Social work education: tackling the theory-practice dilemma

post-graduate research into social work training. SUMMARY The integration of theory and practice has long been a topic for debate and concern amongst social work educators. A longitudinal participant observation study of one cohort of social work students confirmed that the ideal of theory-practice integration was also high on their own list of self-established priorities. Students ' efforts towards attaining this goal weTe also hampered by the perspectives which they themselves brought to bear on their training. Attempting to resolve the conflict between their own perspectives and their perceived demands of professional education students appealed to and reconstructed afresh various models of theory application endorsed both by social work educators and practitioners. These models, however, are essentially contradictory and pose serious problems for the development and maintenance of social work standards. This paper is based on the findings of a longitudinal study which charted the subjective experience of 20 postgraduate social work students on a two-year CQSW course. The research methods used were participan