Teaching and Learning > DISCOURSE

In the End, It Needed a Cunning Plan

Author: Bernard Moss

Journal Title: Discourse

ISSN: 1741-4164

ISSN-L: 1741-4164

Volume: 9

Number: 2

Start page: 13

End page: 28

Return to vol. 9 no. 2 index page

Abstract

Social work education in the UK has been wary about spirituality, fearing that it might in some ways jeopardise the profession's hard-earned academic pedigree. In the USA by contrast, spirituality has been recognised as being an important dimension for social workers to take into account in their holistic practice. International recognition of its importance has led some UK social work academics and others to begin to explore this concept, and relate it to the UK context. This article describes how one social work programme has tackled the challenge, and offers a critique of its success.

Setting the scene

It may come as no surprise, perhaps, to learn that that most secular of people-work professions—social work in the UK—has not welcomed the teaching of spirituality with open arms. There are good reasons for this. Social work has endured a long, hard journey to gain its academic respectability. It draws heavily upon more established academic disciples— sociology, law, psychology, for example—but has needed time to establish its own distinctive research and knowledge base. The profession has been very wary, therefore, of anything that may threaten to undermine its hard-earned reputation for academic integrity. Furthermore, in its early days, the influence of Freud and Marx and their challenges to, and undermining of, traditional religious faith and belief made considerable impact upon social work education and training. As a result, for many years social workers tended to regard religion as part of a person's problem and not part of a solution. This view was captured by Channer (1998) who talked about Christian social work students' fear and reluctance to discuss anything to do with their faith and its impact upon their practice anywhere other than 'in the corridors'. It certainly was not encouraged to be the focus of debate within the classroom. Social workers who had entered the profession as a result of their religious faith or as an expression of it, felt the need therefore to 'remain in the closet' for fear of being rebuked or marginalised. Against such a backdrop, any talk of spirituality seemed to be a way of introducing religion 'by the back door', rather than being understood as a far more comprehensive, all -embracing concept that captures the heart and spirit of what it means to be human (Moss 2005), and what the social work enterprise is all about (Canda & Furman, 2010).

Social work has also been proud of its strong stance on anti-discriminatory practice and its opposition to oppression, whether this be at the personal, cultural or societal level (Thompson 2006). Social workers have noted how minority groups and women have often been treated in oppressive ways within some religious communities. There is a certain irony here, however. Social work is also distinctive for its support and celebration of diversity, and for seeking to work with the whole person. It is a strong advocate of empowerment and the development of resilience in people. And yet it has been slow to acknowledge that for many people a religious faith is an enriching, lifeenhancing experience that empowers and strengthens their resilience, especially in challenging and difficult times. One significant example of this is within mental health where it has been the 'voice' of service users in recovery which has been calling particularly upon professionals who are seeking to help and support them to take seriously their religious and spiritual needs (Coyte 2007).

Elsewhere in the world, however, such reticence has been radically challenged. In the USA , for example, students going out into social work practice suddenly found themselves exposed to a religiously and culturally diverse context to their work. They felt ill-equipped to handle the spiritual and religious dimensions to the work they were undertaking, and took their social work educators to task for failing to address such issues in their education and training curricula. A detailed debate then took place, resulting in new regulations which insisted that any new social work curriculum must include considerations of spiritual and religious issues. (Sheridan & Amato-von Hemert, 1999; Sheridan et al, 1994; Canda & Furman, 2010; Council on Social Work Education, 1994).

Back here in the UK, although there was no equivalent protest from newly qualified workers as there had been in the USA—the UK culture and context is, after all, very different—interest in such issues was slowly gathering momentum. The former Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work (CCETSW) produced a seminal influential report (Patel, 1998) about religion and ethnicity in social work. Leading scholars began to produce journal articles on these themes (Bowpitt, 1998; Cree, 1996; Lloyd, 1997; Bowpitt, 1998, 2000; Moss, 2002; Gilligan 2003; Gilligan & Furness, 2005; and Holloway 2005 and 2007). Furthermore, the developing interest in spirituality at an international level began to move it closer to centre stage in social work thinking, education and training.

