This presentation describes components of an award-winning unit run as a core part of the Master of Social Work (MSW) curriculum at the University of Western Australia (UWA), Australia, and a unit in the Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Dortmund (FH Dortmund), Germany, taking a similar approach. Both these units take a Freirean approach to the engagement with social work students, applied differently but with very similar outcomes and positive feedback from students who embrace this transformational dialogic approach to their learning. We would like to share these innovative international pedagogical approaches and invite a discussion with participants.

Preparing social work students requires constructing a curriculum that covers both theory and practice. Effective pedagogy ideally brings these together in the on-campus learning as well as the field placement settings where students can apply their learning under supervision in real-time situations with people using social work services. Academic settings rarely provide the opportunity to go beyond standard lecture/workshop offerings in which simulated experiences bring together theory and practice. Standard academic expectations often limits innovations in the on-campus learning spaces.

The UWA unit follows students’ first field placement and is taught intensively, one day each week over 6 weeks. Over the past three years this unit has invited students to design their own learning goals, often in groups, with guidance from a staff mentor. The experience and feedback over the past three years indicates (after the initial concern and trepidation) that students valued learning in a new way: ‘Coming from an Asian background, I was used to learning in the ‘vertical relationship’ – being told what and how to learn. [This unit] gave me a real chance to explore what I want to learn and how to learn’. Modelling inclusion, participation, problem solving, and much more, this unit highlights relational work.

Learning was also two-way with staff and students teaching and learning together. What transpired was transformational, with a social work practitioner, who participated in the unit commenting, ‘this approach not only enhances the learning experience but also ensures that the educational content is relevant, diverse and responsive to the evolving needs of our community’.

The German experience at FH Dortmund was similar although taught over a standard semester, just after the students have finished their 1000-hour placement in a social work field of their choice. The unit is based on theoretical and practical reflection strategies with a strong emphasis on peer learning and self-responsibility for the learning outcomes and students are asked to concentrate on themselves and reflect on their thoughts and ideas around developing an activity rather than being directed by their instructors. They learn to trust their teammates and build relationships. With these processes, the university lecturers are taken on a learning journey as well because they do not know what project outcomes there will be. Building trust and relationships, as in the Freirean tradition, are therefore core in this unit.
We invite feedback and comments from other educators on their experiences of innovative teaching and learning experiences.

Keywords: Transformative Pedagogy, Relational Social Work, Self-reflection, Peer-Learning, Innovative Teaching and Learning, Critical and Counter Oppressive Practice.