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Participatory social work and report writing
Author(s) -
Roose Rudi,
Mottart Andre,
Dejonckheere Nele,
Van Nijnatten Carol,
De Bie Maria
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
child and family social work
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.912
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1365-2206
pISSN - 1356-7500
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2206.2008.00599.x
Subject(s) - citizen journalism , perspective (graphical) , social work , diversity (politics) , work (physics) , participatory action research , sociology , pedagogy , psychology , professional writing , public relations , engineering ethics , political science , computer science , engineering , mechanical engineering , artificial intelligence , anthropology , law
Participation of children and parents is a central notion in child and family social work. This paper reports on a research dealing with how the participative paradigm comes to the fore in the practice of report writing in the work with looked‐after children. As social work is essentially a language‐centred activity, report writing is a core skill in social work. A participative practice of report writing would imply that the perspective of the children and parents is present in the reports. The results of our research show that a participatory approach to writing reports is not self‐evident. On the one hand, the practice of report writing shows a big diversity in the way the client's perspectives are given attention. On the other hand, the incorporation of the client's voice does not necessarily stand for a participatory approach because it may be used to strengthen professional views rather than clarify clients' perspectives. The case is made in such a way that a participatory approach of child and family social work demands more attention to the practice of writing reports.