PERSPECTIVES OF HANDLING WORK: BRIDGING THE CURRICULUM AND THE PRACTICE OF SOCIAL WORK

Abstract

Introduction: Professional social work is a practice-based profession and an academic discipline that promotes social change, development, cohesion, and the empowerment of individuals, families, and communities through principles of social justice, human rights, collective responsibility, and respect for diversities. The prospects of social work as a discipline in India are promising due to the country's complex social issues, the growing need for social services, and emerging opportunities in sectors like healthcare, community development, and social advocacy. Social work covers most of these aspects, positioning it as a vital field. Social work imparted through Higher Educational Institution (HEI)s has a significant role in implementing the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and partially fulfilling the Sustainable Development 2030 Agenda. In this backdrop, this paper emphasised on bringing out the opinions of both the educators and aspirant professional social workers in aligning academic knowledge with real-world practice, equipping with the professional social workers with required skills, ensuring knowledge, and values necessary for professional success.

Methodology: Respondents included social work educators and social work students from West Bengal covering both government aided universities and private/ self-sponsored courses run by government universities. This study used concept-mapping; a mixed methods approach with qualitative procedures used to generate data that can then be analysed using quantitative methods. As a part of the qualitative aspect, brainstorming sessions were conducted separately with each group (educators and students) to identify concise statements. As a part of quantitative aspect, descriptive statistics and t-tests were used to analyse the data.

Results: A total of 105 statements were extracted into 14 parts using concept-mapping method. Perceptions regarding factors related to curriculum varied between the two groups, with the educators assigning significantly higher ratings to the importance of curriculum and the impact of utilization of skill enhancement. Sustaining job or practice concerns (like, salary and funding) were rated among the most important aspects and least likely to change by both categories.

Conclusions: Social work education in reference to NEP and SDG is a complex process, and educators and students may hold different opinions regarding the impact of social work curriculum. But efforts must include inputs from both the groups at multiple levels to bridge theories into practice.