A seminal moment in the development of social work's understanding of the importance of spirituality came in October 2004 when the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) and the International Federation of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) held their conferences jointly in Adelaide. For the first time, a major stream of papers focused on the topic of spirituality. In the same year, in its revised statement of principles, the IFSW affirmed that social workers should uphold each person's 'spiritual integrity and well-being' (IFSW, 2004). In their jointly formulated global standards, both organizations identified that spiritual issues are part of the knowledge base needed by social workers to understand human behaviour and development (IASSW & IFSW, 2004)(our emphasis). Spirituality as a core theme for social work had arrived on the global social work agenda. (Holloway &Moss, 2010).

If we add to this 'mix' some research evidence from Furman and her colleagues (Furman et al, 2004) who showed that there was a far greater interest in such issues among social workers than had previously been realised, then we can see that the question was no longer whether spirituality should be addressed in UK social work curricula, but how. The rest of this article explores and evaluates the journey taken by the author in a pedagogical attempt to meet this developing challenge.

Initial attempts: one social work progamme's experience

One of the first opportunities to incorporate a discussion of spirituality and religious issues into the social work curriculum came about as a result of a validation process of the (then) new social work degree introduced in 2003. This required : 1) a review of the existing curriculum; 2) the development of new modules, and 3) the updating of existing modules. This provided an opportunity for a re-working of some the module descriptors so that religious and spiritual perspectives could be included in modules which explored, for example, Social Work Values; Life Span Development; Working with Children and Families, and Community Care. In the level 3 dissertation module, where students were encouraged to choose topics that particularly appealed to them, one or two chose to explore spirituality as their major theme.

An additional impetus to this process was also given by the General Social Care Council (GSCC) inspector who had previously asked some very pointed questions to the team about why such issues were not being included in the curriculum.

It is one thing to have these issues included in module descriptors: it is quite another thing to ensure they are put into practice, especially in an already overcrowded curriculum. Without the enthusiastic commitment to these themes by the teaching team for each module, it is too easy for some topics to be omitted or left to students to follow up if their interests lie in that direction. Spirituality ran that risk, although undoubtedly some progress was made as a result of this validation process. Sessions on spirituality and mental health; and on its relevance to loss, death, dying and bereavement were introduced, but a wider ownership of the topic by staff and students did not show a marked improvement. It still remained the domain of the topic's two main champions in the team.

Another approach involved offering an open workshop on Spirituality and Social Work, to which all social work students and staff were invited. About 30 students attended (total student cohort 160) from all three levels. This proved to be a profoundly moving event. Each participant was invited to bring some artefact to share with the group which somehow expressed the 'heart and spirit of who they were'. Some brought religious objects; others some deeply personal items, such as a newborn baby's name-tag; some brought explicitly secular items like their season ticket for their football club: but everyone shared and explored these in an open and supportive context, and explained how these items provided a deep insight into who they really were. Thus they began to understand that spirituality is about 'what makes us tick', and how this informs and enriches their social work practice. The workshop concluded with an exploration into how to engage service users with these issues in a constructive, non- threatening and sensitive way.

Overall, the workshop was deeply appreciated by those who attended, but it still left major questions unanswered. Only a minority of students attended (the keen ones, as they called themselves). The exploration of spirituality had still not been fully incorporated into the mainstream curriculum, nor had it featured in any way in the assessment schedule. Until that could be achieved, spirituality was likely to remain on the margins. It was to meet that pedagogical challenge, therefore, that a cunning plan was devised.

The cunning plan... introducing PBL

It was clear that in order better to locate spirituality in the mainstream curriculum, two criteria had to be met. First, it had to be compulsory for all students to explore it; and secondly, it needed to be assessed in order for its importance and significance to be emphasised. A further challenge was to find a way in which students would not feel immediately alienated from a subject that perhaps they had never encountered before, or to which they were likely to bring a set of preconceptions, prejudices or antagonisms.

