The affective and spatiotemporal benefits of podcasting for teaching social policy practice: learning to ‘love’ social policy

ABSTRACT

Social policy, or policy practice, in social work education suffers from an image problem among students. Internationally, students prefer direct practice and find policy practice intimidating and boring. In response to provocations to adopt modern technologies, some academics in social work are employing podcasts in teaching and are making claims about the potential to enhance affective connection, demonstrate the relevance of difficult topics, and improve access to education. Yet, there is little student experience data supporting these claims, and there are critical questions about the extent to which this method achieves the profession’s social justice aims or contributes to the commodification of learning. In this paper, I reflexively thematically analyze qualitative insights from students about their experience of a podcast as a central teaching resource in a social policy practice class. I argue that podcasting offers unique affective and spatiotemporal—that is, social space and time—affordances that begin to salvage policy practice’s image problem. Caution is required, however, if this method is to contribute to critical pedagogical practices and not replicate or reinvent barriers to education.

KEYWORDS:

• Social policy practice
• podcast
• affect
• space
• time

Introduction

The Social Work profession is committed to influencing social policy as a means to achieve the profession’s social justice aims (Weiss‐Gal et al., 2017). Yet, social policy is ‘intimidating and unpopular’ (Street et al., 2022, p. 119) among social work students. There have been many attempts to invigorate or make social policy practice ‘sexy’ (Henman, 2012, p. 345). Given the importance of social policy to the profession, addressing the barriers to student engagement is an important issue, with potential implications for social work education generally. In this paper, I explore the potential of a teaching innovation (podcasting) to address policy practice’s relevance and engagement issues with social work students, and the potential of this technology to promote the critical thinking central to social policy practice.

In response to recent calls for innovation and the adoption of modern technology in social work, there has been a rise in podcasting in both professional and educational contexts. The claims about the potential of podcasts to build emotional connections and enhance the relevance of social work knowledge for practice suggest an opportunity to address policy practice’s engagement and relevancy problems. Yet, there is little data on the student experience of podcasts as a teaching medium, and it appears that social work academics, like their students, prefer ‘face-to-face’ (Fox et al., 2021, p. 1) methods of teaching.

In 2021, I created a podcast as the central piece of educational content for social policy classes in the Bachelor and Master of Social Work programs at Flinders University. Students in the classes were invited to provide anonymous written feedback on their expectations of the class, the experience of the podcast, and its impact on their experience of studying policy. I analyze the affective and spatiotemporal dynamics of students’ experiences in the classes to investigate the potential of podcasting to build student engagement and connection to social policy.

I begin this paper with an overview of literature detailing the challenges faced by social policy practice in educating social work students. Following this, I briefly outline the calls in social work for technological innovation and the response in the form of podcasting, including the claims about its pedagogical potential. Subsequently, I outline the project methods, educational context, analytical approach, and reflexively acknowledge the project limitations. Finally, I simultaneously present and analyze the student’s qualitative affective and temporal experiences of the podcast as a teaching tool. I argue that podcasting offers affective and temporal potential to address the challenges faced by social policy practice in social work education and the profession’s aim to impact social policy generally. Yet, caution is needed to enhance critical pedagogies rather than produce new or reproduce existing barriers to education.

Irrelevant and unpopular social policy

Despite the mixed history of the politicization of social work (Feldman, 2020, p. 1090), national and international social work accrediting organizations include policy practice as an essential component of social work (Australian Association of Social Work [AASW], 2020; British Association of Social Workers, 2018; Council on Social Work Education [CSWE], 2022; Ioakimidis & Sookraj, 2021; Weiss-Gal & Peled, 2009). Social policy has become a crucial part of social work education, whereby students are taught the skills and knowledge required, and the relevance to the profession (Weiss et al., 2006; Weiss‐Gal, 2016). However, the relevance of policy to social work practice remains a pressing question for students in social work, and there is a dedicated body of literature focusing on developing students ‘motivation, self-efficacy and self-confidence’ (Weiss et al., 2006, pp. 793–795) in policy practice.

In the 1980s, social policy was rebranded as ‘policy practice’ (Street et al., 2022, p. 119) to emphasize its importance alongside other areas of direct practice. Policy practice describes the activities of social workers who engage in ‘legislative advocacy, reform through litigation, social action, social policy analysis, disseminating information and monitoring the bureaucracy’ (Weiss-Gal & Peled, 2009, p. 369). Weiss et al. (2006) outline an agenda for social policy practice in social work education, arguing the classes should aim to support students to develop the essential skills and ‘understand the link between social work and social policy’ (pp. 793–795). In addition to developing students’ ability to analyze social policy, a social policy agenda should ‘enhance critical thinking and a commitment to social justice’ (pp. 793–795). Social policy is an essential component of social work, without which social work risks compromising its emancipatory potential.

