engleski

Involving Users in Social Work Education

This paper offers an overview of experiences and challenges surrounding the involvement of users in social work education in some countries of the former Yugoslavia. It can be used as an informative guide and serve as a basis for further research by users, educators, practitioners and researchers in social work. It will present the main activities and basic findings of the project entitled Service Users as Experience Experts in Social Work Education and Research. This project was financially supported by the IASSW. It began in January 2008, and was concluded in February 2009. The purpose of the project was to enhance users' involvement in social work education and research processes and to promote the basic principles of social work in practice. The aims of the project included developing an understanding of how users, students, teachers, and agencies concepitalise social work and education ; determining which kinds of issues users find challenging regarding field placement, the content of courses and educational outcomes ; determining the kind of support that users need to be better prepared for involvement in education as experience experts, and comparing regional experiences of user involvement in research and education. The main activity of the project was the conference that took place at the Department of Social Work in Zagreb in September 2008. The participants were representatives from regional schools of social work in Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Croatia and Macedonia. Papers from the conference were published as a special issue of the Annual of Social Work by the Department of Social Work in Zagreb in both English and Croatian.

social work; education; research; users; involvement

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