Resident participation as learning and action – a participatory action learning project in social work education

ABSTRACT

This article presents an innovation project in social work education carried out in collaboration between a university college, an organization for housing tenants, MSW students, social workers in the field and people living in social housing facilities. User participation is highlighted in government plans for social housing but has been a difficult concept to implement in practice.

Based on interviews, we started a project-oriented course aiming to work with concrete problems. The students met with social housing residents, hearing their stories and established partnership projects to work on throughout the course. Lectures and supervision were given related to student feedbacks and needs. The course resulted in four projects with different aims and different levels of participation. Recognizing the lack of participation and structural inequality as well as student empowerment and experiences of partnership were key themes in the students’ learning outcome. The course showed positive learning outcomes, and had an impact on actual residents’ life in, but also highlighted challenges in mediating between resident ownership of the projects, academic expectations and practical considerations. Situating the projects in the lived experiences also of the students appeared important.

KEYWORDS:

• User participation
• housing
• empowerment
• partnership
• neoliberalism
• experimental learning

Acknowledgement

We are grateful to our students for contributing to this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Several aspects might have affected the recruitment for this course. From experience we often recruit through word of mouth, and we also had less time for advertising because of the development process. On the other hand it might reflect the position of participation in housing work as well.

Additional information

Funding

No specific funding was received for this project.

Notes on contributors

Håvard Aaslund

Håvard Aaslund  is an assistant professor at VID Specialized University, Norway and a PhD Candidate in Social Work and Social Policy. His research interests include participation in the field of housing and homelessness, protest and collective action among marginalized groups, and critical pedagogy and professional development in social work.

Katrine Mauseth Woll

Katrine Mauseth Woll is an associate professor and programme director of social work at VID Specialized University, Norway. Her reseach interests include user participation in services and education, community development, housing and empowerment in neighbourhoods.