Integrating research on the impact of volunteering following the Rena oil spill into the University of Waikato social work teaching curriculum

Abstract

On 5 October 2011, the MV Rena ran aground off the coast of Tauranga, New Zealand, resulting in an oil spill along the nearby coastline. Some of the oil was removed from beaches by volunteers from the community organised by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council. Social work and psychology academics from the University of Waikato and Bay of Plenty Polytechnic researched the experiences of these volunteers. Students from their programmes, representative of the gender and ethnicity of the volunteers, conducted and transcribed qualitative interviews, reporting that their involvement as research assistants was valuable. The findings were used in class to educate social work students on disaster- informed community development and to teach critiquing skills. Students critiqued a presentation given by one of the researchers and discussed the impact of the oil spill on their communities and the role of community members in responding. They reflected on the response of tangata whenua (local indigenous people) and considered issues of human rights, social and environmental justice, and the disproportionate impact of disasters on specific communities. We learned that using real-world events to teach students about social work and acknowledging human connectedness to our broader social, spiritual and natural environment is central to social work discourse.

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