2nd UK Social Work Research Conference: Social Work research: People, Place and Politics

1. 2nd UK Social Work Research Conference: Social Work research: People, Place and Politics Generating knowledge for practice through participative action research: the case of social workers and direct payments Mark Baldwin (Dr) Senior Lecturer in Social Work

2. Intentions of presentation To describe participative action research To discuss the part played by critical reflection in PAR and its importance for professional learning and service development in organisations To look at examples of PAR – and how it can generate knowledge for practice Look at the consequences of critical reflection in organisations

3. Participative action research Co-operative inquiry (Heron 1996) as a form of Participative Action Research (Reason and Bradbury 2001) Working with professionals in social care/work organisations, mainly focusing on professional development and policy implementation PAR different to traditional research:

4. Co-operative Inquiry Extended epistemology – taking into account many ways of knowing: Experiential Propositional Presentational Practical Participative approach – research with and not on Validity improved because learning has meaning within researchers’ experience and is owned by them Action orientation – research over time affecting behaviour Informational or transformational intentions?

5. Co-operative Inquiry – process Agreement on broad focus of inquiry Attention to group processes Agreement on specific focus of action phase – who will do what – how recorded Action over three/four weeks Collaborative critical reflection – making sense – informing next phase of action Repeat cycles of action and reflection to embed learning in practice Endings – commitment to critical reflection

6. Critical reflection and organisational learning The merits of critical reflection are not universally applauded (Ixer 1999) Need to be clear about what critical reflection is Need to clarify where critical reflection sits within organisations and organisational learning Explore the opportunities and threats to it as a positive aspect of professional development.

7. What is critical reflection for learning? Critique of more traditional approaches to learning Kolb (1984) reflection as part of a cycle of learning. Schon (1983) - concept of 'reflection-in-action' which brings theory, what we know, into practice. Schon - uncertainty principle - applying knowledge to uncertainty - unlikely to result in effective practice. Knowledge-in-action is a process of experimenting with ideas and actions, transferring knowledge, checking out its effectiveness. To make learning effective, reflection requires a critical edge. Reflection needs to be critical so that it deconstructs and reconstructs (Fook 2002) the knowledge that informs practice

8. Individual learning and organisational learning For an organisation to learn and develop, individual learning is a 'necessary but not sufficient' requirement (Gould 2000). A question of power within organisations (Capra 2002; Argyris 1999). Learning by some individuals will not enhance organisational learning, because they do not have the power to influence Argyris has noted (1999) the mismatch between espoused theory and theory in use. Where this happens individual learning is unlikely to influence the organisation as a whole. E.G. institutional racism.

9. The negative effects of unreflective discretion Professional discretion is an important part of organisational process - but is believed to negatively affect policy implementation. Discretion is a potential positive for organisations (Baldwin 2000), if professionals have opportunities to critically reflect on their use of discretion. This encapsulates the link between critical reflection, individual learning and organisational learning.

10. The learning organisation Routine learning in organisations is described by Argyris and Schon (1996) as single loop learning, in which organisations and individuals repeat procedures, learning in an uncritical fashion. It is only by critically evaluating organisational routines through double-loop learning, that the organisation can match espoused theory with theory-in-use. Critical reflection, then, is an aspect of the learning organisation as it is for individual professional development. As Imogen Taylor (Gould and Baldwin 2004) points out – service users should be participants in this process of collective learning

11. Critical reflection for learning Fook (2002) and Everitt et al (1992) Critical approaches see knowledge as situated in social, economic and historical contexts (Fook 2002) Knowledge is subjective reflecting power positions Critical reflection then challenges dominant knowledge and social relations Identifying legitimate and non-legitimate power Questioning taken-for-granted assumptions about the definition of problems and categorisation of need Raising the profile of value positions Naming the process (Dalrymple and Burke (2006)) Locating practice in agency contexts - service delivery issues not addressed as routine constraints Building reflection, involvement and evaluation into every stage of the practice process

12. Example 1 – managing innovation National voluntary children’s organisation Project providing support, advice and information on drugs to young people Including outreach work The following collated by me from notes agreed with participants

