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The contemporary context of Australian social work education creates opportunities for social work educators to reimagine curriculum design and delivery. We propose that design thinking offers one means of broadening approaches to social work teaching in creative and innovative ways. With a focus on the application of knowledge to industry 'problems' and 'person-centered' solutions, design thinking may complement the social justice values of social work and help advance the social change mandate of the profession. In educational settings, it may encourage students to engage more actively in processes of knowledge translation and in the identification of person-centered solutions to social problems. Yet there is very little literature on the application of design thinking in the social sciences and even less specifically relevant to teaching social work. Our paper reports on an international scoping review (n = 73) of existing approaches to teaching design thinking in higher education settings and considers their potential application to creative and innovative social work curriculum. This research contributes to understandings of the potential of design thinking for critical social work education in a changing higher education context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Covid-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed how social work education is provided, and these changes are particularly pronounced in field education. Globally, the introduction of restrictions on mobility and social interaction have contributed to the cancellation, postponement and early termination of social work field placements. Accrediting bodies, social work field education departments and industry partner agencies have needed to rapidly adapt how placements are conceptualised and provided. This article examines the experiences of agencies who have continued to provide student placements throughout the pandemic. Interviews were conducted with placement supervisors employed at twelve human services agencies partnering with a university social work department in Melbourne, Australia. Whilst experiencing challenges, agencies outlined how they adapted to the environment to enable meaningful student placement experiences. This article contributes to an ongoing discussion around the trajectory of social work field education and the significance of agency-based placements in this evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human Centred Design (HCD) is emerging in Australia as a participatory approach to service design in social work and human services organisations. In this article, we reflect upon our incorporation of HCD into a core unit offered to final-year students in a Bachelor of Social Work (Honours) degree, as part of a collaboration between design and social work academics. We highlight successes and challenges, and identify adaptations that can provide HCD with a stronger strength-based, critical approach that better aligns with critical social work education. We provide suggestions for social work practitioners and educators around implementing HCD, in ways that inspire critical and reflexive thinking, promote social justice and focus on designing for progressive, structural and social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The trauma associated with resettling in a new country is considerable for young people who have experienced (forced) migration. The loss of place and loss of connection with family and friends is significant. Resettlement in unfamiliar, suburban and rural places can accentuate this sense of loss. In Australia, the difficulty of this challenge is amplified by nationalistic discourses of Australian identity and citizenship, which construct and preserve a particularly British notion of 'Australian-ness'. This article explores the relationship between place and displacement and problematises the development and use of nationalistic identities as a spatial management method for creating social division and exacerbating the impacts of displacement, particularly for young people resettling in a new environment following (forced) migration. Building on this we suggest that theorisations of space, place and belonging offer new opportunities for social work education to enhance students' understanding of displacement and social work practice, particularly in relation to young peoples' experiences of (forced) migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we analyze the individualizing discourses of markets, consumers and choice, in relation to the marketization of care services in an Australian context. As many have highlighted, critical social work practice and education are increasingly marginalized. Institutions and organizations have become focused on producing social work graduates who can adapt to a neoliberalised environment, rather than critically engage with service users and communities to challenge structural inequality. We suggest that creative modalities, coupled with critical reflection and critical sociology in curriculum, offer a means through which students, educators, and service users can challenge reductionist, individualizing and limiting discourses, and enable stronger understanding of the lived experience of marginalized people and communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]