About the Book If social work students are to flourish in their careers, and go beyond a basic sense of 'competence' in practice, it is essential to develop a sense of Professional Self. This book will help students develop critical understanding of their own social work practice, and the tools and skills required to become a professional social worker. It includes:
- Chapters on practising Reflexivity and the importance of Relationships in social work
- Contributions from leading social work academics
- A focus on building a professional identity through learning and practice
The emphasis is on developing your professionalism, and how that journey translates into everyday practice. To help this growth there are further chapters on getting the best from continuing professional development, challenging poor practice and professionalism and ethics.
Professor Jonathan Parker is Deputy Dean for Research and Enterprise and Director of the Centre for Social Work and Social Policy at Bournemouth University. He is currently conducting cross cultural research on learning and practice with colleagues in Southeast Asia.
Professor Mark Doel is Professort Emeritus in the Centre for Health and Social Care Research at Sheffiled Hallam University, and a registered social worker. Mark′s research experience is in the fields of practice education, social work practice methods, and service user involvement.
Doel, Mark: - Mark Doel, PhD, MA (Oxon), CQSW is Research Professor of Social Work at Sheffield Hallam University. He is a registered social worker and was in practice for almost twenty years, including two separate years living and working in the US. His research focuses on groupwork, social work practice and practice education and he has an international reputation in these fields.
Professor Doel is widely published. His fifteenth book, Social Work Placements: a traveller′s guide (Routledge) introduces readers to Socialworkland, a travel guide approach to practice learning. Other recent books include: Educating Professionals: practice learning in health and social care (Ashgate, with Shardlow) which explores how students learn their practice in nine different professions, using a virtual local community to bring the professions together; Experiencing Social Work: learning from service users (Sage, with Best) which tells the stories of service users who have had positive experiences of social work and reflects on what we can learn from this; Using Groupwork (Routledge) and The Task-Centred Book (Routledge, with Marsh). He is co-editor of the journal Groupwork and founding co-editor of the journal, Social Policy and Social Work in Transition, published in Republic of Georgia.
Mark directs a 3-year, EU-funded project to develop social work education and research in the republic of Georgia and the Ukraine and he is a consultant with UNICEF and EveryChild. He leads training workshops in practice education and groupwork.
Parker, Jonathan: -
Prof. Dr. Jonathan Parker of the Health Sciences University, UK, is Professor Emeritus at Bournemouth University, Professor Emeritus at the University of Stavanger, Norway, Visiting Professor at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Doctoral programme team member at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan. He was one of the founders and director of the Family Assessment and Support Unit, a placement agency attached to the University of Hull and Head of the Department of Social Work. He was Chair of the Association of Teachers in Social Work Education until 2005, Vice Chair of the UK higher education representative body, the Joint University Council for Social Work Education from 2005- 2010, and is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. He has published widely (over 200 scholarly papers and chapters and 43 books): on disadvantage, marginalisation and violence, Southeast Asia, social work and welfare education internationally. He is author of the best-selling book Social Work Practice (Sage, 2025) and series editor for the highly successful Transforming Social Work Practice series (Sage).