The idea that social work students do not like studying social policy has become a trope in international social work literature. The polite descriptions in the literature of this phenomenon depict students having ‘apparently very modest’ (Weiss et al., 2006, p. 791) interest in engaging with social policy (Schwartz-Tayri, 2021; Weiss‐Gal, 2016). More directly, it appears that students find social policy ‘irrelevant’ (Weiss et al., 2006, p. 791), ‘intimidating and unpopular’ (Street et al., 2022, p. 119), and preferring individual casework (Schwartz-Tayri, 2021). Yet, without social policy training, social work students and practitioners risk ‘uncritical acceptance of existing policies and the dominant political discourse’ (Weiss et al., 2006, p. 791). Fostering systemic and structural analysis, central to policy analysis, aligns strongly with the skills required for contemporary anti-oppressive and anti-racist social work aims (Bussey et al., 2022). Moreover, disinterest as a student appears to translate to apathy in political activities and professional conduct (Schwartz-Tayri et al., 2021).

Henman (2012) and others have attempted to make social policy ‘sexy’ through methods including real-world assessments whereby students developed a ‘policy proposal modelled on a Cabinet Submission’ (p. 345). Henman’s project improved student awareness of their ability to influence policy but did not impact student interest in social policy. Alternatively, Weiss-Gal and Peled (2009) required students to publish op-ed articles in local news media on a relevant social issue as an assessment task. Street et al. (2022) evaluated the impact of introducing a problem-based learning project to a social policy class and reported an increase in student ‘confidence and efficacy’ (p. 128). Other suggested strategies to increase student engagement in social policy practice include employing non-traditional resources, teaching and assessment methods, active and learner-centered teaching methods, e-learning, and fieldwork (Henman, 2012). These strategies report modest levels of improved engagement, leading Henman (2012) – it appears tongue-in-cheek—to suggest that the methods employed to teach social policy (and perhaps those using them) might simply be boring.

Calls for innovation

Berzin et al. (2015) posed a grand challenge for social work to ‘harness technology for good’. They observed at the time, as have others since (Richards-Schuster et al., 2019, p. 315), that ‘social work has been slow to adopt technology’ (Berzin et al., 2015, p. 3). This criticism has been echoed more recently, with Fox et al. (2021) noting that ‘up until the recent COVID-19 pandemic, social work education had been relatively slow to change’ (p. 1). Social work has emphasized educating students in ‘face-to-face practice skills’ (Fox et al., 2021, p. 1) and that even research and policy classes have remained in ‘a face-to-face context’ (p. 1). The reliance on didactic teaching styles ignores the critique from critical pedagogies that expert-reliant modes of education are precariously bound up with power inequalities and oppression (Fox et al., 2021; Freire, 2005; Hooks, 1994). As such, the need to adopt technology in social work education has partly been driven by the professional commitment to access and social transformation.

Standard 4.02 of the National Association for Social Workers charges social work educators with the responsibility for educating students to critically employ technology in practice with attention to power and ethics (Hitchcock et al., 2021, p. 173). While there has been debate in higher education literature on the value of online learning (see Wretman & Macy, 2016), Fox et al. (2021) argue that in light of online learning during COVID-19, ‘the debate has now moved on’ (p. 11) and social workers need to get on with incorporating digital tools. In Australia, decolonizing curriculum and the connected aim of bringing indigenous knowledge into social work education (Australian Association of Social Work [AASW], 2023; Green & Bennett, 2018) bring to light the colonial legacy of educational practices in contemporary universities. New technologies offer opportunities to challenge expert-reliant didactic modes of education and facilitate anti-racist aims to shift the institutional learning environment (Butler et al., 2003).

Podcasts, digital audio or video files that can be downloaded from the internet on a computer or portable media player (Singer, 2019), are one response to the call for innovation. Podcasts are being used to enliven social work to provide insights into the lived experiences of care experienced from young people (Lucas & Thomas, 2021) and Aboriginal people (Fox et al., 2021), and to explore confronting topics like racism (Belfiore et al., 2021). Podcasts are being used as an assessment practice (Hitchcock et al., 2021), to explore critical pedagogies through student-led podcast creation (Ferrer et al., 2020), for field education (Fox et al., 2021), to prepare students prior to beginning study study (Richards-Schuster et al., 2019), to promote the profession to the public (Fronek et al., 2016) and social scholarship (Singer, 2019). There is scant evidence of them being used in social policy education.

