Working Anti-Oppressively with Social Work Students on Placements.

Building Capacity in Practice Education learning event.

Funded as part of a HSCP (Health and Social Care Professionals) National Office supported project on Building Capacity for Practice Education

University of Galway - Eleanor Kelly

Monday 25th November 2024.

Connaught Hotel, Dublin Road, Galway

We are delighted to be hosting this event in celebration of 20 years of the MSW at the University of Galway. Dr Prospera Tedam and Dr Jo Finch will be joining us in Galway to explore the whole area of anti- oppressive social work practice and working with students who struggle on placement.

This event is free but places will be limited.

Working Anti-Oppressively with Social Work Students on Placements.

This interactive session will provide an overview of anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory practice in social work and explore some of the ways through which practice teachers might create and sustain anti-oppressive placement environments for students. The session will also cover fair and equitable supervision, support and assessment practice, possible indications a student is at risk of failing, when to instigate fitness to practice, and aligning practice teaching with the relevant regulatory body requirements. The session will also highlight self-care for practice teachers and will synthesise examples of good practice in the placement life cycle, beginning from allocation and matching students, to the end of their 2nd and final placement.

By the end of the session therefore participants will :

Be introduced to tools and frameworks which support and enhance anti-oppressive social work practice.

Developed an awareness of the signs and symptoms that may indicate a student is in difficulty and explore the reasons for this.

Understand the process of managing concerns in a fair and transparent manner

Developed confidence in ensuring practice teaching and assessment remains anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory

It will be helpful, although not essential to read the following open access articles prior to attending the course.

• Finch, J. and Taylor, I. (2013) Failing to Fail? The Emotional Experience of Assessing a Struggling or Failing Social Work Student in Practice Learning Settings, Special Edition – Field Education, Social Work Education, 32 (2) pp:244-258

• https://repository.uel.ac.uk/item/85y8x

PRESENTER PROFILES

Dr Prospera Tedam is Professor of Social Work & Head of Subject at University College Dublin and started her full-time academic career in 2006 after leaving frontline practice as a Principal Social Worker in the Children and Families Team in Northamptonshire County Council. Prior to coming to UCD, Prospera was Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Social Wellbeing at the United Arab Emirates University where she worked for 6 years. Prospera’s research interests are in anti-oppressive practice, culturally responsive and sensitive practice and in school social work. Prospera is widely published and is the author of “Anti-Oppressive Social Work” (Sage, 2024), “Cultural Diversity in Child Protection :Cultural Competence in Practice” (Bloomsbury, 2019) and “The W Word: Witchcraft Labelling and Child safeguarding in Social Work Practice” (Critical Publishing, 2017)

Dr Jo Finch is Professor of Social Work & Post Graduate Research at the University of Suffolk, UK, and is Co-Head of the Department of Counselling, Psychology and Social Work. Jo has been a social work educator for 23 years and has run a number of qualifying and post qualifying programmes. Jo previously worked as a practice educator and play therapist. Jo practised social work in London and worked in both adults and family settings, in the statutory and voluntary sectors. Jo has published widely on practice learning and assessment, with a focus on struggling and failing students. Jo wrote “Supporting Struggling Students on Placement; A Practice Guide” (2017, Policy Press) and with Siobhan Maclean and Prospera Tedam, wrote “Share: A new Model for Social Work”. Jo has also written extensive on PREVENT and social work with her co author David McKendrick. Jo and Prospera have also recently published two articles, one exploring evidence relating to fail to fail and the other focusing on fast tracking to failure.

Host or Publisher Eleanor Kelly Social work University of Galway