Questioning Preservice Practices in Social Work: Challenges and Perspectives

• Main Author: Ruth Noemi Parola
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Universidad del Valle 2020-01-01
• Series: Prospectiva
• Subjects: social work; preservice practice; social intervention; education/training
• Online Access: http://revistaprospectiva.univalle.edu.co/index.php/prospectiva/%20article%20/view%20/8714

This paper attempts to rethink and discuss the subject of preservice practices in training. The preservice practices in Social Work occupy a central place in the discussions about specific training in the field where the organizational, operative and conceptual dimensions are a constant preoccupation. However, the realm of preservice practice is often taken for granted, the actions (the practice) are envisioned as something natural in the profession. This may be due to the fact that the origin of the profession has had a close relationship with activism, with intervention, with doing, with the assumption of roles attributed in the framework of the execution of social policies. This study questions which theoretical and ideological positions lead to prioritizing preservice practices in academic training.. We affirm that for us the consideration of preservice and professional practices implies permanently re-signifying what is at stake in this space of intervention, rescuing possibilities and limits, continuities and ruptures. Discussingthe practices means discussing the professional training of future social workers. It is in such practices where the normative frames and modes of interpretation are strongly imprinted, and they run the risk of becoming naturalized if they are not questioned.