Methodologies to enhance innovation competencies in social work education

ABSTRACT

Social workers are constantly called on to respond to social demands arising from new social realities. Innovation competencies are critical for social workers, and various training programmes adopt methodologies aimed at preparing future social workers to innovate and design a sustainable future for social work practice. The objective of this paper is to present some tested teaching and learning methodologies in order to promote and enhance critical social innovation competencies among social work students. Different techniques encourage the development of innovative ideas for social intervention, some of them offering experimental experiences in which students approach the innovation process through ‘inspiration’, ‘ideation’ and ‘implementation’. Students identify challenges and opportunities that motivate the search for solutions. They build and share visions, test ideas and plan actions to take social innovations into real life. These methodologies have been tested and assessed, and are replicable in different social work education contexts. The results of their application are discussed in terms of the acquisition of the expected innovation competencies.

KEYWORDS:

• Social work
• social innovation
• design thinking
• education
• competency

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. There are in Spain two professions engaged in what can be identified as what is called ‘social work’ in other countries: social work and social education. Since, in other international contexts, the two professions are merged into the same training and professional framework, we shall use the term ‘social work’ as a general way of describing the profile of all participants.

2. © 2012 Manual Thinking. Luki Huber SL Manual. Thinking Studio. Barcelona.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was produced with support from ‘la Caixa’ Foundation under Grant no. [2017-URL-IR2Q-014.].

Notes on contributors

M. Tereza Leal Cavalcante

Dr M. Tereza Leal Cavalcante is a lecturer of social work and social education at Facultat d’Educació Social i Treball Social Pere Tarrés - Universitat Ramon Llull (Barcelona, Spain). She is member of the Research Group on Innovation and Social Analysis (GIAS). Her contributions as a teacher and researcher are focused on social innovation, public Health, intervention models, technologies and professional techniques for Social Inclusion.

Paco López Jiménez

Dr. Paco López Jiménez is a lecturer of social work and social education at Facultat d’Educació Social i Treball Social Pere Tarrés - Universitat Ramon Llull (Barcelona, Spain). He is member of the Research Group on Innovation and Social Analysis (GIAS). His contributions as a teacher and researcher are focused on the social and emotional competencies of social and educational intervention professionals and on the applied aspects of psycho-pedagogical counselling, particularly in everything related with health education, resilience and facing of critical situations by professionals.

Lisette Navarro-Segura

Dr. Lisette Navarro-Segura is a lecturer of social work and social education at Facultat d’Educació Social i Treball Social Pere Tarrés - Universitat Ramon Llull (Barcelona, Spain). She is member of the Research Group on Innovation and Social Analysis (GIAS). She is a social educator, pedagogue and coach. Her contributions as a teacher and researcher are focused on the social and emotional competencies of social and educational intervention professionals and didactics in university settings.