Social care work in Ireland was designated as a regulated profession in 2005, a change in status that led to an increase in the number of unqualified staff registering for degree level professional education. The formation and expression of professional identity among final year in-service social care degree students in the disability sector was explored through a hermeneutic phenomenological approach focused on lived experience, utilising semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis. The study found evidence of an emerging professional identity, which could be described from the perspective of changes in respondents’ values, behaviour and self-concept. Respondents’ values were highly consistent with new professionalism, its emphasis on the service user-service provider relationship and issues of trust, empowerment and quality of service; and they operationalised these values through the deliberate promotion of service user independence, autonomy and self-determination. A change in respondents’ self-concept was evidenced in an enhanced sense of competence and an increase in the confidence they brought to their daily work and interactions with colleagues and other professionals. They also demonstrated very high levels of employee engagement and revealed a need for emotion management skills in their everyday work, and it is suggested that these aspects of the role need to be addressed by educators and employers. The research identifies a range of influences on the development of social care workers’ professional identity, including: pre-career life experiences; workplace influences including role models and other professionals; personal motivation for enhanced status and the influence of the programme of professional education. Each of the influencing factors can be positively utilised by educators in assisting students to develop a robust values oriented professional identity.

No description available.

A better understanding of support worker learning is needed. Role extension, an increasing awareness of the sophistication of caring practice and the need to develop the esteem of the sector have all made the professional development of support workers a priority for the health and social care sector. Drawing on situated and sociocultural leaming theories, this research investigated the way in which workplace participatory opportunities, affordances and individual identification shape support worker learning. Ethnographic and grounded theory methods were used. Fourteen support workers from both health and social care participated in repeated interviews over a number of months. Seven were observed in practice. Workplace manager's were also interviewed. It was found that participants established a sense of value and esteem by emphasising the significance of their work. They considered their capability as resting upon three foundations - practical experience, natural ability and knowledge of the service user. Thee domains of practice were described - development and well being-focused activities, relationship work and building an understanding of service users. Practice was a subjective and situational reconstruction. Practice-based learning was a multimodal process arising out of workplace participatory opportunities. These participatory opportunities interact to structure, support or provoke learning activities.

This thesis investigates the motivations of female social workers in their decision to embark on the study of and work in the profession. The thesis also offers some recommendations for the education of social workers. The historical emergence of social work as a profession and the role women have played in shaping the profession and building traditions, in the United Kingdom, are explored. The biographies of some significant women, the ‘early pioneers’ of social work, are reviewed (albeit succinctly) to ascertain their motivation to help and make a difference in the lives of other people. The hypothesis that women are socialised into a caring role by the patriarchal structures of society is discussed as a possible explanation as to why the social work profession consists predominantly of women. A small-scale research project, which utilises a mixed-method approach from a feminist standpoint and an auto/biographical paradigm, investigates the biographies and motivational factors of female social work students and women social workers. In an endeavour to find some tradition-building factors which might predict women’s engagement with social work, the socio-economic and demographical data from the early pioneers and the research project’s cohorts are taken into consideration. Furthermore, the categories of ‘social justice fighter’ (Adams et al. 2002; Thompson 2002), and ‘wounded helper’ (Brandon 1976; Charon 2006; Frank 1995) are introduced with the intention to ascertain whether there are common factors which influence women’s wish to help others and their choice to become social workers. The preliminary findings of the thesis suggest that financial gain is not the main stimulus for women becoming social workers, but that altruistic motives and the idea of social justice influences their career choice. The research findings further suggest that life experiences (positive as well as negative) influence the decision to become a social worker. The findings in the thesis are compared and discussed with similar studies in the field (Parker and Merrylees 2002, Redmond et al. 2008, Stevens et al. 2012). Summarising, the thesis proposes recommendations for social work education and the curriculum: - a thorough selection process that investigates the personality, moral values and the motivation of social work entrants by using biographical interviews and narratives; - reflective and analytical processes are required to be an integral part of the curriculum, thus facilitating students to address any latent emotional and/or traumatic life experience which otherwise might lead to detrimental transference in the social work interaction with clients; - a deconstruction of gender issues and perceptions as part of the curriculum thereby encouraging more men to enter social work as students, lecturers and professionals; - a pro-active promotion of a more positive image of social workers should be on the curriculum with the aim of altering public perception of the social work profession.

This thesis is a biographical study of Erika Theron (1907-1990), an Afrikaner woman who played a significant role in many aspects of public life in South Africa in a critical time in the country‘s history. The study seeks to give recognition to her achievements, which have received scant attention in a historiography with a masculine bias. At the same time it examines her changing role from collaborator to critic of the apartheid system. Certain defining features of Theron‘s life have been highlighted. First, Theron grew up in a staunchly Afrikaner nationalist, service-oriented family which encouraged loyalty to her own people and civic responsibility. Second, she was unusual among Afrikaner women of her generation, in that she was highly educated, independent and ready to assume leadership roles. She became a pioneer in a number of fields, attaining high professional rank and holding important public offices – frequently as the first woman to do so in the country. The thesis focuses on five areas of Theron‘s public life. After returning from post-graduate studies abroad, she worked with Hendrik Verwoerd in the campaign to uplift poor whites, particularly the rehabilitation and re-integration of the Afrikaner poor. She thereafter commenced a long career as a social work academic, which included a number of milestones for her new discipline, for the profession of social work and for the advancement of women in academia. From the 1950s she served on the town council of Stellenbosch, including terms as deputy mayor and mayor. She played an important role in historic conservation but was also instrumental in the rigorous institution of apartheid structures in the town during the early days of National Party rule. In the early 1970s she served as chairman of the Commission of Enquiry into Coloured Affairs which influenced her personal views on the country‘s race policies. She became a public critic of many aspects of the apartheid system and vocal advocate for coloured rights. / History / D. Litt. et Phil. (History)

This thesis is a biographical study of Erika Theron (1907-1990), an Afrikaner woman who played a significant role in many aspects of public life in South Africa in a critical time in the country‘s history. The study seeks to give recognition to her achievements, which have received scant attention in a historiography with a masculine bias. At the same time it examines her changing role from collaborator to critic of the apartheid system. Certain defining features of Theron‘s life have been highlighted. First, Theron grew up in a staunchly Afrikaner nationalist, service-oriented family which encouraged loyalty to her own people and civic responsibility. Second, she was unusual among Afrikaner women of her generation, in that she was highly educated, independent and ready to assume leadership roles. She became a pioneer in a number of fields, attaining high professional rank and holding important public offices – frequently as the first woman to do so in the country. The thesis focuses on five areas of Theron‘s public life. After returning from post-graduate studies abroad, she worked with Hendrik Verwoerd in the campaign to uplift poor whites, particularly the rehabilitation and re-integration of the Afrikaner poor. She thereafter commenced a long career as a social work academic, which included a number of milestones for her new discipline, for the profession of social work and for the advancement of women in academia. From the 1950s she served on the town council of Stellenbosch, including terms as deputy mayor and mayor. She played an important role in historic conservation but was also instrumental in the rigorous institution of apartheid structures in the town during the early days of National Party rule. In the early 1970s she served as chairman of the Commission of Enquiry into Coloured Affairs which influenced her personal views on the country‘s race policies. She became a public critic of many aspects of the apartheid system and vocal advocate for coloured rights. / History / D. Litt. et Phil. (History)