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Groupwork is a core method of social work intervention, yet in our experience, social work students and early graduates rarely embrace the idea of facilitating groups, nor foresee that as a role they would like to fill. Through our years of experience in practising and teaching groupwork, we have learned that one of the reasons for this reluctance is the fear of conflict. This paper focuses on our journey of understanding the role of conflict in groups viewed through the lens of Tuckman's 5 stages of groupwork. Through a series of examples from practice, we provide readers with strategies we have used for managing conflict in a groupwork practice setting. The aim of this paper is to provide social work educators, students and graduates with an understanding of why conflict occurs in groups and to provide a toolbox of strategies to respond to conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the growing number of publications focusing on eco-social work, there remains a lack of eco-social work approaches taught in social work degree programs. Social workers are often at the forefront of responding to the needs of communities post natural disasters, and it has become apparent that the natural environment is increasingly a major influence on social work practice. However, the apparent dearth of eco-social work content in social work education leaves practitioners uncertain about how they might respond to environmental issues. This study explored social work students' perceptions of eco-social work, the extent to which they felt prepared to respond to environmental issues, their desire to learn more about eco-social work, and where they felt those lessons might fit within their degree. This research contributes to a growing body of literature by arguing that to adequately prepare social workers to practice in a world increasingly impacted by environmental changes, eco-social work must be embedded in the coursework of Australian social work degrees. IMPLICATIONS Social work students understand environmental issues as a key factor influencing the individuals and communities they work with. For social workers to address environmental injustice, they need to learn about eco-social work practice approaches. Social work educators need to include eco-social work approaches in their curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION: The data presented in this research brief are drawn from a project which asked 12 former prisoners what they thought outsiders should know about imprisonment and release. One of the themes arising from the data suggested that, rather than participating in a mandated programme or professionally delivered intervention, the reasons for successfully staying out of prison were based on relationships and connections. Sometimes these relationships were with family, community, a specific worker or group and, for six of the women, with companion animals. It was a combination of these relationships which helped the participants find their own pathways to staying in the community and, eventually, out of the criminal justice system. APPROACH: Data were created using Photovoice, an arts-based, qualitative, participatory action research method where participants take photographs and then use those images to help tell their story. Participants were invited to talk about anything they saw as important for outsiders to know about their experiences of imprisonment and release. Unexpectedly, six of the women chose to speak about the importance of their relationship with companion animals. FINDINGS: The data presented here show the value that women in this project placed on their relationships with companion animals. More broadly, their data point to the importance of having non-judgemental relationships and the benefits of being able to 'give back'. CONCLUSION: The unexpected findings presented in this research brief suggest that social workers must take into consideration all relationships criminalised women have, not just those with other humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some interventions by social workers, teachers and parents take time to develop but can produce, in the longer term, powerful and unexpectedly positive results. We were reminded of this in 2013, when we undertook a small qualitative study where we used feminist memory work to explore the experiences of 11 women from low socio-economic backgrounds studying social sciences at an Australian university. Of the eleven participants, seven were from social work. When asked to remember their journey into tertiary education, the women revealed memorable encounters with social workers, teachers and parents, the impact of which had lasted well into the future. We use the gardening metaphor of ‘planting a seed’ to refer to interventions that may not blossom in the short term but can bear fruit months or years later. Yet, we also note that ‘seeds of doubt’ can be planted too. We conclude by suggesting that planting seeds of possibility is a worthy but potentially overlooked professional activity. Yet, since ours is a small study, further research is warranted to explore the influence of social workers who plant seeds of possibility and whose actions help to recruit and retain socially disadvantaged students in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]