Social work students’ perceptions of gender based violence and their perceived preparedness for practice

M.A. (Clinical Social Work)Abstract: Gender based violence is a critical social issue, not only in South Africa, but in the rest of the world. What social workers think, know and do not know about gender based violence will impact on how they deal with this social issue. This dissertation presents findings from research on the perceptions of student social workers regarding gender based violence. There is scant research on whether social workers are adequately prepared to intervene in gender based violence and how they perceive the issue. This research presents the findings of interviews and a focus group that were conducted with student social workers who are in the final year of their studies. The research focused on two main questions: the perceptions of social work students of gender based violence and how they would intervene with victims and perpetrators. It became evident from the results of this study that student social workers know about gender based violence and to some extend understand its complexities. However, the participants felt less prepared to intervene on gender based violence especially within the macro level of social work practice