College reflections on practice theory

Abstract

This article was written shortly after the author had moved from a practice setting in the probation service to a college setting, where he teaches on the DipSW programme. It arose out of the experience of encountering again, through reading and teaching, the body of social work theoretical literature. This led to reflections on the concept of theories of theories of practice and practice theories, the latter being very alive for the author as a recent arrival from practice but subject to some recent criticism in the literature. At a time of rapid development in the social policy context of social work and increasing specialisation — and consequently risk of fragmentation in social work — the author argues in favour of the legitimacy of both theories of practice and practice theories. A cross-fertilisation between them serves to produce core concepts of good practice, which stand as an essential reference point for practitioners. These first principles are a necessary bulwark against social work's imposing, oppressing and coercing tendencies. All three tendencies are examined: the imposing in terms of positivist practice traditions, the oppressing in terms of racism and the coercing in terms of recent policy and legislative developments in the probation service. The latter receives the most extended examination because of the risks arising from the extremely coercive agenda held by government. The article concludes by finding in probation a strong social work core philosophy which, to date, is sustaining a professional integrity in the service's response to the new legislation.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 4 citations exist upstream.