The most straightforward avenue for employing podcasts in education includes supplementing traditional resources with podcasts made by external creators (Belfiore et al., 2021) or as a means to distribute traditional lectures (Hitchcock et al., 2021). This latter approach has been described as ‘course casting’ (Ferrer et al., 2020, pp. 850–851). While this is a convenient method to ‘bridge the gap … between the home and the classroom’ (Fox et al., 2021, p. 2), course casting does little to challenge the existing pedagogy.

Singer (2019) argues that podcasts address some key issues in the dissemination of knowledge to the general public, including removing financial and technical (language and equipment) barriers, however, the possibilities of podcasts extend further. Fox et al. (2021) argue that audio podcasts are ‘first and foremost a temporal medium’, meaning that they only exist as they are actively listened to because their content cannot be freeze-framed (like video), and skipping ahead risks missing essential content. For these reasons, Lucas and Thomas (2021) argue that podcasts offer further potential for constructivist pedagogies to enrich student experience and engagement with the material in contrast to the didactic lecture.

Affective and temporal dimensions

A critical component of the experience of listening to podcasts, and the mediums’ potential benefit for social policy education, lie in its affective dimensions. Podcasts are usually listened to using headphones, and, as a result, the experience of listening is considered to be like having the sounds ‘literally inside our heads’ (Singer, 2019, p. 575). Listening to podcasts can be an intimate experience (Fox et al., 2021; Singer, 2019) that promotes an emotional connection and empathy with the hosts and regular guests (Fox et al., 2021; Fronek et al., 2016). The audio-only format is understood to engage the listeners’ imaginations and the creation of mental imagery in the process of co-construction (Fox et al., 2021). The sociology of emotions, or affect, in contrast to psychological approaches, seeks to conceptualize the ‘impact of the social on the emoting subject but also to use emotions to understand and explain social phenomena’ (Holmes et al., 2019, p. 4). Examining the social context of educational institutions is critical to understanding the student experience of studying as they are ‘rife with symbolic phenomena’ to which we have affective responses such as ‘rules, laws, duties, traditions, hierarchies’ (Threadgold, 2020, pp. 24, 103). Reflexive analysis of the institutional and affective hierarchies (Lohmeyer & Threadgold, 2023) in education is essential for improving social policy education.

In addition to the affective experiences of podcasts, the mobile listening capacity provides unique flexibility, control and choice to the listener (Fox et al., 2021). Audio podcasts do not ‘harness one passively to a screen’ (Fox et al., 2021, p. 3) or require students to be present in a physical geographical location (i.e. in a classroom on campus) (Fronek et al., 2016). Instead, podcasts enable multitasking (Hitchcock et al., 2021) and learning ‘on the go’ (Singer, 2019, p. 576). Students can learn while commuting or carrying out routine domestic activities (Hitchcock et al., 2021). The temporal benefits of podcasts also extend to the classroom as in-person or live online contact with teachers can be reserved for active learning (Fronek et al., 2016; Hitchcock et al., 2021), and students retain a degree of control over the pace of their learning (Ferrer et al., 2020).

A sociological approach to time and temporality explores the complexities of the relationship between time and social experiences that is not ‘bounded by time or space in any simple way’ (Springer, 2012, p. 137). Instead, the experience of social spaces and times is influenced and produced by the complex interaction of social forces and ‘spatio-temporal configurations without necessarily affecting their materiality’ (Lefebvre, 1991, p. 77). Spatiotemporal considerations examine the interaction with what is ‘out there’ (Horton & Kraftl, 2006, p. 84) and the body, paying close attention to the ‘sounds and feelings in that particular moment’ (Ringrose & Rawlings, 2015, p. 90).

