INVOLVEMENT AND THE EMPOWERMENT OF USERS DURING THE FIELD PLACEMENTS OF SOCIAL WORK STUDENTS

U radu su prikazani rezultati evaluacijskog istraživanja terenske prakse studenata druge godine Studijskog centra scoijalnog rada iz perspektive korisnika, provedenog 2005. godine. Svrha ovog evaluacijskog istraživanja bila je dobiti uvid u doživljaj programa studentske terenske prakse iz perspektive korisnika te uključivanjem korisnika u proces vrednovanja programa otvoriti dodatne mogućnosti sustvaranja programa. Cilj istraživanja bio je dobiti odgovor na pitanje kako korisnici-iskustveni eksperti doživljavaju program studentske prakse. Specifično, cilj je bio dobiti uvid u motivaciju korisnika za sudjelovanje u programu, njihov doživljaj sadržaja i tijeka prakse te njihove preporuke za poboljšanje programa. Rezultati istraživanja govore o načinu na koji korisnici percipiraju svoju ulogu u obrazovanju socijalnih radnika, ali također i o tome da su korisnici »već uključeni«, naime, da su to oduvijek bili, budući da predstavljaju najrelevantniji izvor podataka o sebi i svojim potrebama. Dobiveni rezultati obvezujući su za nastavnike, s obzirom na to da pravo korisnika na uključivanje znači pravo na ravnopravnu poziciju pregovaranja, dogovaranja i interveniranja te ravnopravnu mogućnost sagledavanja iz vlastite perspektive. U tom smislu autori navode smjernice temeljene na rezultatima istraživanja kojima su se rukovodili u daljnjem sustvaranju programa terenske prakse i obrazovanja socijalnih radnika uopće.The article presents the results of an evaluative research conducted in 2005, related to field placements of second year social work students as seen from the social service user perspective. The aim of this evaluative research was to gain insight into the perception of the field placement programme from the perspective of service users as well as to include them in the process of programme evaluation, thus opening additional possibilities of the cooperative creation of the programme. The objective was to discover how social service users - experience experts, perceive the field placement programme. More precisely, the objective was to gain insight into the users’ motivation for the participation in the programme, into their perception of the content and the course of the placement as well as into their recommendations for the improvement of the programme. The results reveal the social service users’ perception of their role in the education of social workers but they also show that the users „have already been included“ in the process due to the fact that they represent the most relevant source of information regarding themselves and their needs. The results are binding for the teachers since the users’ right to inclusion means they have the right to equal position in negotiations, agreements and interventions as well as equal possibility of analysis from their own perspective. In that sense, authors suggest certain guidelines based on the research results which they used in further cooperative creation of the field placement programme and education of social workers in general