Utilising a community cultural wealth model to explore African heritage social work student stories from placement: A critical ethnographic study
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Authors
Caffrey, Bridget J.Advisors
Gant, ValEvers, Jean
Publication Date
2024-05
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Post-graduate qualifying social work education programs in England generally recruit higher numbers of minoritised ethnic students than other post-graduate programmes. However, longstanding inequalities in outcomes and progression for ethnically minoritised social work students persist. Unpaid work placements constitute a key component of qualifying social work programmes but can pose additional barriers for ethnically minoritised students. Nonetheless, most successfully complete their placements and their programmes. This study utilised critical ethnography to identify the strengths and strategies employed by seven African heritage M.A. social work students as they navigated placements arranged by a higher education institution (HEI) in north-west England. Discourse in social work education regarding unequal outcomes for minoritised ethnic students is dominated by deficit thinking, whereby the assets of marginalised students are frequently overlooked, and interventions focus on 'fixing' students, ignoring HEI practice. This study challenged such discourse by illuminating the assets that seven African heritage students, four of whom were classified as ‘home’ students and three as ‘international’, brought to their practice placements. Arts-based engagement ethnography was utilised to gather stories from the participants, employing creative techniques, generating artefacts that informed individual interviews and a focus group. Participants' voices were privileged throughout, and rich, nuanced detail obtained. The impact of intersecting factors, including gender, religion, and immigration status, was apparent throughout the study. The data chronicled participants’ counter storytelling narratives, uncovering the multiple strategies they applied to 'fit' into their placements. Furthermore, elevated levels of individual agency were evidenced, utilised by participants to secure essential learning. The study illustrated the critical role dispersed families and kin, alongside religious faith, and values, contributed to sustaining participants' endeavours. However, the data also highlighted students' efforts as predominantly unnoticed, therefore unsupported by their HEI and placements. Analysis of their stories, utilising a community cultural wealth model, evidenced extensive cultural knowledge, skills, and resources. Aspirational, familial, linguistic, navigational, social, resistant, and spiritual capital were present in abundance: their interconnected nature evident. Actions to empower students to use their cultural assets were identified, with the significance of supporting social, linguistic, and spiritual capital emphasised. The study contributed new knowledge taking a strength-based perspective to identify the cultural assets a group of African heritage social work students brought to their practice placements in England. The applicability and value in using community cultural wealth models in practice settings, to identify students’ assets, was established. The findings have implications for HEIs and placement agencies, with potential to improve support and outcomes for African heritage social work students on placement.Citation
Caffrey, B. J. (2024). Utilising a community cultural wealth model to explore African heritage social work student stories from placement: A critical ethnographic study [Unpublished doctoral thesis]. University of Chester.Publisher
University of ChesterType
Thesis or dissertationLanguage
enCollections
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