Is there a particular object that has strong associations for you? Something that takes you back to a time or place? Perhaps it is not a physical object but a piece of music, a favourite dish or a particular smell?
Apprentices on the Social Work Integrated Degree programme at UCS were fortunate to welcome Dr Mark Doel, Emeritus Professor of Social Work at Sheffield Hallam on 28th November to deliver a lecture on his experimental, web-based research project socialworkin40objects.
Dr Doel is interested in the contested nature of social work and the public perception of social work as a profession. Borrowing the idea of a treasure chest of artefacts, he embarked on an experimental project to “enhance our relationship with social work by telling and listening to stories of social work through Objects”
This research project has been so successful that Dr Doel has received stories and donated objects from social workers across the world. He recently returned from Chile as a visiting scholar at the Universidad de Lagos where a sister site in Latin America has opened. As a result of the project Coram Children’s charity is also piloting a training programme to introduce participants to the power of objects in enabling children to tell their stories.
Apprentices were invited to bring and share an object that connects them to social work or represents what social work means to them.
To find out more about this project visit: https://socialworkin40objects.com/