The approach adopted was to develop a Problem Based Learning Scenario (PBL) that would establish from the outset a spirit of honest, open enquiry within the student group, which is essential for a subject such as spirituality. The value of PBL as a pedagogic strategy has been well documented (e.g. Savin-Baden, 2000; Boud & Feletti, 1997; Wilkerson & Gijselaers, 1996) and is well established in (but by no means limited to) various people-work education and training programmes (e.g. medical and nursing awards). Its basic approach requires students in small groups (8-10 max) to work together over a period of time (say 4-6 weeks, but this can vary), starting from a basic brief 'scenario' or 'problem' presented to them by the tutor. As Boud and Feletti (1997) explain;

Problem-based courses start with problems rather than with exposition of disciplinary knowledge. They move students towards the acquisition of knowledge and skills through a staged sequence.... together with assorted learning materials and support from teachers (p.2)

The 'problem' serves as a 'trigger' designed to get the students thinking, and importantly to help them identify a range of issues, questions, or information that they need to research in order to prepare a final report. Each student will need to play a role in the research and reporting back process, and to learn the skills of working collaboratively towards a common goal. The tutor's role, therefore, is no longer that of teacher or imparter of knowledge: instead their role is to ensure that the process is followed; that the group is heading in the right direction; and sometimes to signpost them in some important directions so that each member of the group makes the best use of the limited research time available. The 'end product' will (often) be a summatively - assessed report/ presentation from the group as a whole, where the mark allocated to the group will then appear on the marks grid for each individual student member who has contributed to the process.

The social work scenario

The PBL project on this social work programme was located within a Skills for Social Work Practice module which, inter alia, had a group work/ inter-professional learning outcome worth 30% of the final mark for the module. It took place in the second semester for the first year student cohort, by which time they had begun to 'gel' as a group and had developed some experience of working together. They were divided up into groups of between 8-10 students, and allocated separate rooms in which to work. Any plenary sessions (at the beginning of each week, for example) were devoted to questions of process rather than how each group was progressing. Care was taken by the tutor to explain the process, which was outlined in detail in the project handbook. Students were also clearly informed about how the presentation would be assessed, and how each student would receive as an individual mark the grade point awarded to the group as a whole. They were left in no doubt that this was an important element in the overall assessment of the module as a whole, and that they needed to pass it.

The scenario chosen was as follows:

You work in a multi-disciplinary mental health setting.
Your team manager has just announced in a team meeting that at a national level increasing emphasis is being placed on the contribution that spirituality can make to a person's recovery.
Your team manager has asked you as a team to find out more about this, and to prepare a report with some action points for the team to consider.
You are due to present this report to the Managers' meeting scheduled to take place on ... (date to be notified – see handbook)

The journey begins

The first task for each group was to identify what they did not know about this scenario, and what they needed to find out for their next group meeting . One of the issues that the tutor urged them to consider was what sort of mental health team did they want to be for the purposes of the project, and what range of professionals (and others) did they represent. Some chose to be a predominantly adult services team, while others preferred to have a Children and Young People's focus. Some chose to be a day centre team; others a more structured hospital setting. This decision would influence the way they researched the topic and presented their final report and action plan.

Acentral feature of the PBL process is identifying what the group does not (yet) know but needs to find out in order to fulfil the requirements of the project. In this case some of the questions included:

These, and any other questions, dominate the first two sessions of the group—in this case, there were five x 2 hour sessions altogether, with the fifth and final session being given over to last minute fine-tuning of their material, and the presentations themselves. Time, therefore, was limited, and each group member was tasked with exploring one particular question or theme each week, sometimes working individually, sometimes in pairs, and then reporting back.

The challenge to the group becomes acute when they have begun to assemble more material than they can possibly use or need for their presentation. How they negotiate this process is an important skill, as this will determine how they meet the assignment brief of presenting their final report. It is also a skill they will need in their social work practice when preparing reports for case conferences, court or similar situations, so this project provided them with an early opportunity to grapple with this set of professional, as well as pedagogic, challenges.

