice realities.
Date
1990
Authors
O'Brien, Constance Rosemary
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Abstract
This study investigated social work practitioners' experience of the
'fit' between their professional preparation and their practice
situation by focusing on the following:
(1 ) (i) A profile of social work graduates' work histories;
(ii) Social work graduates' perceptions of social work;
(iii) The rature of graduates' present work tasks, and whether or
not they believed these ^asks to be appropriate;
(iv) The rature of graduates' work circumstances, especially in
relation to;
- the bureaucratic settings of social work practice
-the system of supervisory control over practitioners
- the availability of resources both tangible and intangible
- irstitutionalized racism in the welfare field
(v) Whether or not their professional education and training had
prepared them to carry out their work tasks and to function
effectively within their work circumstances.
An analysiii of the fourth year social work curriculum, offered at
the University of the Witwatersrand, for the purpose of identifying
its nature and the core body of knowledge, values and skills with
which professional social work education seeks to equip each
graduate for 'beginning practice competence';
(3) On the basis of data gathered from (1) and (2) above, to formulate
educational and training strategies which would address present and
future practice.
A quantitative-descriptive research design was used. A random sample of
sixty graduates was drawn from the social work graduate population of
the University of the Witwatersrand (1979-1986) and was stratified into
a white sub-sample serving as a comparison group to a black sub-sample.
(Abbreviation abstract)
Description
A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in fulfilment of the requirements for the
Degree of Master of Arts in Social Work
Keywords
Social work education -- South Africa.