Innovation through reflexivity and participation: Strengthening the education and professionalization of social work in professional interfaces Erasmus Project

Project Title

Innovation through reflexivity and participation: Strengthening the education and professionalization of social work in professional interfaces

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Research and innovation; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship

Project Summary

Context/background of the project
Social workers have an important role as professional partners of disadvantaged, aging, and health-challenged people who are at risk of not having a strong enough voice and position as citizens in society. Envisioning democratic caring practices for such social service users is an important part of the future development of social and health policies and services (Tronto, 2013).
However, in the field of social work (and health services) we are still dealing with traditional, paternalistic approaches which do not view service users as equal citizens in decision-making processes and as experts when it comes to their own life (Glumbíková et al, 2019; Synek 2018) and maintain barriers between the social and health care professions. Though many countries have incorporated involvement of service users into their legislation and various practices have been in place (Ní Shé, 2019), service user participation remains to be an issue in social (and health) services, education and research. Service users are not sufficiently involved in contributing to the knowledge and practice of social work (Beresford & Croft, 2001). The skill gaps among the social and health care professionals require increasing use of reflexivity (Fook, White & Gardner, 2006).
Contrary to recent research and professional awareness, most educational and professional support programmes fail to take specific measures to teach and promote reflexivity (Finley, 2008) and the involvement of service users. Such an approach is not part of the curriculum in most countries and is “in its infancy” in others (Stevens & Tanner, 2006, p. 371).

Objectives of the project
This project aims to bridge skill gaps and develop capacity in participatory and inclusive approaches and collaborative reflexive skills among social and health work students and teachers by developing new learning and teaching tools.
The transnational approach is necessary because of the different histories and social-political backgrounds (Lorenz, Havrdova & Matousek, ed. 2020) so that the innovative tools for capacity building in the social and health intersections must be critically assessed in a transnational context.

Number and profile of participants
Five European universities are partners in the project:
• UNIVERZITA KARLOVA (Czech Republic)
• UNIVERSITEIT GENT (Belgium)
• HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO (Finland)
• UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN (Ireland)
• Cooperativa de Ensino Superior de Serviço Social (Portugal)

Description of activities
The project is divided into five work packages, each leading to one intellectual output:
1. The analysis of the journal contents and examples of good practice / case studies in the professional interfaces in each partner’s country that are based on the reflexivity and participatory approaches.
2. The methodology designed to develop competences in participative reflexive decision making which will take in consideration various stakeholders, including people with severe disabilities, service providers, and community agencies across the different cultural backgrounds.
3. The methodology designed to develop competences in participative reflexive decision making which bridge the social work and the healthcare fields, social policy, and discursive research barriers .
4. The Practice guide developed to support the collaborative reflexivity and participative decision making in the social work and healthcare students.
5. The Curriculum developed for an elective course on collaborative reflexivity and participative decision-making competences in social work.

Methodology to be used in carrying out the project
Transformational international collaborative learning and outcome-based project learning in real-life situations will be used.

Short description of the results and impact envisaged
The main outputs of the project will be the Practice guide and Curriculum of an election course in a modular form. The modules will be available for different learning programmes including self-directed learning. The learning tools will address many different stakeholders in the professional interfaces in the health and social sector, including service users, community leaders, and policymakers.

Potential longer-term benefits
The establishment of the project website and the creation of a new network of stakeholders will continue beyond the project duration. Univerzita Karlova will keep the website updated with the help of a newly established network of stakeholders.
Due to the changes in the population aging, demographics, funding pressures, continuous restructuring and increasing demands, we anticipate the interest in human reflexive approaches in this area will continue to grow in subsequent years.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 231925 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERZITA KARLOVA & Country: CZ

Project Partners

• UNIVERSITEIT GENT
• HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO
• UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, DUBLIN
• Cooperativa de Ensino Superior de Serviço Social