Unsurprisingly, the flexibility and intimacy of podcasts have been shown to return high student satisfaction (Hitchcock et al., 2021; Singer, 2019). Hitchcock et al. (2021) reported that most students in their classes enjoyed using podcasts as an assessment method compared to other assessment styles. Thirty-eight per cent believed it met the learning outcomes in a similar fashion. Podcasting appears to promote independent student learning (Ferrer et al., 2020), and is beneficial for students who are required to learn complex information or engage in reflective thinking activities (Singer, 2019). There are mixed reports on the impact of podcasting on learning outcomes (Fronek et al., 2016), including some reports that it has ‘no degradation of exam scores’ and ‘no differences in learning outcomes’ (Singer, 2019, p. 576) as compared to traditional lectures. Yet, these outcomes have not been tested in light of the challenging social work student attitudes to social policy.

There are concerns and gaps in the current literature about the impacts of podcasting, including that while online learning is viewed as an efficiency opportunity by universities, it can, in reality, be very time-consuming for academics (Irwin et al., 2022), that podcasts may ‘negatively impacting on attendance and active learning’ (Fronek et al., 2016, p. 106), and that they may contribute to the ‘commodification of teaching and learning’ (Lucas & Thomas, 2021, p. 924). Furthermore, there is scant literature evaluating the impact or conceptualizing the student experience of podcasting in social work education (Hitchcock et al., 2021). Ferrer et al. (2020) employ focus groups and interviews with 19 participants to evaluate their experience of creating podcasts as an assessment. Similarly, Hitchcock et al. (2021) surveyed 105 of their students, asking about ‘their prior experience with podcasting and technology in the classroom, as well as their specific experiences while completing the assignment’ (p. 179). Lucas and Thomas (2021) examined the creation of ‘audio-bytes’ from care-experienced young people to inform social work education in Scotland, but didn’t gather student experience data. Fox et al. (2021) employed podcasts in field education, but also did not gather student experience data. Belfiore et al. (2021) measured students’ racial attitudes using the Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale after they completed a course using the Seeing White podcast. Yet, in this case, the podcast was not specifically made for the course.

Podcasts appear to offer student engagement outcomes that, when implemented beyond simply a content delivery method, can enhance students’ affective connection to the hosts, lecturer and guests, offer flexibility for students under contemporary life pressures, and at least not compromise learning outcomes. These benefits seem well-placed to meet the negative perception of social policy among social work students. However, there are minimal attempts in social work literature to conceptualize the student experiences of podcasts specifically created as education content for a class or course.

Social policy classes and the podcast

I created the publicly available podcast Making and Breaking Social Policy as central content for the social policy classes in the Flinders University Bachelor and Master of Social Work programs. The class Social Policy Practice is taught in the second year of the Bachelor of Social Work, and Social Issues and Social Policy in the second year of the Master of Social Work. The title of the podcast is borrowed from Fawcett et al. (2010) in which the relationship between social policy and human services is described as follows: ‘social policy makes (and breaks) human services and human services make (and break) social policy’ (p. 1). In South Australia in 2021 and 2022, there were intermittent lockdowns due to COVID-19. COVID-19 was not the sole motivation for creating the podcast, as I had used podcasts as one among other teaching tools prior to COVID19, however, it also addressed accessibility issues at the time.

The pedagogical design was informed by a Flipped Classroom model (Counselman-Carpenter, 2019; Webb et al., 2021), and as such, the podcast and other online content replaced the traditional didactic lecture (Guy & Marquis, 2016). The classes were structured around weekly thematic social policy areas and a discreet podcast episode. Weekly tutorials were offered to on-campus and online students wherein they practised the skills of social policy analysis through a close reading and group discussion of a current social policy. The podcast format typically involved me interviewing a guest who has expertise in a topic area, including scholars, policymakers, politicians, and people with lived experience or involved in social movements. The podcast is publicly available at anchor.fm/makingandbreaking.

Methods

Participants and data collection

Students in the two classes were invited to reflect on their expectations and experience of the podcast as part of their social policy classes. They were invited to provide text-based responses to eight open-ended questions that focused on their perception of the classes before beginning and their experience of the classes to date. There were separate questions focusing on discreet elements of the classes, including the podcast, flipped classroom style and accessibility of resources.

Halfway through the classes, students were invited to participate via a general announcement on the online class page and subsequent reminders in the weekly content summaries. There is a typically hierarchical power dynamic between lecturers and students. As such, the following process was implemented to reduce opportunities for coercion and was approved by the Flinders University Human Research Ethics Committee, approval number 4805. Participants were directed via a hyperlink to an anonymous feedback tool to submit their responses. Responses were voluntary, anonymous, and could not be linked back to individual students. Students were not compensated or incentivized, and participation did not impact their grades. Students completed an online electronic form providing their consent to participate and demographic details that were processed via an external website so that it could not be linked to their survey response. Participants have been given pseudonyms in this paper.

