A Practice-Near, Ethnographic Study of Group Decision Making about Social Work Students Failing in Practice Learning Settings

The paper links to the conference theme on research in social work education and pedagogy by focusing on university decision making processes in respect of students failing on placements. Undertaking an assessed placement has... [ view full abstract ]

The paper links to the conference theme on research in social work education and pedagogy by focusing on university decision making processes in respect of students failing on placements. Undertaking an assessed placement has long been a feature of social work training internationally. Recent developments in England have emphasised the importance of practice learning although concerns have been raised about the robustness and quality of practice assessment (Finch & Taylor, 2013). For example, a perception of low failure rates and practice educators’ (field supervisors) reluctance to fail students. Whilst there is a growing international research base that explores practice assessment, it centres on practice educators rather than key sites of decision making within universities, which in the Uk, is the practice assessment panel (PAP).

The study utilised a mixed methods approach; an online survey and an ethnographic, pilot study of PAPs. The PAPs took place in 4 universities in England and were attended by a range of professionals. Between them, the panels discussed 9 students who had failed the placement. The ethnographic data was analysed using practice-near and psychoanalytically informed methods (Cooper, 2009; Hollway, 2009; Briggs and Hingley-Jones, 2012), thus the researchers own emotional responses were used in the subsequent analysis.
Key findings to emerge from the ethnographic data concern the unconscious and painful emotional climate that such decision making appears to prompt in panel members, resulting in a range of defensive behaviours, including deferring difficult decisions and story making.
The paper concludes that whilst there is a need for a larger, more representational study, the findings suggest that PAPs, although on the surface, appearing to enable robust quality assurance and assessment mechanisms, unconsciously may provoke defences against anxiety in panel members, which potentially impacts on decision making. This has wider implications for decision making in social work across Europe.