Influences on social work identities: Has the social work degree influenced student motivations to become social workers?
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Influences on social work identities:
Has the social work degree influenced student motivations to
become social workers?
Introduction
• Motivations• Policy background• The Social Work Degree Evaluation• Students’ motivations to become social
workers• Implications for social work education and
practice
Why are motivations important?
• An influence on the quality and nature of the profession
• Informing recruitment strategies and supporting Newly Qualified Social Workers
• Balancing and interacting with other factors in deciding to become social workers– Availability of places– Image of social work (gendered?)– Level of support for the profession
Motivations to study
• Intrinsic and extrinsic – (self determination theory)• Interest in a subject
– Intrinsic nature of the subject– Extrinsic rewards of learning – Academic success, careers
or increase in knowledge (Breen and Lindsay, 2002)• Personal, professional or political motivations to do
social work?• Trends towards individualistic altruism motivations for
social work over 30 years• Different kinds of motivation can co exist
– A ‘meaningful career’ which also contributes to ‘society’s wellbeing’ (Marsh and Triseliotis, 1996: 28)
Policy background
• Government plans for modernisation of public services
• Changes in social care• New degree level qualification in social work
introduced in 2003• Changes to post qualifying education• Increased regulation of social work
Social Work Degree Evaluation• Five rounds of survey data = 2933 responses
– 13 motivations items, developed after discussion groups and from literature
– Students asked to select all and then their most important• Case studies 6 sites – data collected first and final
year– Focus groups with students– Interviews with staff – Vignettes with students
• Practice Assessors survey• Re analysis of GSCC data
Most common ‘selected’ motivations
• Helping individuals to improve the quality of their own lives (86% - 91%)
• Interesting, stimulating work (73% - 74%)• Personal ability to get on with people (71% - 74%)• Wish to tackle injustice and inequalities in society
(68% - 73%)• Variety of work day-to-day (66%-69%)• Good career prospects (50%-67%)
Underlying motivational factors (PCA)Factors Original items Factor loading
1 2 3Career Good Career prospects .120 .024 .767
Well paid jobs .059 -.008 .763Opportunities for flexible working .134 .148 .586
Altruism or personal qualities of students
Wish to tackle injustice and inequalities in society .266 .459 -.135Helping individuals improve the quality of their own
lives.362 .448 -.096
Especially suitable career for someone with life experiences like mine
-.076 .551 .004
Encouragement from family and friends -.046 .381 .253Day-to Day
High job satisfaction .598 .040 .151Variety of work day-to-day .691 .098 .116Interesting stimulating work .765 .037 .028Being able to exercise individual responsibility for making my own decisions
.410 .314 .133
Student’s characterisationsAltruisticTo me, the most overriding factor of people that need social services are, in fact, that they’re extremely poor. And my motivation is just to try and help someone achieve something that they want. And I think I’ll have done something if I can achieve that.
CareerI mean I have worked with homeless people and you know, I just thought it would be a good thing to do really, to get a qualification that would open up all the doors to me. So just working as a worker, rather than not having that qualification, I mean, it sounds really sort of awful, but I want a profession.
Day to day nature of social work...And I liked the idea of being able to work with so many different types of people, in so many different settings, like the kind of flexibility and no day being the same. Not having to be behind a desk all the time.
Most important underlying motivational factors
Most important motivations N %Altruistic or personal qualities 1960 69Day-to-day experience of social work
555 20
Career factors 334 12
Complexity of underlying motivational factors
Motivations mentioned N %Altruistic or personal qualities, Day-to-day
experience of social work and Career factors1605 56
Altruistic or personal qualities and Day-to-day experience of social work only
942 33
Altruistic or personal qualities only 170 6Altruistic or personal qualities and Career
factors only114 4
Day-to-day experience of social work only 17 1Career factors and Day-to-day experience of
social work only12 0
Career factors only 11 0
Stability of underlying motivational factors
Motivational factor 1st Yr 2nd Yr Final Yr
Total Cramer’s V
p-value
N(%)
N(%)
N(%)
N(%)
Altruistic/personal
1220(70)
508(68)
232(65)
1960(69)
0.037 0.139
Career aspects 206(12)
86(12)
42(12)
334(12)
0.003 0.986
Day to day nature of social work
320(18)
150(20)
85(24)
555(20) 0.045 0.057
Valid n 1799(100)
761(100)
373(100)
2933(100)
Student characteristics:Career
• Black students (not including Asian or ‘other’ ethnicities) more likely than with white
• Men were slightly more likely compared with women
• Students with previous voluntary work experience slightly less likely compared with those having paid experience with a social work employer
Student characteristics:Altruistic or personal qualities
• Students in the three older age groups were generally more likely compared with younger students
• Students with experience of paid or voluntary work in a related field were a little more likely compared with students having experience of paid work with a social work employer.
Student characteristics:Day to day nature of social work
• Youngest students were generally more likely compared with older age groups
• Postgraduate students more likely compared with undergraduates
• Students having experience of paid work with a social work employer more likely compared with students with experience of paid work in a related field.
Conclusion• Continuity with previous studies of Social work students’
motivations, • Complex mix of career or work based motivations, and
individualistic altruism, which remained dominant• Personal history reflects good and bad social work• Personal work history – students with experience of
working for a social work employer more focused on becoming a professional?
• Social work seen as less racist, attracting black males?• Paying close attention to students’ motivations and
previous experiences can help:– Planning curricula, selecting and supporting students– Support NQSWs to transition to workplace reality
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