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) andEveritt 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