Professionalism at The Expense of Reformism? Professional Identities of Social Work University Students as An Obstacle to Fighting Social Injustice

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DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Professionalism at The Expense of Reformism? Professional Identities of Social Work University Students as An Obstacle to Fighting Social Injustice

Original language description

The study presented in the paper follows the discussion about the identity of social work and its relation to the future position of the field in the society and its potential to fight social injustice (Bell 2012, Boetto 2017, Gitterman 2014, Lorenz at al. 2021, Payne 1990, Webb 2017). This discussion is closely related to the topic of the curricula of social work study programmes and paradigms of social work reflected in the curricula and in the construction of professional identities in the field (Liu 2019, Mackay &amp; Zufferey 2014, Moorhead 2019, Navrátil &amp; Navrátilová 2021, Rassel et al. 2019). Education, especially the university one, is believed to be one of the most important factors influencing the field identity (Dzisah &amp; Etzkowitz 2012, Gee 2000, Wiles 2013) while professional identity refers to an understanding about one&apos;s occupational role which also incorporates the boundaries of this role (Adams et al. 2006). It is also believed that &quot;social work education can make significant contributions in the wake of the changing trends in state responsibility towards the poor and marginalized&quot; (Nadkarni &amp; Joseph 2014: 71). In this context, we pose two main research questions: 1) What are the professional identities of the university students of social work? 2) What paradigms of social work are mirrored in these professional identities? We then discuss the implications of the answers to these questions on the potential of the field of social work to fight social injustice.We answer our research questions on the basis of 18 narrative interviews with students of bachelor&apos;s and master&apos;s degree programmes as well as fresh graduates of social work in the Czech Republic. The six identified identities (emerging professional, defender of clients&apos; rights, crossdisciplinary professional, believer, reformer of the social environment, developer of the social work profession) have been conceptualized using the theoretical framework of paradigms of social work of Malcolm Payne (2014) distinguishing therapeutical, social-law assistance and reform paradigms.The students&apos; identities predominantly reflected the social-legal paradigm and to a lesser extent the therapeutic paradigm. The reform paradigm was mirrored less significantly. The findings imply that students do not see themselves as future reformers of the social environment but mostly as clients&apos; assistants and educated professionals. This situation seems to be related to the university curriculum which does not emphasise critical social work but rather accentuates the development of professional skills and professionalisation of the field in general. To strengthen the potential of social work to fight social injustice, strengthening of the position of the critical social work in study programmes seems to be needed.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

O - Miscellaneous

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

50403 - Social topics (Women´s and gender studies; Social issues; Family studies; Social work)

Project

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Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2024

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů