Fox_2016.docx (49.74 kB)
Being a service user and a social work academic: balancing expert identities
journal contribution
posted on 2023-08-30, 14:23 authored by Joanna FoxI am a service user and academic working in a university social work department. My hybrid identity allows me to draw on different types of knowledge in all aspects of my work, including: academic, practice and experiential wisdom. Service user involvement is mandated across social work education but the scope and breadth of different kinds of participation is developed in diverse ways across university contexts. This article affirms the value of service user involvement in health and social care education, exploring its positive impact on students. When lecturers share personal experience of using services alongside practice and academic wisdom in the course of teaching, sometimes the value of experiential knowledge is doubted and its influence dismissed. I examine the importance of experiential wisdom in social work education, specifically when it is embedded in an academic role in a university social work department, and consider how it can be respected and valued. The parallel experiences of involving peer support workers in mental health services, who use their knowledge of recovery to mentor other service users, are then briefly examined, together with reflection of the concerns across mental health with professionals sharing their experiential wisdom with the people that they support.
History
Refereed
- Yes
Volume
35Issue number
8Page range
960-969Publication title
Social Work Education: The International JournalISSN
1470-1227Publisher
Taylor & FrancisFile version
- Accepted version
Language
- eng
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Legacy posted date
2016-09-12Legacy creation date
2016-09-07Legacy Faculty/School/Department
ARCHIVED Faculty of Health, Social Care & Education (until September 2018)Usage metrics
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