Building Professional Practice Education Cultures in the Online Environment - Information Communication Technologies for Human Services Education and Delivery - page 127

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workers can “bracket” the assumptions and biases
always at play in our work, and instead goes look-
ing for their influence on our choices. It does not
shy away from the questions of how social work
perpetuates the power differentials experienced
by our clients seeking services. This practice
framework asks us to grapple with the tensions
inherent in conceiving of power as available to
everyone, even as we see structures all around
us that reinforce the opposite. It does not allow
formal theories to disengage from these complexi-
ties: formal theory is interrogated according to
the above-defined lenses of reflection, reflexivity,
postmodern conceptions of power and truth, and
analysis of material inequities. Formal theory left
untouched by these processes is considered limited
because it stands outside both social context and
personal engagement by the worker. In contrast,
the practice framework informed by critical re-
flection asserts that theory is only relevant when
it is accountable to these challenges.
In this conceptualization, then, theory is rooted
in practice experiences, personal assumptions and
political contexts. Theory is that dynamic body
of ever-accumulating knowledge constructed by
the practitioner, with all layers of context, self and
client/client system inextricably intertwined. This
conceptualization, with its ideology and episte-
mology made clear, frames theory as practice .
This integration of “knowing' and 'doing”, as
legitimized theory development, is the precise
focus of the online field education seminar. The
online field education seminars provide a forum
within which students reflect on their experiences
in the field placement, critique the political, cul-
tural, and social contexts within which people and
communities function, analyse the implications
of discursive and material practices of power, and
deconstruct their own thinking.

Online integrative seminars for the social work
field placements in the Bachelor of Social Work
and Master of Social Work degree programs at
Dalhousie University's School of Social Work
have emerged as a transformational site for critical
reflection among social work student practitioners.
The seminars bring together student practitioners
from across the country in multiple jurisdictions,
practicing in a breadth of social work settings,
to deconstruct the socio-political contexts of
their experiences, make connections between
the personal, the social and the political. In so
doing they develop “skills of divergence…[the
idea of] opening ourselves up to the ideas of oth-
ers, especially when these people provide a new
angle of vision” (Mezirow, 1999: 369). Students
can compare and contrast the social, political
and ideological perspectives and realities in their
fields of practice and dissect how these impact
the development of their practice knowledges,
assessment, intervention and evaluation skills,
research agendas, and policy analyses. Exposure
to and engagement in dialogue and critique of
cross-regional parameters, multiple jurisdictions
of social work practice, and diverse venues for
social work activity results in expanded contextual
analysis, with plentiful examples of “the realities
of social work practice” ready for examination.
Deborah from Prince Edward Island spoke of
this exchange:

Sometimes I can forget about the different pres-
sures other social workers are experiencing. It can
get easy to just pay attention to our provincial laws
and the resources we have here. It was fascinat-
ing to hear about the new child welfare changes
in Alberta, because we just had an inquiry here
after a child died in care and everyone is waiting
to see what changes will come our way. Now I
will have something to compare to.