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ABSTRACT
Self-awareness as a core concept in professional development has captured the attention of social work educators and researchers over the past few decades. Although practicing professional self-awareness is highly recommended; some researchers argue that personal and professional self-awareness are intertwined, thereby, cognition and development of personal self-awareness is a prerequisite for professional self-awareness. Researchers have barely explored individuals’ personal experiences of self-awareness. This study aims to address this gap. Through convenience sampling, 35 social work educators from 27 colleges and universities across the United States agreed to participate in this research. The narrative approach, a qualitative method, was employed to analyze the participants’ experiences. The results revealed that five factors facilitate the process of self-awareness: nourished curiosity, marginality, transformation to invulnerability, disenchantment with society, and loss and death. These themes are covered by two “umbrella themes”, inquisitiveness and suffering. These findings can facilitate professional development. By considering the revealed themes, social work educators can emphasize and elaborate on the relationship between personal and professional experiences of self-awareness in social work practice. Educators can also activate students’ inner abilities and direct their attention toward environmental stimuli in order to raise their self-awareness.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
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Notes on contributors
Leyla Feize
Leyla Feize is an assistant professor of social work at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV). She earned a PhD in social work from the University of Utah. Her research interests include social work education, minority mental health and autism. She has been practicing mental health since 1990. As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), she employs humanistic theories, mindfulness and self-awareness in her direct practice.