Training for Evaluative Social Work and Social Care - Offers and Demands
Författare
Summary, in English
During the last years evaluation has been on the agenda as a part of the discourse in social
work and social services in Sweden. This demand on evaluation and the value of the social
work is connected to the tough economic situation in the municipalities and their growing
responsibility for the social welfare services. At the same time there are strivings to improve
the quality of social work and the ongoing professionalization of social workers. This
development can be seen as a move from authority based social work towards more
knowledge based social work.
In such a situation we can assume that there is a need for evaluation knowledge and
evaluation capacity. What roles do the departments of social work education and the R&Dunits
play for social work? Is evaluation an important and frequent topic? Supported by the
Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare1 we have “mapped” if and how the
departments/schools of social work and the R&D-units offer courses on evaluation or support
evaluative work in other ways.
The purpose of the investigation was to “map” all educational activities aimed to develop
knowledge and competence for evaluation, in the programs for social work at the
universities/university colleges in Sweden and in the R&D- units linked to the social services.
Our investigation was conducted during the year 2002 and reflects the situation at that time.
In this article we summarize and discuss some of the results. Above all we discuss and try to
explain the fact that only a minority of the students in social work (at al levels) meets
evaluation in their education and those who meet evaluation – meet it in the most rudimentary
way. We also discuss the fact that there are more activities (courses, training, support) for
evaluation in the R&D-units, but they are not arranged in a focused way.
We start by presenting results from the investigation of university training in evaluation and
continue with results from the R&D-units. Finally we give some possible explanations to our
findings.
work and social services in Sweden. This demand on evaluation and the value of the social
work is connected to the tough economic situation in the municipalities and their growing
responsibility for the social welfare services. At the same time there are strivings to improve
the quality of social work and the ongoing professionalization of social workers. This
development can be seen as a move from authority based social work towards more
knowledge based social work.
In such a situation we can assume that there is a need for evaluation knowledge and
evaluation capacity. What roles do the departments of social work education and the R&Dunits
play for social work? Is evaluation an important and frequent topic? Supported by the
Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare1 we have “mapped” if and how the
departments/schools of social work and the R&D-units offer courses on evaluation or support
evaluative work in other ways.
The purpose of the investigation was to “map” all educational activities aimed to develop
knowledge and competence for evaluation, in the programs for social work at the
universities/university colleges in Sweden and in the R&D- units linked to the social services.
Our investigation was conducted during the year 2002 and reflects the situation at that time.
In this article we summarize and discuss some of the results. Above all we discuss and try to
explain the fact that only a minority of the students in social work (at al levels) meets
evaluation in their education and those who meet evaluation – meet it in the most rudimentary
way. We also discuss the fact that there are more activities (courses, training, support) for
evaluation in the R&D-units, but they are not arranged in a focused way.
We start by presenting results from the investigation of university training in evaluation and
continue with results from the R&D-units. Finally we give some possible explanations to our
findings.
Avdelning/ar
Publiceringsår
2004
Språk
Engelska
Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie
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Fulltext
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Länkar
Dokumenttyp
Konferensbidrag
Förlag
Svenska utvärderingsföreningen
Ämne
- Social Work
Status
Published