Patricia Cartney

The University of Manchester · Division of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work

In 2015, Social Work Teaching Partnerships launched into a turbulent political and policy arena where a repositioning of social work education was taking place alongside the adoption of neoliberal ideologies promoting the operation of market forces within higher education nationally and globally. This paper presents findings from 11 respondents to...

This is an interesting and wide-ranging book which will be helpful for social work students, practitioners and academics alongside others in the ‘human services professions’. The book explicitly sets out to offer a critical perspective on human growth and development and to position development as contextual, diversified and fluid. It contributes t...

This paper explores institutional drivers for developing MOOCs by juxtaposing them against the original drivers for generating MOOCs: to offer open access education. However, the original impetus for MOOC development may be shifting towards a business oriented model. Therefore, instead of contributing to corporate social responsibility and inclusiv...

This paper primarily explores current contradictions within social work practice and education in the context of contemporary English-based developments. How we define the boundaries around our profession—whether broad or narrow, theoretically limited or rich—fundamentally impacts on the role we perform in society and how we educate new social work...

This literature review considers the use of action research in higher education. The review specifically looks at two areas of higher education activity. The first concerns academic teaching practice and includes a discussion of research and pedagogy practice, and staff development. The second considers student engagement. In both of these core fea...

Whilst current reforms in relation to higher education appear to have been driven primarily by funding issues, these economic drivers have also led to changes in the internal and external workings of universities, raising fundamental questions about what a university is. In this sense, universities are currently operating in both philosophical and...

This paper focuses on the Department of Health (2002) statement that academic knowledge should be used to support practice learning. Debates around linking theory and practice and knowledge as product and process are discussed. The particular emphasis is on critically analysing whether academic knowledge about learning styles - a form of ‘process k...

Social work students are being educated during a time of major socio-economic change with the financial relationship between the university and society currently being reconfigured. This is occurring alongside a rapid expansion in the availability of technological mediums that offer the opportunity for alternative methods of teaching delivery. Movi...

The literature is increasingly drawing attention to the gap between feedback given to students and feedback used by students. This paper reflects on the beginnings of an evaluation into the potential of peer assessment to act as a vehicle to enable students to make use of the feedback they receive. A case study is presented within an action researc...

Moving towards delivering the new social work qualification led to many social work programmes considering the ‘fitness for purpose’ of assessment methods being used to assess the competence of social work students. This article highlights how changes in assessment methods were considered on one particular social work programme. The advantages and...

The social work degree has now been introduced in England and it is timely to reflect on and evaluate key changes made by many universities in this process. This paper reflects on the beginning of such an evaluation, presenting a case study of assessment changes made in relation to communication skills teaching in a post-1992 university. This will...

Student progression and retention is an area of increasing social importance and concern around student non-completion rates is expressed in many arenas. Research suggests many reasons for student non-completion, including the balancing of social and academic integration into university life. The increasing diversity of the student body potentially...

This paper focuses on the Department of Health (2002) statement that academic knowledge should be used to support practice learning. Debates around linking theory and practice and knowledge as product and process are discussed. The particular emphasis is on critically analysing whether academic knowledge about learning styles - a form of 'process k...

This paper focuses on the Department of Health (2002) statement that academic knowledge should be used to support practice learning. Debates around linking theory and practice and knowledge as product and process are discussed. The particular emphasis is on critically analysing whether academic knowledge about learning styles - a form of 'process k...

This paper focuses on the current aspiration to further the process of continuing professional development in social work. It contends that knowledge from the field of adult learning theory may be helpful in sign-posting some tangible ways forward here. The particular emphasis is on critically assessing the usefulness of identifying learning styles...