Students in Social Issues and Social Policy in the Master of Social Work (MSW) were surveyed in the second half of 2021 and the first half of 2022 with 40 responses. Students in Social Policy Practice in the Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) were surveyed in Sem 1 2022 with 19 responses. Table 1 summarizes participant demographics (n = 59).

Table 1. Participant demographics.

Age		Ethnicity		Gender		Study Load		Study Mode		Caring Responsibilities
>20	2%	Australian	42%	Female	85%	Part-time	32%	On Campus	36%	Yes	44%
20–30	36%	White/European	35%	Male	4%	Full-time	56%	Online	56%	No	48%
31–40	29%	Chinese	9%	Non-binary	3%	N/A	12%	N/A	8%	N/A	8%
41–50	15%	Asian (broad)	9%	N/A	8%
51–60	8%	N/A	13%
<60	2%
N/A*	8%

*N/A = No Answer.

Data analysis

Survey responses were reflexively thematically analyzed (Braun & Clarke, 2019) using NVivo for persistent themes. Reflexive inductive analysis involves identifying themes while also recognizing one’s own bias in the process, requiring ‘continual bending back on oneself’ (Braun & Clarke, 2019, p. 549). Coding identified patterns within the data rather than imposing categories from the existing literature (Willis, 2019). A second round of coding, or ‘focused coding’ (Taylor et al., 2015, p. 180; Silverman, 2006, p. 96), grouped these codes into clusters or networks of themes (Attride Stirling, 2001). Codes were identified because they capture ‘something important in relation to the overall research question’ (Braun & Clarke, 2006, p. 82). The number of instances of a code is an insufficient justification for the importance of the theme in thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006; Taylor et al., 2015). In the literature outlined above, social policy practice is consistently described in broadly affective terms (intimidating and unpopular), and podcasts are claimed to promote affective (intimacy, connection, and empathy) and spatiotemporal (in our heads, harnessed to a screen) experiences. As such, the affective and temporal aspects of student responses to the podcast were examined and identified as two significant thematic networks. A third theme was identified that countered uncritical optimism about the potential podcasts, highlighting the risks and rewards of audio-based learning.

In the following section, I present the data from the themes and immediately analyze them compared to the literature rather than presenting the findings and analysis separately. In the analysis, close attention is paid to the embodied affective experiences of space and time students describe their expectations and experiences of policy practice and the podcast.

Limitations

As the creator of the podcast, the lecturer, and the sole author, I have a clear bias in coding and analysis in addition to limited strategies to increase trustworthiness and the issue of participant self-selection. The method outlined above aims to reduce the teacher-student power differential issue. The potential of bias in the analysis and coding to promote personal success is openly acknowledged. The sample of participants is also limited to one university in a relatively small social work program. Hence, the findings are situated as exploratory, not intended to be broadly representative.

Findings and discussion

Affective experiences

When asked about their perception of the class—referred to as a ‘topic’ by students—before starting, responses reaffirmed the existing literature about social work student expectations of social policy. The most common expectation of the classes was that they would be boring.

Arden (BSW): Before starting this subject, I honestly thought it was going to be hard, boring and take a lot of my energy to engage and understand.

Callaway (MSW): Extremely difficult, not my particular interest, boring subject.

Kit (MSW): I believed it would be one of the more tedious and boring topics in Social Work.

Along with being boring and tedious, students also consistently described their expectations in affective terms. Students expected the classes to be simply ‘dry’, “difficult, or ‘confusing’, but for some students they were ‘dreading’, ‘intimidated’, and felt ‘overwhelmed’ or ‘daunted’. Students also expressed being ‘nervous’, ‘scared’ or ‘worried’.

Lux (BSW): I was scared.

Sol (BSW): I was dreading the topic, as social policy was something I wasn’t interesting in and just sounded confusing.

Jessie (MSW): I initially thought the topic would be overwhelming and a bit confusing.

Carey (MSW): Daunting because social policy seems like a big topic, and I had little knowledge.

Tommie (MSW): I am not very fond of policy and was not looking forward to this topic.

These emotions are not new to the student experience of higher education, however, what makes their affective quality particularly important is the proposed affective potential of podcasts and the observable change in affect when students were asked about their experience of studying the classes. When students were asked what they enjoyed most in the classes, the most common answer was the podcast.

