There are no Answers, Only Choices: Teaching Ethical Decision Making in Social Work

Educating against all odds: The context and content of social work education in times of national crisis in Greece

“…Yet, uncritical approaches within the social work curricula have been identified both in the Greek context (Ioakimidis, 2008;Papadaki and Papadaki, 2008;Teloni, 2011a;Teloni and Mantanika, 2015) and the Western context where the widely debated competence-based practice (CBP) and evidence-based practice (EBP) approaches (Edmond et al, 2006;Gambrill, 2007) prevail. Despite the importance of obtaining technical skills, the sacrifice of social justice and antioppressive issues discourage critical consciousness and neutralise practice (Gray and Gibbons, 2007;Morley, 2008).…”

“…However, the context of education may discourage the development of critical consciousness either in the curriculum (for example through non prioritisation of anti-oppressive and social justice concepts), and/or in educational policies and practices (Gray and Gibbons, 2007;Morley, 2008;Spolander et al, 2014). The power relations inherent within how institutions such as universities function and how education operates have been discussed in Foucault's (1980Foucault's ( , 1982 analysis of the concept of discipline.…”

Academic Support for First-Year Social Work Students in South Africa

“…Critically reflective social workers would have a competence that can be of value with any social issue -HIV prevention, domestic violence, schizophrenia and poverty alleviation. This competence is essential to effective social work practice in South Africa (Clare, 2007;Sacco, 2004), particularly when faced with ethical dilemmas (Gray & Gibbons, 2007). These two approaches can be contrasted as knowledge transfer and knowledge transformation (Askeland & Bradley, 2006) -the former involves uncritically pasting knowledge from one context or social issue into another, while the latter involves taking on the essential elements of knowledge, making them one's own and then thoughtfully applying them in new ways in new contexts or to different social issues.…”

Critical Commentary: Social Work Ethics

“…Indeed, there is evidence of an emerging literature on social work ethics published in various languages (for example, Rouzel, 1997;Lingås, 1999;Henriksen and Vetlesen, 2001;Martin, 2001;Barroco, 2004), although sometimes this comprises translations of existing English-language publications (Banks, 1997(Banks, , 1999Mach-Zagel and Nøhr, 2007). Specific modules on social work ethics are more frequently being taught on professional qualifying programmes, and attention is being paid to methods and approaches to learning and teaching in this area (for example: Reamer and Abramson, 1982;Black et al, 2002;Banks and Nøhr, 2003;Banks, 2005;Gray and Gibbon, 2007).…”