In the three years this project has been running, it has been significant to note the level of enthusiasm that each group has immediately developed for the task. Although some hesitations and uncertainties were inevitable at the outset, they were always quickly resolved, as the following example illustrates:

Tutor (to group): Is everyone clear about what you need to be doing?
Student A ( puzzled ): No—I don't understand what we are supposed to be doing!
Student B ( before tutor could respond): It's OK D, it's up to us to work together to help find the answers to the things we need to know—we'll work it out—you don't need to worry!

When the tutor next looked in to see how this group was progressing, student D was enthusiastically debating an issue and was clearly fully involved. The group has taken responsibility for empowering each other to participate fully in the learning process.

Another student voiced similar concerns to the tutor outside the group setting before the second session.

Student : I have to say that when we 'divvied up' the tasks last week no wanted to look at what spirituality was, so being a bit of a soft touch I said all right—I'll do it. I felt I had drawn the short straw and was a bit fed up about it ... but then I started to delve into the topic and did a bit of web browsing, and before I knew it 3 hours had passed and I was totally absorbed and fascinated by it all. You are a very cunning teacher!

Each group has to decide how to present their report. Powerpoint facilities were available, but a clear message was given that each group needed to decide how most effectively to deliver their report, and that imagination and creativity were welcomed. The presentation would be one of the early experiences of speaking before a group of people, so each group needed to identify its strengths and plan accordingly. Not everyone was expected to speak, but everyone had to identify how their contribution had enriched the report as a whole.

Once again the empowering nature of PBL led to some startling and imaginative contributions which clearly demonstrated that students had spent a lot of time carefully deciding on which approach to adopt. Among the best presentations there were:

Another 'spin-off' was the way in which some students engaged their personal academic tutors in the discussions in preparation for the report. This served not only as a signpost to what the students were doing; it also made the tutors engage with a topic which otherwise some of them might have studiously avoided. As a result some tutors were keen to join the management-panel and to take part in the assessment process, and were deeply impressed by the quality of the work produced. It is significant that no single group has ever failed this assessment: the vast majority gain marks between 60-80%.

The overall impact, therefore, has been 'win win'. The tutor wins because this topic has been explored, discussed and engaged with by all the students; spirituality has begun to be mainstreamed in the curriculum, and has been part of the assessment regime for the award. The students win because they have all engaged with a topic they have found interesting, fascinating and relevant to practice; and because they have all brought energy and enthusiasm to the project, most of them have all gained high marks which has enhanced their 'feel-good' factor. They have also developed confidence in their group working skills and research capabilities, and have gained some early success in how to present a report in front of an audience of staff and fellow students. Another 'spin-off' was the very positive way in which the External Examiners have highlighted this project in their end of year reports, and have singled it out for high commendation for its originality and creativity, and for the quality of the student experience and contribution.

Critique

For all its strengths and success as a project and as a successful 'cunning plan', there are some significant issues that have emerged, mainly from the module evaluation sheets which students completed at the end of the project, some of which are familiar to PBL champions.

First, the groups (and eventually the tutor) sometimes have to deal with two problems that can emerge: student absence, and students wanting an 'easy ride'. It is a group responsibility to keep a register of attendance, and there is a clear ground-rule that if a student misses two of the 5 sessions they will not be eligible for the individual mark. It is the tutor's role to ensure that this ground-rule is observed, to interview any students whose behaviour or attendance causes concern, and to explain the consequences.

If a student misses the first session, however, it is usually possible to introduce them to an existing group in week 2, although sometimes a small group who come into this category can be formed into a new group to start a week late. Group identity is quickly established in PBL work, so this needs to be handled sensitively.

Any subsequent absences can cause difficulties if the student missing the session has not submitted to their group the results of their research and any materials they have gained. Again it is up to the group to keep in touch with each other to minimise such disruptions, but sometimes this can result in a de-motivating resentment against the absentee member.