Robbie (BSW): The podcasts, readings, and Ben’s introductions. He is happy, engaging, and fun to listen to.

Noel (BSW): I love Ben’s video on what to do, and what is expected … This has been one of the most interesting, and fun topics I have done so far.

Fin (MSW): I have really enjoyed the podcast;

These participants choose affective description of their experience, including ‘happy’, ‘fun’ and ‘enjoyed’ reflecting Fox et al. (2021) and Fronek et al. (2016) argument that podcast can promote emotional connection and empathy. When asked about the podcast, participants again articulated their experience in affective terms. They consistently stated they found it relevant, interesting, and entertaining.

Jessie (MSW): I really enjoyed having the podcast in this topic. I had never had a podcast as part of the materials for a topic and I think it enhanced and further developed my understanding of different themes. I don’t learn best by just reading so hearing people’s real experiences was definitely a great resource.

Robbie (BSW): The podcasts are awesome. … I am strengthening my own knowledge from my learnings in this topic.

Rene (MSW): I love the podcast. I feel like I am engaging in every conversation even though I am just a listener. The podcast has made the policy learning very practical and I feel empowered after listening to it as I realize that I can actually advocate for social change through my practice.

Stevie (MSW): I really did enjoy listening to the podcasts, particularly as I could do these around other things like cooking dinner, cleaning, etc.

Jessie (MSW) described initially being concerned that the classes would be ‘overwhelming and a bit confusing’. They reported, along with Stevie (MSW), that they ‘really enjoyed’ the podcast as it brought new perspectives and learning methods. Both Robbie (BSW) and Jessie (MSW) describe a positive impact on their learning and specifically describe their potential to ‘advocate for social change’; a key desired outcome of social policy education in social work (Weiss-Gal & Peled, 2009, p. 369). These responses further support the position that audio and podcasts can build a connection and empathy between the listener and the hosts or guests. Students in this project routinely commented, as noted by Rene above, that they felt like they were part of the conversation.

Camden (MSW): Several of the guests have been lecturers of mine, and hearing them in conversation with a colleague discussing their work is usually more engaging than the lectures they give … It makes the content feel real and relatable … It reminds me that there are people out there having conversations like this in the field, and the podcast lets me in on these as a student and a person, rather than passively receiving disembodied information through journal articles … I also just enjoy being able to multitask with housework or something while still studying.

Tanner (BSW): The podcast is excellent. Usually, lecturers just read off of old lecture slides—which is not engaging and leads to rushed note-taking, rather than absorbing the information. Whereas I feel like I learn a lot from the podcast—it’s really current, interesting and feels like you’re part of a conversation.

Beck (MSW): I love the podcast. … it’s a great way to learn about topics via conversations between our course convenor and experts in a certain social issue.

Participants emphasized the value of a conversational style for their learning, demonstrating the value of podcasts to tackle the challenges of making policy practice engaging and enjoyable (Schwartz-Tayri, 2021; Street et al., 2022) and the relevance for practice (Henman, 2012; Weiss et al., 2006). The most striking among participants’ responses to their experience of the podcast was ‘love’. The repetition of this cultural expression for enjoyment, and its deeper affective value, is significant in light of the affective barriers to social policy.

Ali (BSW): I have absolutely loved the podcast. The podcast is an amazing learning tool and I have enjoyed every single episode I have listened to.

Arden (BSW): I’m loving it. I am much more interested in policy than I expected. … Again, I love it—I feel super engaged. I have always struggled with university subjects because they are theory/reading heavy. I don’t learn that way, my brain doesn’t take in any information when I am watching someone talk for an hour or I’m ready 3 × 25-page readings. I love the podcasts and other videos,

Max (MSW): I’m enjoying the learning, I love the content and the podcast.

In light of the challenges generating interest (Henman, 2012) in the intimidating and unpopular (Street et al., 2022) policy classes, the affective expression and connection with the topic expressed by the students is noteworthy. ‘Love’ would appear to indicate a degree of emotional connection and empathy that exceeds other descriptions of the content as ‘fun’ and the lecturer/guests as ‘happy’. These affective experiences suggest an intimate experience (Fox et al., 2021; Singer, 2019). While many complex variables could impact the student experience in the topic, these students specifically ‘love the podcast’ and ‘love this topic’ strongly identifying it as a crucial element. These participants’ experiences suggest having sound ‘literally inside our heads’ (Singer, 2019, p. 575) and the relevance of the conversation promoted a kind of affective intimacy that facilitated a strong connection to policy practice. The affective experience highlights the importance of connection in creating educative experiences and perhaps lends credence to Henman’s (2012) suggestion about the importance of a connection with the lecturer in addition to real-world policy practice.