13. Example 1 – managing innovation Step 1 – identifying the innovative task Skills in giving and receiving information How do they know what to do? What knowledge, skills and values are being utilised? Step 2 - Team collect data Step 3 – collective reflection on the nature of practice intuition or knowledge-based practice? Listing what makes up ‘good practice’ developing benchmarks for good practice

14. Example 1 – managing innovation Step 4 – developing benchmarks that complement managerial ones softer instruments that measure effectiveness formalising and evaluating intuitive approaches building knowledge and expertise Step 5 – relating practice outcomes to organisational policy Step 6 – building critical reflection into general team practice in supervision in team meetings using line management to feedback learning Evidence of a reflective team – but attempts to embed learning in the organisation were lost – unreflective organisation?

15. Example 2 - working through resistance to implement a new policy Locality team for people with learning difficulties Providing a care management – assessment, care planning role Requirement to offer and assess for direct payments not being met Reflects national picture of poor take-up of DPs by people with learning difficulties

16. Example 2 - working through resistance to implement a new policy Step 1 – identifying the barriers to the provision of direct payments separating internal and external barriers identifying activities that could remove barriers Step 2 – team collect data e.g. using supervision to reflect on specific cases using team meetings to look at case studies feeding back concerns to the rest of the organisation Step 3 – working on own professional practice identifying dilemmas of protection/empowerment (e.g.) Step 4 – using opportunities for critical reflection to match top down policy imperatives with traditional and contemporary social work

17. Example 2 - working through resistance to implement a new policy Some problems with co-operative inquiry resistance from some social workers off-loading responsibility mixed commitment to explore own practice Plus organisational problems – e.g. DP champions left team during project Some willingness by the organisation to address problems raised by team modelling feedback loops recognition of need for critical reflection include practitioner voice in policy implementation

18. Some conclusions Team resisting critical reflection on own practice Organisation willing to listen to practitioner voice and address problematic approaches to policy implementation In example 1 team were willing to own the focus issue – innovation In example 2 – traditional social workers resisting new policy development and not owning it within their own practice and values

19. Conclusions Not made a critique of DP or personalisation agenda More of a bid for the importance of critical reflection as essential for individual and organisational learning, and organisational learning is essential for effective service delivery PAR as an appropriate method for researching this If this is important, then critical reflectors will increasingly collide with managerialist policy There is a need to make alliances for collective resistance to the perverse incentives of the current market for care services There are structures of resistance in place and developing.

20. Social Work: a profession worth fighting for? Third Annual Conference at Liverpool Hope University (Everton Campus) Friday and Saturday 12th and 13th September 2008 Social work and social justice: a manifesto for a new engaged practice http://www.liv.ac.uk/sspsw/Social_Work_Manifesto.html

21. Bibliography Argyris, C (1999) On Organisational Learning (2nd Edition). Oxford; Blackwell Argyris, C and Schon, D (1996) Organisational Learning II; Theory, Method and Practice. Wokingham; Addison-Wesley Baldwin, M (2000) Care Management and Community Care; Social Work discretion and the construction of policy. Aldershot; Ashgate Capra, F (2002) The Hidden Connections; A Science for Sustainable Living. London; HarperCollins Dalrymple, J and Burke, B (2006) Anti-Oppressive Practice: Social Care and the Law. Maidenhead; Open University Press Everitt, A et al (1992) Applied Research for Better Practice. Basingstoke; Macmillan

22. Bibliography Fook, J (2002) Social Work; Critical Theory and Practice. London; Sage Gould, N (2000) 'Becoming a learning organisation: a social work example.' Social Work Education, 19 (6), 585-597 Baldwin, M and Gould, N (Editors) (2004) Social Work, critical reflection and the learning organisation. Aldershot: Ashgate. Ixer, G (1999) 'There is no such thing as reflection'. British Journal of Social Work, 29(4): 513-528 Kolb, D (1984) Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. New Jersey; Prentice-Hall Schon, D (1983) The Reflective Practitioner; How Professionals Think in Action. Aldershot; Ashgate

23. Contact details Mark Baldwin 01225 385824 m.j.baldwin@bath.ac.uk Department of Social and Policy Sciences University of Bath Claverton Down Bath BA2 7AY