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Teaching the unteachable? The challenge of teaching spirituality on a professional social work programme
Bernard Moss
Social work as a professional academic subject has often lagged behind other disciplines, such as nursing, medicine, philosophy and religious studies, both in understanding the relevance of spirituality to its core task, and in teaching it to students and practitioners. Social work’s eclectic theory base has drawn heavily on sociological and psychological perspectives which are suspicious of and dismissive of religion, and spirituality is often regarded as an ill-defined adjunct of religion. Even though many social workers entered the profession as a result of their religious commitment, they felt constrained to deny this in the context of a heavily secularised profession, which ironically, also led the field in a commitment to anti-discriminatory, holistic practice in the context of a multi-cultural, multi-faith society.
This paper describes recent developments in contemporary theoretical perspectives that explore and critique secular as well as religious dimensions to spirituality, and their implications for social work practice. It then outlines a problem-based learning (PBL) approach adopted with first year social work students at Staffordshire University in a core module. This enables all students to engage with key issues in a collaborative, exploratory learning style to bring the issue of spirituality centre-stage in their thinking and professional development.
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This page was originally on the website of The Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies. It was transfered here following the closure of the Subject Centre at the end of 2011.
