Social worker roles in society
This role is done by systematic data collection, establishing hypotheses and verifying them, using professional and scientific techniques to carry out the contextual discovery, description, interpretation and evaluation of methods, processes and interventions and / or realistic plans of social behavior of social behavior.
It also assumes theories, methods and operational technical fields, which allows them to understand, explain and resolve social realities. This requires:
- Know and understand the different logics of knowledge construction, the way of facing the corresponding social reality and methods and technical procedures.
- Accept the search for alternative forms of reflection against social reality in permanent building.
- Understand the value of research and weigh your products to enrich professional performance.
- Formulate and guide research projects related to the design and evaluation of social policies and the thinking of promoting professional development.
- Investigate specific, collective and individual situations, providing possibilities for theoretical development and immediate and intermediate execution of projects.
There are eight types of social work research content:
- Determine the needs of social services.
- Value the adequacy and efficacy of the service.
- The content of the research process.
- Investigate the experience required to carry out different operations.
- Verify theories and concepts.
- Develop methods and means.
- Investigate the development and effectiveness of plans, services and concepts.
- Translation and proof of theories and knowledge obtained from other fields.
In the educational field, most schools and universities that carry out doctoral programs are more likely to participate in research tasks and use them in teaching. This is caused by university administration that encourages research development and doctoral programs. As a result, in a study carried out during the 1980-82 on articles published in Social Work Research and Abstracts, it has been seen that most research, 80% are carried out in academic institutions.
The interest in research is the result of the highest level of education in the profession, which can provide opportunities to maintain new relationships between schools and thus contribute to the research experience. And it is necessary to investigate institutions that have professionals, users and important topics.
Evaluation function
Fundamentally, the feedback function between theory and practice is used to obtain information and knowledge that enrich social work.
Feedback can be understood as a process that regulates the intervention of social reality through itself, so that there can be the dialectic between theory and practice. This feedback function is carried out mainly evaluating social practice. Evaluation as a source of feedback is not only a phase of the methodological process, but in itself it represents an enriching process for all social actions.
The evaluation process aims to qualify or judge a certain intervention in reality systematically and intentionally. Allows review, correction and orientation of future measures, current measures and the body or theoretical framework used.
The evaluation in social work is attributed specific characteristics based on the general conception of this discipline: its object, the guiding principles or values on which it is based, the characteristics of the processes that develop and the objectives of professional action.
Given the incipient development of the evaluation as part of the methodological process for social work and the relevance it has for its feedback function, it is important to look for forms of consistent evaluations and appropriate to the conceptual framework of the profession and the characteristics of each intervention.
Types of evaluation: The types of evaluations related to social work are very prominent and correspond in some way to their own research process model.
The retrospective evaluation can let you know previous social projects, or the scale and consequences of other interventions.
Prospective evaluation: It allows us to understand the viability of the project of variables such as time, resources, institutional capacities, etc. Refers to the future measurement process.
Experimental design evaluation: more rigorous methods are required and are not always applicable to very complex social environments. As the name implies, he performs ‘experiments’ through certain variables to carry out comparative studies on specific situations.
The conceptual evaluation: it is analyzed whether the reality agrees with certain theoretical postulates that relate theoretical frameworks and defined strategies.
The potential evaluation: allows the following process of analyzing through a different frame of reference to the proposed reference framework. For example, analyze the same project from a psychological angle.
The operational evaluation: it is an evaluation that is carried out during the implementation of the project. It refers to the current operating mode measurement process.
Finally, it is necessary to point out some aspects related to the stages of the evaluation process. In this sense, the determination must clearly and clearly state the objectives of the project in advance to facilitate the subsequent evaluation.
The choice of tools must be based on the frame of reference. Finally, the participation of the subjects involved in all stages can better assume the variables of change and conflict, the potential of the beneficiaries or their capacity for mobilization, and put into practice the values of our professional activities.
In the educational field, social workers carry out the evaluation of social programs that are developed in educational centers or in collaboration with other entities, as well as the participation in the quality evaluation of the services provided in the educational system.
On the other hand, the evaluation strategies used in the educational field include qualitative and quantitative methods, techniques, techniques and media. The evaluation form details evaluation resources. The results of the evaluation involve knowledge, classroom performance, educational activity plans, training courses and understanding of the project beneficiaries and their directors. . These analysis leads to conclusions and programs recommendations. (Jiménez & Sanhueza, 1986)
Bibliography
- Steel, c. (01 of 01 of 1988). Social Work Notebooks – Research in Social Work. Complutenses scientific journals (1). doi: https: // core.AC.UK/Download/PDF/38813223.PDF
- Jiménez, i., & Sanhueza, to. (January-April 1986). Social Work and Evaluation. Social Work Magazine (48). Retrieved on September 14, 2020, from https: // repository.UC.CL/XMLUI/BITSTREAM/HANDLE/11534/6349/000381751.PDF
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