WK1: Introduction to Social Work

Question 1

What is critical reflection?

Answer 1

Systematic was to records experiences, incidents or events during practice or learning that help you analyse these using theory and evidence.

Question 2

When did “social work” begin and what laws supported its creation? And how social work administered ?

Answer 2

1601 with the English Poor Laws. Local parishes were to administer funds from local taxes for giving money to people who could not work, finding work for able-bodies and organising some form of foster care or apprenticeships for orphaned children.

Question 3

1800s social workers were called what? How did they view hardship?

Answer 3

They were called “Friendly Visitors”- saw hardship as resulting from moral problems not economic circumstances - only people who fulfilled certain obligations deserved relief.

Question 4

1929-1959 what were the trends and the features and developments of social work?

Answer 4

Trends: became professionalised.
Features and developments: university education for social workers, skill and technique development and professions such as AASW created.

Question 5

1950s-1960s what were the trends and the features and developments of social work?

Answer 5

Trends: professionalized and bureaucratized.
Features and developments: growth of positions in government, growth of bureaucracy, the bureaucracy and the profession reinforce each others positions.

Question 6

1970s what were the trends and the features and developments of social work?

Answer 6

Trends: Professionalised, bureaucratised and politicised.
Features and developments: Commitment to social reform, debates about social work as an agent of change or agent of social control begin, new social work courses are developed, changes in Australian politics (social welfare, national concerns), numerous social reform programs

Question 7

1980s what were the trends and the features and developments of social work?

Answer 7

Trends: Professionalised, bureaucratised, politicised and scrutinised.
Features and developments: Period of intense scrutiny, questioning effectiveness of social work in the public arena, doubt and questioning social work and social welfare and growth of human service courses.

Question 8

1990s what were the trends and the features and developments of social work?

Answer 8

Trends: Professionalised, bureaucratised, politicised, scrutinised and partialised.
Features and developments: Rise of market welfare, ideas of competition, managerialism, privatisation, user pays and diminishment of the public sector.

Question 9

2000s what were the trends and the features and developments of social work?

Answer 9

Trends: Professionalised, bureaucratised, scrutinised, partialised, politicised, globalised and mobilised, digitised.
Features and developments: Casualisation of human services workforce, growth of social work in former Eastern bloc and Asia, rise of international social work, strengthening professional identity and legitimacy and significant advances in technology and online communications

Question 10

2010s - 2020 what were the trends and the features and developments of social work?

Answer 10

Trends: Splintered, marketised and contested.
Features and developments: Contestability of services, data analytics, innovation in community sector, decline of neoliberalism and gig economy.

Question 11

2020s - 2025 what were the trends and the features and developments of social work?

Answer 11

Trends: activated, catalysed, personalised and individualised.
Features and developments: Demands for action on climate change, increase in disaster social work practice, government policies mandating individual responsibility for health management, explosion in artificial intelligence and machine learning and geopolitical shifts, tensions, wars and upheaval.