Researching field practice in social work education : integration of theory and practice through the use of narratives

This article reports on a research project with final year social work students on placement from a University in Sydney which, as part of developing a more critically reflective pedagogy, asked students to write narratives about placement experiences. The richness of these narratives makes them useful for developing a critically reflective process for application in practice teaching, in both Australia and the UK, where critical reflection is increasingly being incorporated in the field placement curriculum. Findings: The use of narratives is found to represent a way of knowing and thinking that is particularly suited to identifying the issues which students on placement have to confront. Applications: Used in the context of a critically reflective framework, student-centred narratives provide practice-based teachers with an opportunity to develop critically reflective processes as part of curriculum scholarship; overcoming, rather than reinforcing, the potential division between theory and practice strands.