Similar feelings can arise if a student attends regularly but quickly assumes a 'passenger' role in the group, rarely volunteering to undertake tasks, generally under-performing, but wanting to have their individual mark at the end. At times the tutor will need to intervene, and if need be challenge the student to perform more equitably; but this is a common feature in many teams, and it is good experience for students to learn how to handle this sort of conflict.

Student who do not gain their mark as a result of absence, clearly have the right to re-sit, and this can present real difficulties administratively and procedurally. If only one or two fail, they can hardly constitute a new PBL group. And in any case the re-sit period is during July and August when it is not possible to bring students together for collaborative project work. One way forward being explored is to create an e-project using Blackboard (or similar VLE) so that students needing to re-sit can at least collaborate electronically. Otherwise, the 'fall-back' will be the requirement for the student to present a short individual Powerpoint presentation with a brief commentary, demonstrating how they have explored this topic, but with a different focus from the original group project.

The 'purist' PBL position on the role of the tutor would normally require a tutor to be in each group as a facilitator for all but one 'nonfacilitated' session. This clearly is labour-intensive, and this programme, together with many others, is not able to devote that level of staff resources to this project. As a result, on any one day when these PBL groups are running, one tutor needs to facilitate three or four student groups who are working in separate rooms for the two hour slot. In practice, this has worked well. Each week begins with a plenary to clarify process issues and answer any general questions. Each group is told how to contact the tutor in case they need help or intervention. The tutor will 'pop in' to each group once or twice during the 2 hour session to check that all is well, but more often than not the group will ignore this arrival. On one or two occasions the group have asked the tutor to leave because ( to quote one group), 'we are getting on fine thank you, and if we need you we will come and find you'. That is perhaps the ultimate compliment any student group can give to a tutor!

One further challenge has emerged. As with many topics in HE curricula, even with awards that have to meet professional requirements, a lot depends upon individual tutors' knowledge, interests, enthusiasm, and willingness to take risks pedagogically. Not every tutor is willing to use PBL as a pedagogic strategy: indeed, some will question its validity as a method for developing sound and accurate knowledge in students. Some will find the facilitative role demanded by PBL too challenging to their more traditional 'teaching' style. As suggested in the context-setting introduction above, spirituality is still regarded with some suspicion by some social work academics, who will happily ignore the challenge to explore it with their students, or who will only give it a tokenistic 'guest appearance' in their module syllabus. Every topic needs its champion, and when that champion goes there is no guarantee that the legacy will be taken forward unless it is a commitment owned by the team as a whole. This remains a major challenge for social work education as a whole, so that spirituality becomes part of the main-stream curriculum that everyone acknowledges to be important.

Conclusion

Developing imaginative, creative and enjoyable ways of learning is the challenge facing every academic in Higher Education—and indeed in all education at whatever level . Gifted teachers always inspire, and are able to choose pedagogic approaches that engage students, and help them to become deep rather than surface learners. One of the strengths of PBL at its best is that it fosters deep learning, and this proved to be the case with this project, at least for a good number of students involved. The challenge of spirituality is that it cannot be tackled or taught dispassionately. Inevitably the student ( and the tutor) are drawn into the process , and begin to ask questions about their own spirituality and understanding, and how their own experiences have shaped their particular world-view and understanding of spirituality. At times students will bring a more reflective and deeply understood response than perhaps the tutor is able to provide, and this can be a source of great mutual enrichment in the learning group, providing the tutor's anxieties do not stifle this process.

The 'cunning plan' outlined in this project amounted to no more, but certainly no less, than a valuing of each and every student's potential contribution to the learning process, and the importance of each student's own spirituality, however ill-defined or conceptualised it might have been before the project began. The project helped students to understand more clearly the journey upon which they had already embarked, and to realise that, far entering alien territory, they were discovering what it means really to be human. They began to glimpse the significance of understanding, at individual and corporate levels, the richness and complexity of the human spirit. And that led them into the very heart of what social work is all about.

References

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