Socionomutbildningen ur ett studentperspektiv – en kamp mellan diskurser

ABSTRACT Author: Fanny Andreasson and Karl Nilsson Title: The Bachelor of Science Programme in Social Work According to a Student Perspective – a Battle of Discourses Supervisor: Karin Kullberg Assessor: Elizabeth Martinell Barfoed The intention of this study was to examine what conceptions social work students perceive on how their social work education presents the profession of social workers as well as handling the aspects of power which are inherent within the profession. The study involved students engaged in the final term of the Bachelor of Science Programme in Social Work at Lund Uni-versity in southern Sweden. Six students participated in the study, via semi-structured inter-views. Several subjects were identified which seemed to be significant in the conversations about the conceptions of the profession of social workers and power-handling. These subjects were focused into five themes: 1) the ideal social work – altruism and a client-centered per-spective, 2) the education relating to the working field – lack of praxis-knowledge and variety among conceptions emphasized by educators, 3) personal skills – reflection as a tool to culti-vate self-awareness and personal development, as well as developing a fair approach in inter-personal encounters, 4) the education relating to the working field – labor market as repre-sented within the education in contrast to the variety represented in the field, and 5) power relations and differentiating knowledge – distinctions in status depending on the source of knowledge. The analysis was based on theories of discourse and profession theories to frame and understand the empirics, which in many respects seemed contradictory. Eventually, the contradictions were distinguished, resulting in a conclusion that the Bachelor of Science Pro-gramme in Social Work seems to represent a battle of discourses. The discourse of the thera-peutic view, which embraces the knowledge and power of the clients, seems to be in opposi-tion with the discourse of the social order view, which embraces the knowledge and power of the social worker. This means that a third discourse – the transformational view – is left out, which indicates that there is a lack of coherence between social work education and the social work field. Key words: social work, profession, discourses, knowledge base, power, education, students. socialt arbete, profession, diskurser, kunskapsbas, makt, utbildning, studenter