Preparing social workers to affect policy: the parliament as a venue for training

ABSTRACT

Social work education has a major role in preparing social workers to engage in policy practice intended to impact policies which can affect the well-being of their service users and address social problems. Legislative advocacy is one of these strategies. This article describes and evaluates an innovative 4-day intensive course on legislative advocacy for MSW students from two schools of social work, which took place within Israel’s parliament and drew upon elements of active and experiential learning. The evaluation study was based on a nonequivalent comparison group design with pretest (a month before the course)–posttest (4 months after the completion of the course) measurements. The study group consisted of the 29 students who participated in the intensive course while the comparison group consisted of 33 students who did not. The study, which employed quantitative tools along with open-ended questions, revealed that the course succeeded in accomplishing some of its desired outcomes. Compared to a group of their peers, the course enhanced the participants’ knowledge on the parliament and on legislative advocacy, their political interest, their perceived legislative advocacy skills, and the likelihood that they will engage in legislative advocacy in the future.

KEYWORDS:

• Legislative advocacy
• policy practice
• Israel

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hagar Elmaliach-Mankita

Hagar Elmaliach-Mankita is a social worker at the Department of Social Services in Tiberias, Israel.

Idit Weiss-Gal

Idit Weiss-Gal is Full Professor and Head of the Bob Shapell School of Social Work at Tel Aviv University. Her main fields of interest are policy practice and critical approaches within social work.

John Gal

John Gal is Full Professor and holds the Centreid - L. Jacque Menard Chair in Social Work for the Study of Volunteer and Nonprofit Organizations at the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is also a principal research at the Taub Center for Social Policy Research in Israel. His fields of interest are policy policy practice, social policy and the history of social work.