This book introduces students, faculty, and practitioners to different ways of mastering the complex, yet key elements of successful practice. It refocuses the attention from teaching about practice to concentrating on how to support the development of field instructors, students, and practice teachers in understanding that their personal and professional growth is the instrument for the delivery of "good" or "bad" social work practice.
The book is divided up into three parts: Part I: Introduction to Critical Frameworks for Social Work Practice; Part II: The Centrality of the Professional Relationship; and Part III: Practice Models and Their Applications. The authors integrate multiple components into this work: a textbook that integrates theories, models, and a range of practice-based exercises and a workbook designed to focus on the instructor and the student as active participants in the helping process.
This innovative practice text is designed to be a core textbook for both the undergraduate and graduate social work curriculum.
Terry L. Koenig (Ph.D., LSCSW, Professor, School of Social Welfare, University of Kansas) has taught in the areas of human behavior theory, social work practice, ethics, and qualitative methods as well as a social work course in conjunction with the Universitá del Sacro Cuore in Milan, Italy.
Rick Spano (Ph.D., LSCSW, Professor Emeritus, School of Social Welfare, University of Kansas) taught social work policy, practice, ethics, and social work history and philosophy for nearly five decades and developed and supported social work courses between the School of Social Welfare and Escuela de Trabajo Social, University of Costa Rica.
John B. Thompson's (Ph.D., Professor, Department of Sociology and Social Work, Dordt University) interests, scholarship, and teaching are interdisciplinary, bringing together wisdom from Christian theology, philosophy, and the social sciences. His courses include psychopathology, human behavior and counseling theories, sociology, and Christian philosophy.
