Improving professionalism through reflection and discourse in communities of practice: The key situations in social work model and project
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1921/jpts.v14i2.940Abstract
Professional social work under conditions of uncertainty and complexity requires integration of various forms of knowledge, practice and values and entails managing emotions skilfully to make ethical professional judgements. The article discusses these challenges for social work(ers) and introduces the key situation in social work model. It consists of a systematic reflection process of typical, reoccurring practice situations in communities of practice (CoPs). Situated knowledge, memorised in relation to situations is dominant and is more easily accessed in practice. Situational knowledge, co-produced in reflections on key situations, is documented and shared on a virtual platform. Therefore, the model offers a concept for situational knowledge management and for discursive examination in professional and scientific communities. In the #keysituation project a platform was constructed and 10 CoPs with 35 active members from practice and academia quality assure its content. Based on the literature nine design principles for CoPs are suggested. The authors describe how these were applied. Success and failure depends on balancing three constituent aspects of CoPs: domain, community and practice. The model offers a flexible approach to continuous professional development (CPD), which fosters a learning culture essential to overcome managerial, technocratic approaches so prevalent in social work organisations.References
Akkerman, S. F., & Bakker, A. (2011). Boundary Crossing and Boundary Objects. Review of Educational Research, 81, 2, 132–169
Ardichvili, A., Page, V., & Wentling, T. (2003). Motivation and barriers to participation in virtual knowledge-sharing communities of practice. Journal of Knowledge Management, 7, 1, 64-77
Bettoni, M., Clases, C., & Wehner, T. (2004). Communities of Practice im Wissensmanagement: Charakteristika, Initiierung und Gestaltung. In G. Reinmann-Rothmeier & H. Mandl (Eds., Psychologie des Wissensmanagements. Perspektiven, Theorien und Methoden (pp. 319-328). Göttingen: Hogrefe
Brown, John Seely & Duguid, Paul (2000) The Social Life of Information. Boston MA: Harvard Business Review Press
Dewe, B. (2012). Akademische Ausbildung in der Sozialen Arbeit-Vermittlung von Theorie und Praxis oder Relationierung von Wissen und Können im Spektrum von Wissenschaft, Organisation und Profession. In S. B. Roland Becker-Lenz, Gudrun Ehlert & S. Müller-Hermann (Eds., Professionalität Sozialer Arbeit und Hochschule. Wissen, Kompetenz, Habitus und Identität im Studium Sozialer Arbeit (pp. 111-128). Wiesbaden: Springer VS
Dreyfus, H. L., & Dreyfus, S. E. (1982). Mind over machine. New York:Free Press
Hennessy, Catherine; Anderson, Sarah; Cornes, Michelle & Manthorpe, Jill (2013). Toolkit: Developing a Community of Practice. Using Communities of practice to improve front line collaborative responses to multiple needs and exclusions. London: Social Care Workforce Research Unit, King’s College London and Revolving Doors Agency
Jang, K. (2013). An Understanding of Optimal Knowledge Management for Social Work Practice: Based on a Process-Oriented Conceptualisation of Knowledge Integration. British Journal of Social Work, 43, 7, 1364–1383. doi: 10.1093/bjsw/bcs053
Kunz, R. (2015). Wissen und Handeln in Schlüsselsituationen der Sozialen Arbeit. Empirische und theoretische Grundlegung eines neuen kasuistischen Ansatzes. [Knowing and Doing in key situations in social work. Empirical and theoretical groundwork of a new casuistic approach] (doctoral thesis). http://www.regulakunz.ch/
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. New York: Cambridge University Press
Moch, M. (2006). Wissen-Verstehen-Können: Kompetenzerwerb durch reflexive Praxisanleitung im Studium der Sozialen Arbeit. Neue Praxis, 36, 5, 532-544
Munro, E. (2011). The Munro Review of Child Protection: Final Report. A child-centered system. London: Dept of Education
North, K., Franz, M., & Lembke, G. (2004). Wissenserzeugung und -austausch in Wissensgemeinschaften – Communities of Practice. Berlin: QUEM
Probst, G., & Borzillo, S. (2008). Why communities of practice succeed and why they fail. European Management Journal, 26, 335-347
Reinmann-Rothmeier, G. (2001). Wissen managen: Das Münchener Modell. Munich: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Lehrstuhl für Empirische Pädagogik und Pädagogische Psychologie
Schön, D. A. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner. How professionals think in action. London: Temple Smith
Social Work Reform Board (SWRB) (2011) Implementing SWRB proposals to improve the provision of social work degree programmes. Final statement on social work education. London: SWRB
Stämpfli, A., Kunz, R., & Tov, E. (2012). Creating a bridge between theory and practice: working with key situations. European Journal of Social Education, 22/23, 60-78
Stämpfli, Adi; Kunz, Regula & Tov, Eva (2014) Schlüsselsituationen der Sozialen Arbeit als Scharnier zwischen Theorie, Wissenschaft und Praxis. In: Oestreicher, Elke & Unterkoffler, Ursula (eds.). Wissensentwicklung in Professionen. Herausforderungen für Wissenschaft und Praxis. Leverkusen-Opladen: Budrich Uni-Press
Tov, Eva; Kunz, Regula; Stämpfli, Adi; Tschopp, Dominik & Eugster Stamm, Stefan (2015). Creating a Common Language between Academics and Practitioners through Negotiation of Meaning in Communities of Practice (CoPs). In: Sharma, Subhash & Zirkler, Michael (Eds.). From the edge of Chaos: Dialogues amongst social theory and practice. International Dialogs amongst research and practice. Bengaluru: IBA Publications, 92-102
Tov, E., Kunz, R., & Stämpfli, A. (2013). Schlüsselsituationen der Sozialen Arbeit. Professionalität durch Wissen, Reflexion und Diskurs in Communities of Practice. Bern: hep
Tov, E., Kunz, R., & Stämpfli, A. (2016). Schlüsselsituationen der Sozialen Arbeit. Professionalität durch Wissen, Reflexion und Diskurs in Communities of Practice. Second, revised edition. Bern: hep
Von Spiegel, H. (2008). Methodisches Handeln in der Sozialen Arbeit. München: Reinhardt
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice. Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. M. (2002). Cultivating communities of practice: a guide to managing knowledge. Boston: Harvard Business School Press
Wenger, E. (2004). Knowledge management as a doughnut: Shaping your knowledge strategy through communities of practice. Ivy Business Journal, January/February
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright lies with the journal. Enquiries regarding reproduction should be sent in the first place to enquiries@whitingbirch.net.
Accepted 2016-09-29
Published 2016-12-13
