CONNECT LIVED EXPERIENCE
Articles
Deepening our understanding.
Embedding experiential knowledge in the education of health care and social work: opportunities and challenges
Internationally, there is increasing attention to embed experiential knowledge and experts by experience in higher education. Although in the Netherlands as well as in Flanders, experts by experience are more and more involved in different courses, there is considerable hesitation to structurally implement expertise by experience in the curriculum and the educational practice. Inspired by literature and our own experiences in the educational curricula of health care and social (educational care) work in Flanders, we examine in what ways the embedding of experiential knowledge as a social intervention contributes to more inclusive higher education and the professionalisation of social and (health)care professions. The analysis sheds light on opportunities and challenges to implement experiential knowledge in a sustainable way within higher education.
The Needs of Academics and Experts with Lived Experience in Social Work Education
The involvement of people with lived experience in teaching social work has many advantages and reasons. The aim of the text is to find out what needs the teachers (as academics and people with lived experience) have when implementing this subject in their teaching and what the possible ways to fulfill them might be.
Focusing on Oppression in Social Work Education
This chapter stresses the importance of focusing on the oppression in social work education. It emphasizes that social work students need to deeply understand how the intersectionality of oppression works in clients’ situations in a society where individuals grow into neoliberalism. To bring a more substantial impact to the issue, a new teaching method was piloted based on combining experiential knowledge; work with personal, cultural, and structural analyses according to Neil Thompson; and the self-experiential techniques of the Theater of the Oppressed. The effects of the teaching were evaluated using a photovoice technique with students and people with lived experience. The data were analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis. The chapter introduces the teaching approach and evaluation results and further discusses how oppression could be taught in social work education. The chapter closes by presenting barriers to teaching about oppression as well as possible strategies to overcome them.
