Abstracts
Abstract
Social work education is expected to offer students the opportunity to develop the skills necessary for critical self-reflection as it relates to professional practice. In this paper, we will describe how a model of critical reflection is taught and practiced within our MSW program in a Canadian School of Social Work. As a professor and student within the course, we describe our experience of engaging with the incident that the student used to learn the underlying theories and process of critical reflection. Her experience involved recognizing previously taken-for-granted conceptions of power, which she explored in her final paper for the course. We continued to critically reflect together following completion of the course, and our explorations are presented and expanded upon in this paper as an example of the potential of critical reflection, and as a reminder of the importance to continually reflect upon the complexity of power. Although we began with differing conceptions of power, we agree that power is neither solely ‘bad’ nor ‘good,’ but rather is complex, fluid, and relational. The paper provides an example of the benefits of incorporating opportunities for sustained critical reflection in social work education and concludes with implications for social work practice.
Keywords:
- power,
- critical reflection,
- social work practice,
- social work education,
- critical clinical social work
Résumé
La formation en travail social se doit d’offrir aux étudiant(e)s la possibilité de développer la capacité d’autoréflexion critique sur la pratique professionnelle. Dans cet article, les auteures décrivent l’enseignement et la mise en pratique d’un modèle de réflexion critique dans un programme de maîtrise en travail social dans une école canadienne de travail social. Les auteures, une professeure et une étudiante du cours, décrivent leur expérience d’engagement à analyser un incident vécu par l’étudiante afin d’apprendre les théories sous-jacentes et le processus de réflexion critique. Dans le cadre du travail final du cours, l’étudiante a remis en question des idées préconçues au sujet de la notion de pouvoir. La professeure et l’étudiante ont par la suite poursuivi leur réflexion critique ensemble, et leurs explorations sont présentées et développées dans cet article, comme exemple du potentiel de la réflexion critique et comme rappel de l’importance de réfléchir continuellement à la complexité inhérente au pouvoir. Bien qu’elles aient commencé leur réflexion commune avec des conceptions différentes du pouvoir, elles s’entendent sur le fait que le pouvoir n’est ni « mauvais » ni « bon », mais qu’il est plutôt complexe, fluide et relationnel. Cet article présente des avantages de l’intégration de la réflexion critique soutenue dans la formation en travail social et les implications pour la pratique du travail social.
Mots-clés :
- pouvoir,
- réflexion critique,
- pratique du travail social,
- formation en travail social,
- travail social clinique et critique
Appendices
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