Thesis (Ph.D. (Social Work)) --University of Limpopo, 2012 / Refer to document / Financial Aid of the University of Limpopo

<p>Social work is a social phenomenon, existing in most societies, that has given rise to a multitude of special organizations and professions. For that reason social work is dealing with a complex identity. The purpose of this study is to illustrate how social workers and the scientific discourse interpret the concept of social work. In addition to that the study intends to show similarities and differencies. The research process containes two studies, one based on qualitative interviews with five social workers and the other consisting a surway of academic litterature. To enable a comparison of the results the studies start out of some, deliberatly choosen, themes. These are “definitions of social work”, “socialworkers”, “society, law and organization” and “ethics”.</p><p>In summary, the results, reviled a surprising unity in the interpretations of social work. Social workers, as well as the scientific discourse, manifest social work as a profession that promotes social change and problem solving in human relationships. The differencies concern social work beeing interpret normative by the social workers and more descriptive by the scientific discourse.</p>

Social work is a social phenomenon, existing in most societies, that has given rise to a multitude of special organizations and professions. For that reason social work is dealing with a complex identity. The purpose of this study is to illustrate how social workers and the scientific discourse interpret the concept of social work. In addition to that the study intends to show similarities and differencies. The research process containes two studies, one based on qualitative interviews with five social workers and the other consisting a surway of academic litterature. To enable a comparison of the results the studies start out of some, deliberatly choosen, themes. These are “definitions of social work”, “socialworkers”, “society, law and organization” and “ethics”. In summary, the results, reviled a surprising unity in the interpretations of social work. Social workers, as well as the scientific discourse, manifest social work as a profession that promotes social change and problem solving in human relationships. The differencies concern social work beeing interpret normative by the social workers and more descriptive by the scientific discourse.

The main focus of this thesis has been the activity development of social work practice. The thesis presents the construction of a theoretical frame for developing social work practice; namely, Interactive Activity-Documentation model (IAD), and includes the process of testing and reviewing the model. The thesis was based on an interactive research design, which involved the researcher and the practitioners in the development and testing of the model. The researcher constructed the IAD model based on theoretical considerations concerning the characteristics of social work, the practice’s knowledge requirements, learning processes, reflexivity in relation to actions, the systematic documentation of actions and reflections and the need for an interactive process to enhance the usage of the model. The setting in which the testing and the development of the model took place was a family centre, an organization in which a social worker, a midwife, paediatric nurses and preschool staff work together to coordinate services for families with children. The material that was used during the testing and for the review of the model consisted of descriptions of the family center’s aims, goals and objectives in a foundation document, continuous descriptions and reflections of the practitioners’ actions, descriptions and reflections of how the families understand the practice, documents in which the content of the foundation document and the continuous descriptions and reflections from the practitioners and families are compared and notes from the practitioners’ discussions about the comparison. The study showed that the use of a model for activity development in social work practice provides the practitioners with the possibility to systematize their documentation and the tools that they use in the development process. Another finding in the study was the importance of dealing with explicit assumptions in the construction process. Explicit assumptions provide the opportunity to discuss the possibilities of the model and potential problems. The staff’s critical discussions concerning the resources of the organization revealed that, for example, time spent together with other staff members had a positive impact on the development process. The review also shows that development achieved by learning through reflection enhances critical thinking in social work practice.

Cohabitation is a complex phenomenon with a multifaceted trajectory. It carries different meanings for couples. It is not a permanent state but a transition, which is characterised by uncertainty pertaining to its future. Its future lies with men who still have the prerogative to decide its progression. Women can only live in hope. A qualitative, phenomenological, explorative, descriptive, and contextual study was undertaken with 21 participants whose ages ranged from 25 to 35 years. The goals of this study were threefold: (i) to develop an in-depth understanding of the place of cohabitation in the context of changing family patterns and lessons for social work intervention; (ii) to gain insight into the participants’ experiences in cohabiting relationships in relation to the benefits, challenges, and mechanisms to address any challenges; and (iii) to proffer lessons for social work intervention based on the participants’ perspectives. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews and analysed following Tesch’s (in Creswell, 2009) framework. Lincoln and Guba’s model was utilised for data verification. The major findings of this study indicate that the majority of dating couples slide into cohabitation without a clear agreement on the progression of the transition or relationship. The meaning of cohabitation is gendered as most women regard it as a transition to marriage, hoping that one day their partners will propose marriage. Conversely, men simply enjoy the presence of a woman in the house. Surprisingly, none of the participants consulted social workers when they were experiencing challenges in their relationships. / Social Work / D. Phil. (Social Work)

