Influences on social work identities: Has the social work degree influenced student motivations to become social workers?

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

Research TeamGlasgow School of Social Work

Sharpe Research King’s College London

Joan Orme Endellion Sharpe Jill Manthorpe

Gillian MacIntyre Shereen Hussein

Pam Green Lister Jo Moriarty

Kate Cavanagh (1951-2008)Stirling

Martin Stevens

Beth Crisp (Deakin)