Temporal affordances

One of the major benefits of podcasts, even compared to other forms of online content, is their portability and the ability to multitask. Participants in this project likewise reflected positively on the podcast in this topic for this reason. This benefit, as already indicated by Camden (MSW) and Stevie (MSW), is a spatiotemporal phenomenon as it saves the participants time in their crammed contemporary student lives allowing them not to be tied to a single space or screen (Fox et al., 2021), and enables them to come back to the content at another time.

Maddox (BSW): It’s been great! I can now listen to my uni work while doing my actual work, cleaning my house, going to the gym—I’m often busy and sometimes uni work gets pushed aside, so the ability to incorporate it into my activities has been really helpful for my learning.

Peyton (MSW): I can listen to it while doing other things (driving, cleaning) and this helps me to listen better rather than having to sit down and watch something, in which I tend to become bored and zone out.

Remy (MSW): This has made it easier to get through e.g. I can cook or clean while listening to the podcast instead of having to spend that hour at my laptop reading another journal article.

Tai (BSW): The format of being able to learn at my own pace and having a wide variety of experiences in my tutorial group makes for interesting topic discussion.

Participants reflected many of the existing known benefits of podcasts, including their control over the location of their learning, multitasking, the encouragement of active learning when in the classroom, and the pace of their learning. These students are not tethered passively to a screen. Neither are they required to inhabit the traditional learning environment and the associated social and institutional dynamics of a university. Fox et al. (2021) articulate the temporal dimension of podcasts in terms of the requirement to be present in the moment, with no facility to freeze time, yet some participants spoke to the value of the repeatable or replayable temporal dimension of podcasts.

Carey (MSW): It’s really convenient as I can listen and re-play anytime on the phone/laptop via Spotify app. It’s reassuring that the information won’t be disappeared. I think I will come back to this podcast in the future when I am on placement or feel the need to revisit some topics.

Colyn (MSW): I can listen in the car, doing household chores, while I’m falling asleep…and can go back to it again and again, picking up a little more in depth meaning or information each time.

The notion of replaying and repeating the content appears to support students’ understanding of the relevance of social policy for practice. As identifiable in the following excerpts, the podcast’s medium appears to improve their motivation for self-directed learning and long-term memory of the content.

Brooks (MSW): Listening helps me to focus on study whilst doing my chores, which means I can spend more time studying as well as keeping my household functionalish. The material was relevant and is still memorable months after listening to the first few.

Ash (MSW): The guest presenters have all raised important issues that are still sticking with me and, in many cases, I’ve gone off and had further discussions with others about or gone to do some independent reading on. It is their passion through speaking and interview that motivates me to learn more and do this, and I feel that is something you just can’t get from doing a dry reading.

The temporal nature of podcasts, in the ability to revisit and replay, appears also to offer an avenue to address the motivational and relevance challenges faced by social policy practice. Other students commented further on the ongoing and external relevance of the content and the podcast, stating they plan to ‘listen to them even if I am no longer a student to the topic’ and ‘outside study if there were new episodes’, and that they ‘recommended these to a lot of friends who are interested in this area’. The relevance of social policy appears to be more clearly communicated through this medium and has value that extends beyond the teaching semester and direct student cohort.

The systemic barriers of sound

The podcasts appear to benefit student engagement, enjoyment, and connection to social policy. The flexibility and temporal dimension of podcasts address the challenges of relevance and motivation for student engagement. Furthermore, the flexibility also appears to enhance access to the classes for students with diverse learning needs:

Reese (BSW): … my inattentive ADHD finds these much more engaging than a lecture/PowerPoint style delivery of information.

Blake (MSW): As a neurodiverse student (dyslexia, ADHD inattentive type, autism spectrum disorder) I … appreciated the way the flexible approach offered multiple modes of learnings.

Shawn (MSW): … as a student with an access plan for a mental health condition affecting my executive functioning. The structure of this topic has made it the most accessible and supportive I have undertaken in my degree. In a semester where I have also had to manage a mental health crisis, this is the only topic I have been able to hold on to and keep up with the content.

Addressing the barriers to access and education contributes directly to the profession’s commitment to social justice and the principles of universal access (Sherwood & Kattari, 2021). However, this study also revealed a significant barrier that podcasts can create.

