The Impact of Social Work Education: A Personal Construct Reconceptualization

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Abstract
Despite educators' and practitioners' assumptions, research on the professional socialization of social work students has generally failed to document an impact of the educational process and has consequently hampered informed debate on the nature, outcome, and processes of social work education. In this paper the impact of social work education on the individual is reconceptualized in terms of Kelly's personal construct theory, which posits the individual in social work education as personally construing the social work systems of meaning. This conceptualization formed the basis of a cross-sectional study of students at the beginning, middle, and end of social work education. The comparison showed that graduating students used a repertoire of more abstract social work constructs. They also showed an understanding of social work and its role in the world consistent with that articulated by the department in which they completed their professional education. However, a disjuncture was noted between the graduates' understanding of social work and its role in the world (social change) and the constructs they used to understand situations encountered by social workers. Possible reasons for this disjuncture are suggested.

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