This thesis considers whether the concept of resilience is applicable to people ageing with dementia; and, if so, what the implications are for social work practice. It begins with an exploration of the literature on dementia, resilience and social work. Using a symbolic interactionist approach it then details how the interactions of people with dementia and their social workers can potentially influence the realisation of resilience in practice. I collected data over a two year period. During this period six dyads comprising a person with dementia and social worker provided rich verbal accounts of their respective experiences. Using narrative analysis the stories of each person with dementia were explored to reveal threats to identity and possible resilience strategies. A resilience lens was applied to the verbal accounts of social workers in order to reveal opportunities and challenges to using resilience in practice. The findings indicate that identity continues to be of importance to people who are ageing with dementia. The preservation of identity could therefore be re-framed as the outcome of a resilience process. Each person could potentially acquire resources over their life which could help to mitigate threats to identity. This is referred to as the resilience reserve. This thesis details the potential domains of such a reserve. Further, it contains details of possible resilience strategies that a person with dementia might employ within stories of self. These strategies are placed within the context of protective and vulnerability factors in order that a resilience framework can emerge. This thesis argues for a re-framing of theories of what social work is. This, combined with a definition of resilience, and the development of a resilience practice framework could promote and realise the resilience of the person ageing with dementia.

(in English) The main goal of the diploma thesis "The Possibility of Social Work in Rural Areas. On the Example of the Village Majdalena" is to introduce possible implementations of social work in villages or rural communities on the example of Majdalena, a village located in the South Bohemia region, Czech Republic. The theoretical portion of this thesis describes different approaches to social work and the status of a small community in the Czech welfare system, primarily with focus on social work. Legislative background of social work in a village and community social worker's job duties and responsibilities are also discussed in the thesis. The hands-on research presented in this work focuses on Majdalena, Czech Republic. A sociodemographic analysis and a field survey were conducted to characterize the investigated community, in addition to two case studies targeting Majdalena citizens. Finally, conclusions include suggestions of particular goals and objectives for a social worker in Majdalena.

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Social work and social work practices are today heavily influenced by efficiency ideologies and society’s ongoing digitalisation process. Social workers themselves are educated to handle the tension between the ethical and judicial aspects of their jobs within the context of today’s social situation. However, the discretions needed for social workers to do so requires that they have the right conditions for learning at work. The purpose of this qualitative single-case study is to explore what significance digitalisation has had on social workers conditions for learning. Focus lies on concepts such as learning, competence and communication. The gathered material is mainly based on interviews with 10 peopleholding different positions within a government administrative body in which social work takes place. Results shows that while many have faith in the strengths and the future possibilities of digitalisation toimprove competency, communication and learning through digital efficacy and jurisprudence, this isn’t necessarily the case when applied to the everyday workings of social work practices. While the generalperception seems to be that these discrepancies are due to varying levels of digital competencyconnected with age, results show that this is only partially true, especially if competency is to mean more than individual capabilities or skill. Results have also shown that competency, communication and learning interlock with one another, and that it is difficult to achieve one without the other. Competency prerequisites the right conditions for learning, which in turn prerequisites good communication, and good communication prerequisites competence. My conclusion is that social work agencies such as the one in this case study need to plan and organise the digitalisation of their social work agency in such a way that includes learning, communication, and competence as three important aspects of digitalisations rather than relying on the digitalisation process to solve aspects of learning, communication and competence that do not live up to the ideologies of todays ideologies.