This research seeks to explore the experiences of social work educators and students working and learning from home. The findings, from an international survey sample of 166 educators and students, showed that the respondents faced issues with private and personal boundaries, felt the impact of working and learning from home on both physical and emotional levels, and experienced challenges to what was expected of them. The respondents primarily used two types of coping mechanisms to manage these challenges. These findings contribute to a broader discussion of the impact of working and learning from home and are relevant for education administrators responsible for their employees’ and students’ well-being. 

This paper seeks to explore social work educators’ experiences of using technology to teach during the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the last decade, there has been a move to digitalise higher education in many countries worldwide. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a mass exodus from the classroom to the home-based office at breakneck speed and highlighted, amongst other things, the digital divide that exists across the world. This research analysed data gathered from an international study that sought educators’ views on various issues related to working during COVID-19. The data were analysed using a thematic approach. The results showed that social work educators, in general, were favourable to online teaching, although the findings highlight critical areas that require consideration in the climate of increased digitalisation and the uncertainty of when a return to a familiar teaching environment can occur. These findings are considered in terms of a social work education informed by critical pedagogy. The results have implications in terms of finding a workable balance between face-to-face teaching and online instruction.

Det finns en internationell definition av socialt arbete som profession men vi vet mindre om huruvida det finns en gemensam pedagogik i hur socialt arbete lärs ut mellan länder. Utifrån vår kännedom är detta det första paper som genom en empirisk studie utforskar vad vi har gemensamt i hur vi lär ut socialt arbete. Studien använder en multi-site case study (sex universitet i fem europeiska länder) genom att använda ”critical teacher researcher” som metod för att samla in data som sedan följs av en tematisk analys i två steg. Studien visade ett gemensamt förhållningssätt i den pedagogik som lär ut socialt arbete där vi alla fokuserar på att ge studenterna en förmåga att tänka och verka som socialarbetare och utveckla det professionella ”jaget” genom att utveckla relationer och dialog, professionell praktik, grupparbete, självreflektion och kritiskt tänkande. Det finns, utifrån den här utforskande studien, grund för att påstå att även länder som inte har en gemensam välfärdsideologi, historik eller utbildningssystem, ändå har några gemensamma principer i pedagogiken i socialt arbete där vi kan lära från varandra genom att använda ”teacher as reasercher” metoden.

This book brings a novel approach to issues of connecting social work practice to theory and the personal life narrative. The authors each find their own unique way of integrating the self, theory, and practice, in different social work practice and education settings. Contributors use the methodology of narrative to tell their story about their social work journey, be that in research, teaching, or practice. 

The backdrop for this book is Sweden. The country’s rich heritage of welfare provision but also recent cultural diversity offers a unique Nordic context to the subject matter. The contributors engage with these new conditions for Swedish social work through an intersectional lens. Topics explored include:

• Digging in the present: A day in the life of a school counsellor
• We live in a political world: Between needs and money
• The problematic labour market situation of immigrants to Sweden: Consequences and causes
• Tackling the contradictory nature of social work
• Using anti-oppressive practice to promote social inclusion in social work education

The result is a book that is personal and reflexive, and positions the contributors' narratives as a window to understand and address social problems.

Narratives of Social Work Practice and Education in Sweden should engage those interested in the Swedish welfare state, and who want to learn about how social work is taught and practised in this country. Intended to be a general introduction, the book provides guidance to those considering working in the field and for those newly qualified. It also provides examples for students of social work to connect personal narratives to social work settings.

INTRODUCTION: Course evaluations play a significant part in the facilitating of educational programmes at a university. Along with course evaluations, students are often asked for their reflections on teachers’ pedagogical methods and approaches. These types of questions can be referred to as student evaluations of teaching, or SETs. Separately, there is growing, yet underdeveloped, interest in understanding the emotional impact the role of being a university lecturer has on the individual teacher. This piece of work is interested in combining the areas of teacher development, SET and emotional impact. Therefore, this research is seeking to understand how teachers in a department of social work engage with student feedback, manage this feedback and understand pedagogical self-development. METHODS: A mixed approach (an online survey and semi-structured interviews), was taken to gather the experiences of the teachers. FINDINGS: The results show that all the teachers engaged with student feedback. It also showed that some teachers experienced negative emotions regarding feedback that were unpleasant but had strategies to deal with the feedback. CONCLUSION: The results also pointed towards individual-directed solutions as the drivers behind creating good practices around pedagogical self-development, and for managing any emotional impact of SETs.