FOSTERING AWARENESS OF SELF IN THE EDUCATION OF SOCIAL WORK STUDENTS BY MEANS OF CRITICAL REFLECTIVITY

Authors

  • Sandra Berna Ferreira Department of Social Work University of the Free State https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5220-8167
  • Regardt Jacobus Ferreira 1. Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy, School of Social Work, University of Tulane, New Orleans, United States of America 2. Department of Social Work, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7047-9027

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15270/55-2-679

Keywords:

self, self-awareness, critical reflectivity, macro-conceptualisation, social work education, death and dying, African-centred world view

Abstract

Fostering awareness of self in the education of social work students has focused primarily on a micro-conceptualisation of the self, which implies that the attention was, and still is, mainly on the intrapsychic processes generated by theory and field practicum. But the development of the professional self should also encompass a macro-conceptualisation, where students have to ask themselves how they contribute to the maintenance of societal structures and how these structures influence them in the forming of their own assumptions and belief systems about the self and the world. Three categories of critical-reflectivity questions can be asked about a parable on death and dying, thereby sensitising students to the self as a product of, as well as a co-creator of, society in the grieving process. These questions furthermore resonate within an African-centred worldview in the understanding of the self.

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Author Biographies

Sandra Berna Ferreira, Department of Social Work University of the Free State

Dr Sandra B Ferreira

Department of Social Work

University of the Free State

Bloemfontein

9300

Regardt Jacobus Ferreira, 1. Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy, School of Social Work, University of Tulane, New Orleans, United States of America 2. Department of Social Work, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa

1. Director, Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy,
2. Assistant Professor, Tulane School of Social Work, Tukane University, New Orleans, United States of America

3. Research Fellow of the Department of Social Work, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa


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Published

2019-07-15

How to Cite

Ferreira, S. B., & Ferreira, R. J. (2019). FOSTERING AWARENESS OF SELF IN THE EDUCATION OF SOCIAL WORK STUDENTS BY MEANS OF CRITICAL REFLECTIVITY. Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk, 55(2), 119. https://doi.org/10.15270/55-2-679

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