Cameron (MSW): The learning structure, I’m sure, would be fine for those without disabilities—but it reminded me of how segregating education can be and I felt forgotten about when this learning structure was introduced. It didn’t take into account people who may need extra assistance. … Overall, I hated it. I’ll remember how this topic made me feel—and not very good,

The podcast was one of the most difficult parts of this topic. I understand it was essential learning for the topic—but I having hearing impairments and difficulties with focusing on sound. I had to use a transcriber in order to listen to it—but it couldn’t transcribe everything … These times actually made me cry. … I was also frustrated because others liked it because they could listen to it driving or walking—I don’t have that luxury either. I just had to sit and listen to it. Without visual aids it was hard to pay attention, understand what was being discussed, and go back for reference.

I’m totally demoralized and feel that I will never want to pursue anything relating to social policy because of this topic and learning style … I hated the podcast.

This student’s reflection highlights many vital issues that podcasts fail to address, and some they create. When many other students found this medium developed an affective connection, this student encountered disconnection. When other students encountered relevance and motivation, this student experienced demotivation. Far from triggering ‘listeners’ imaginations and have them co-construct their own mental pictures’ (Fox et al., 2021, p. 3), the podcast appeared to trigger the student’s ongoing experience of exclusion. This student’s experience occurred during the first semester that the podcast was first trialed. Adjustments were made to the delivery based on the feedback.

This student’s semester was during COVID-19, and in-person teaching was interrupted due to lockdowns, and universities rushed to put content online. There was a pilot at Flinders University to transcribe lectures, however this topic was not included. At the end of the semester, I discovered that student support services at the university offer transcription, however, students must have an access plan and request the support. Artificial intelligence transcribing is increasingly common in web conferencing software and in paid subscription-based podcasting software, however, it was not widely available at the time via university-supported platforms. This student’s experience demonstrates the significant (positive and negative) impact that affective connection and temporal dimensions can have on student motivation and experience in social policy and, as such, provides a warning of the dangers of uncritically adopting the technology. Furthermore, these structural and systemic barriers to inclusion and equity in education also highlight the need for critical thinking skills taught in social policy.

Considerations for future application

In light of these exploratory findings, the following are key considerations for future iterations of this pedagogical approach and for others interested in incorporating the insights into their classrooms.

• The informal and conversational content style designed specifically for podcasting offers intimacy and affective connection to difficult topics. Simply transferring lecture audio into a podcast (course casting) will likely lack these benefits.

• The mobile format of podcasts offers student flexibility, yet, consideration is needed on how this interacts with other learning resources and how students demonstrate their learning.

• Podcasts address some learning needs, however, alternative means of interaction (e.g. transcripts) are essential to address barriers to audio-only formats.

Conclusion

Social Policy is known to have an issue of perceived relevance and lack of engagement among social work students that persists despite attempts to make the topic ‘sexy’. While this is a small qualitative study of student learning experiences, improving social policy education in social work and social policy education addresses a major issue. Podcasting is attracting interest in social work to enact the profession’s social justice aims, though social work has been slow to adopt this and other technologies. This medium offers the potential to overcome the image problems of social policy with social work students, and, subsequently, an avenue to advance the profession’s aims for social policy as an area for intervention.

Examining students’ affective and temporal experiences in classes designed around a bespoke podcast as the central education content offers insights into the importance of these pedagogical dynamics in social policy education and engagement broadly. Building affective connection between teachers and students appears to offer an avenue to overcome some social work student barriers and expectations of social policy, and their understanding of the relevance for their practice. Furthermore, the spatiotemporal elements of podcasts have the potential to address a key issue in the overburdened contemporary student life. However, students expecting a class to be boring, and the complexity of student life is not restricted to social work. Podcasting is not a solution that will work for all circumstances, nor does it remove all systemic barriers to education. Simply shifting existing content to a podcast platform or even uncritical adoption of this technology is not a solution to policy practice’s problems. Podcasting as a fad offers little to progressing pedagogical practice.

To continue to advance social work’s aim for social policy to be a key target for enacting the profession’s aims, critically informed pedagogies are needed to engage students in social policy education. When employing this methodology, careful attention needs to be paid to adapting the medium of podcasting for the specific aims of the classes and the needs of students. This study provides exploratory insights into the affective and spatiotemporal benefits of podcasting as described by social work students studying social policy and offers an avenue to address the image problems and challenges faced by social policy.

Disclosure statement

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