According to the global definition (IFSW, 2014), social work is a profession. Since the second half of the twentieth century, however, the meaning of professionalism has become blurred and its practices have been criticized fiercely. In order to understand, appreciate and strengthen social work as a profession, a sociological equivalent of positive psychology might be needed. Such a positive sociology (Stebbins, 2009) of professionalism would focus unequivocally on its meaningful and valuable potential. In this respect, Freidson’s (2001) ideal-typical approach of professionalism is quite promising. Its outcome does not fully meet Weber’s (1904, 1913, 1922) criteria for an idealtypical construction, though. This article argues that it is impossible to develop a solid scientific ideal type of professionalism based on a power perspective, as tried by Freidson (2001). A value perspective opens up a more promising approach for strengthening social work as a profession.
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An extended professional identity theory is proposed to enhance interprofessional collaboration. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether comparative feedback on interprofessional interaction can decrease the degree of profession-based dominance and general dominance in mixed profession groups. This observational study comprised a randomized double-blind pretest-posttest control group design with 19 mixed profession groups (10 intervention and nine control groups, each with three dental and three dental hygiene students). All groups received reflective feedback during two consecutive two hour team development meetings. Intervention groups also received comparative feedback. Profession-based dominance concerned the sum of three observation items (conversational turntaking, dominance and contributing ideas) with a three-point scale: −1 = dental dominance, 0 = no dominance, +1 = dental hygiene dominance. Polychoric correlations confirmed positive associations with the latent trait and an unidimensional underlying structure. Observation items were internally consistent (α > .70). General dominance concerned the sum of absolute values of observation items with a minimum value of zero (no dominance) and the maximum value of three (strong dominance). A two-way factorial ANOVA was performed. The results revealed a significant interaction effect with regard to general dominance, F(1,17) = 6.630, p = 0.020 and large effect size (partial eta squared = 0.28). Comparative feedback on interprofessional interaction decreases general dominance in mixed profession groups.
This article focuses on the teaching profession against the background of educationalisation in the Netherlands in the sense that Dutch schools are increasingly regarded as focal points at which to address and solve social issues. Our research project concentrated on the extent to which teachers, being key figures in the school organisation, understand their role as one that embraces a social in addition to an educational mission. It explores teachers’ professional identity and their awareness, task perception and self-efficacy with respect to performing a social mission. The results show that ‘addressing social issues’ can be identified as a dimension of teachers’ professional identity. However, teachers report low self-efficacy as regards carrying out social tasks, irrespective of their task perception and awareness. The phenomenon of educationalisation is occurring in other Western European countries and in the US. The results of this exploratory study raise questions about the feasibility of educationalising social problems.
Erasmus project about training cultural workers for facilitating rural youths culture
De alliantie tussen professionals en cliënten in de jeugdzorg is een krachtige algemeen werkzame factor in de hulp aan kinderen en ouders met opvoedproblemen. De alliantie tussen professionals en cliënten bestaat uit de persoonlijke klik, overeenstemming over de doelen waaraan gewerkt wordt en de wijze waarop er samengewerkt wordt aan die doelen. Een positieve alliantie in een vroeg stadium van het hulpverleningstraject is een betrouwbare voorspeller van een positieve uitkomst. Het vroegtijdig zicht krijgen op de kwaliteit van de alliantie geeft de mogelijkheid om breuken en deuken in beeld te brengen en vroegtijdig bespreekbaar te maken en te herstellen. Het ritueel om de alliantie bespreekbaar te maken wordt in de praktijk nog weinig gestalte gegeven. Het vergt van professionals een scherp observatievermogen, goede reflectievaardigheden en de nodige creativiteit om het ritueel in het primair proces te passen. Met de te ontwikkelen experimentele leerlijn waar deze aanvraag op ingaat willen werkveldpartners inzetten op het aanleren van deze vaardigheden.
