When the School of Social Work faculty speak, peers around the world are ready to listen
March 7, 2008 - The work of Indiana University School of Social Work faculty will be front and center at international conferences this spring and summer.
Akanke Omorayo-Adenrele, field coordinator with the MSW program, was invited to attend the 2008 Annual Caribbean Studies meeting to be held in San Andres, Columbia in May.
Her invitation to appear at the conference noted that her suggested paper entitled, “International educational practicum experiences,” was among the best submissions.
Then in July, four faculty members have been invited to appear at the 34th Biannual Congress of the International Association of Schools of Social Work in Durban, South Africa.
Associate Professor Lisa McGuire and Assistant Professor Kathy Lay will preside over a 90-minute workshop, perhaps the biggest coup for the School of Social Work because of the amount of time they will have to talk about their work. Traditionally, people presenting papers get about 15 minutes.
Lay and McGuire will discuss the school’s “Fostering Critical Thinking through Reflective Writing”, an approach that has garnered interest in Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
The philosophy uses a different approach than say writing a term paper, McGuire explained. “It is taking the course content and reflecting on your personal and professional experience and what that means to you,” she explainded.
McGuire said she and Lay have always been interested in the integration between theory and practice. “Many of our students come with work experience in social services,” she explained. “Even if they don’t, many have personal experiences in their own life that drew them to social work in the first place.”
“The approach is a structured model, where they have to describe their experiences and they have to reflect on them in light of specific course content,” McGuire explained. “Then they have to make links between the theory and the practice of what they are doing.”
McGuire and Lay will be joined by Assistant Professor Khadija Khaja and Sherry Gass, a MSW student services coordinator, who will discuss the School of Social Work’s innovative approach to bringing MSW students up to speed on the background and basics of the profession.
“We require an immersion course that talks about the values and ethics of the profession, some of the basic social policies and we do it an intensive format,” McGuire explained.
Some might assume students in a master’s program already have such a background but the faculty has learned that’s not always the case. A number of students enter the program from other fields, McGuire pointed out.
Previously, the background was provided as one of several classes MSW students took their first semester, McGuire said. But faculty learned that until they went over the basics, they didn’t understand the rest of what they were studying.
Now, the students cover the basic material in an intensive eight-day session and then they move on with their other class work. As simple as it sounds, McGuire said she is not aware of any other school taking such an approach.
A paper detailing the School of Social Work’s partnership with the Indiana Department of Child Services will also be presented by Patricia Howes, the coordinator of the project, McGuire explained. The paper will detail the school’s efforts to develop better training for the state’s case workers.
In addition, Khaja is expected to present her research on female circumcision and its impact on women around the world. She is also awaiting word on whether she will present a paper on her international research project comparing the life of Muslims before and after the Sept. 11 terrorists’ attacks.
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