The international social work definition which Australia adheres to speaks to social work as a practice-based profession, dedicated to the promotion of social change and development, social cohesion, and the empowerment and liberation of people. The values that underpin our profession include social justice, human rights, collective responsibility and respect for diversity. The principles that inform our work include human dignity and worth, and social justice and fairness.
Teaching philosophy
Foundational curriculum concepts
Given these foundational concepts, social work at the University of Wollongong is taught through a curriculum for practice through which students become social work practitioners throughout the four years of their study and beyond. In this practice-based approach learning is viewed as an interactive process whereby students gradually embody the ‘doings, sayings, and relatings’ of social work professional practice both in the classroom and in the field. The main concepts throughout the curriculum content are:
- Social justice and human rights
- Authentic learning from real people and situations
- Holistic-embodied learning
- Learning by doing that focuses on the realities of practice
- Decolonialised learning
- Critical social work and reflection-on-action
Throughout the curricula social justice is both taught explicitly as core content, and is infused throughout all social work subjects. Social work students at UOW are encouraged to seek out the injustice, and to critically examine the systemic inequity surrounding issues of intersectionality.
Bringing members of the community into the classroom is an acknowledgement that they are a source of knowledge based on their experience. This increases the students’ awareness that there are multiple sources of knowledge.
Practice based learning at UOW goes beyond cognition to encompass learning through emotions, sensations, and affections. Additional knowledge sources can be derived from the land, environment and community not only books, reports and journal articles.
The practice-based approach at UOW views learning as a social process that involves knowing, doing, valuing, relating and becoming. This means that UOW social work academics select content, activities and assessments that focus on real practice.
The UOW social work discipline is committed to a decolonised social work curricula that addresses historical colonial learning approaches. This leads the students to critical thinking about colonial knowledges and valuing of indigenous methods of knowing that have not been recognised in social work historically.
At UOW, critical approaches, where students are allowed to ask curious questions, address power issues in the classroom and beyond in the community. Knowledge is seen at UOW as critically engaged with through discussion, not as an outcome to be attained. Reflection-on-action allows the classroom to become a reflexive space where social work students are encouraged to be curious, make mistakes, and critique each other’s practice.
Key learning activities
In achieving these curricula aims our pedagogy focuses on these key learning activities:
An emphasis on co-designed learning activities, both with community members and our community of social work practitioners. Across our curriculum learning activities and assessment are constructed within a collaborative and reciprocal teaching and learning relationship whereby our partners in social work education are encouraged to guide us on real-life teaching activities, and real-life work-integrated assessments.
At UOW social work students are taught that the expertise for the lived experience sits with those who have had the experience themselves. This is undertaken through involvement of community members and practitioner partners in our simulation laboratories. Our simulation laboratories use a software program called SimCapture whereby students undertaking various practice activities are recorded and are then able to annotate these recordings alongside the teaching staff. These practice activities include students having conversations with those with lived experience (service users and carers, refugees) about their personal journey, and used in practice and assessment with each other simulating clients. These practice activities are followed by review, reflection and feedback on the work of self and others.
Students as partners in education. Social work students at UOW are viewed as partners in education, with an active fostering of critical engagement across the curricula. Along with critical refection on their own practice, and that of their peers, students learn through critical thinking and critical writing in all their social work subjects.