Bringing together podcasting, social work field education and learning about practice with Aboriginal peoples and communities

ABSTRACT

Social work content podcasting has increased exponentially in recent years, playing a new role in the emerging social work education debate surrounding online and remote delivery of social work content. Although podcasting itself is not now a new digital innovation, how and why social work educators and academics would embrace the use of podcasting is still debated and is often positioned as inferior to face-to-face classroom teaching. In the Australian context this is particularly important when non-Aboriginal students are engaging with Aboriginal understandings of place and ways of relating to Country, a challenging reflexive exercise without the added complexity that remote educational delivery can provide. The brief history of podcasting and its relationship to social work education provides a context for re-imagining the pedagogy of critical thinking, with a case example provided of a remote field placement with The Social Work Stories Podcast during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

KEYWORDS:

• Social work education
• podcast
• critical thinking
• reflection
• field education
• Aboriginal
• Indigenous

Disclosure statement

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

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mim Fox

Mim Fox is a Senior Lecturer Social Work at the University of Wollongong and, alongside Lis Murphy, hosts The Social Work Stories Podcast.

Siobhán McHugh

Siobhán McHugh is a multi-awardwinning podcast producer and Honorary Associate Professor of Journalism at the University of Wollongong.

Denika Thomas

Denika Thomas is an Aboriginal woman from Awabakal Country which extends along the coastal area of what is now known as the Mid North Coast region of New South Wales. Their traditional territory spread from Wollombi in the south, to the Lower Hunter River near Newcastle and Lake Macquarie in the north. Denika is also an experienced social work practitioner and regular guest host of The Social Work Stories Podcast.

Felix Kiefel-Johnson

Felix Kiefel-Johnson is a researcher at the Nossal Institute for Global Health at the University of Melbourne and was a social work student on a remote field placement with The Social Work Stories Podcast in 2020. This is the start for the fifth author.

Ben Joseph

Ben Joseph is a Social Work Lecturer at Western Sydney University, produces The Social Work Stories Podcast and hosts the Social Work Discoveries Podcast.