Education for Change: Student Placements in Campaigning Organisations and Social Movements in South Africa

Policy practice in social work education: A literature review

“…Hermoso, Rosen, Overly, & Tompkins, ), in fieldwork (e.g. Ferguson & Smith, ), or by requiring students to engage in real‐life activities aimed at influencing policies (e.g. Weiss‐Gal & Peled, ).…”

“…A relatively large number (10) evaluate a course aimed at facilitating a PP process in which students engage in different stages of PP interventions (Butler & Coleman, ; Huber & Orlando, ; Rocha, ; Saulnier, ; Weiss‐Gal & Savaya, ; Zubrzycki & McArthur, ). Five articles evaluate engagement of students in PP activities undertaken during service learning or community projects (Anderson & Harris, ; Droppa, ; Hermoso et al, ) or during fieldwork in social change organisations or social movements (Ferguson & Smith, ; Weiss & Kaufman, ).…”

“…One additional study employs a post‐test single group design with two measurements (after the course ended and an eight months post‐graduation follow‐up) (Saulnier, ). Two studies adopt qualitative tools such as focus groups comprised of students who participated in the course (Droppa, ; Ferguson & Smith, ). Four additional studies employ a post‐test design with a comparison group (e.g.…”

Social policy education for change: South African student perspectives on the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development

“…It embodies a 'new' set of values for contemporary social welfare services, that of social justice, equality and democracy. This underlying paradigm shift of developmental social welfare is drastically different from the residual social welfare policy that served the interests of the nationalist government in the apartheid era (Ferguson and Smith, 2012). At the same time we must acknowledge that welfare organizations, like other public institutions in South Africa, have not escaped the impact of neoliberal capitalist policies that claims to provide revolutionary solutions to mass poverty and unemployment in the country (Sewpaul and Holscher, 2004).…”

A fundamental rethink of practice learning in social work education

“…In conclusion, placing students in a remote student unit and setting them tasks in which campaigning for social change is a core activity, if not the very reason for existence, is an important strategy in developing graduate social workers who have the commitment, confidence and skills to regard engaging in social change as a core professional activity (Ferguson & Smith, 2012). Furthermore, like McLaughlin et al (2015McLaughlin et al ( , p. 1469, we dare to suggest that 'these placements are not second best, but different' to the traditional student placements offered by social work programmes.…”