Contexts of Social Work (L5088)

15 credits, Level 4

Autumn teaching

This module will help students to locate the contemporary UK social work profession within relevant historical and global contexts. Students will learn through a variety of means that include lectures and workshops, but also through group and individual research and investigation tasks. Through the set tasks, students will gain an increased appreciation of the realities of contemporary social work practice and the factors influencing the development of the profession.

Key policy changes will be highlighted and the political, contested and controversial aspects fo the social work role will be introduced in order to form a firm basis for modules that follow later in the degree. This module complements Introduction to Professional Learning and Development where the focus is upon the process of learning for social work rather than just the content. Active participation by service users and carer and practitioners alongside programme faculty will provide students with a range of perspectives and different forms of knowledge.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 33 hours of contact time and about 117 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2023/24. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.

Courses

This module is offered on the following courses:

• Social Work BA