ARC Discovery grant, $220,130
Professor Manohar Pawar, Professor Richard Hugman, (UNSW), Mr. Andrew Alexandra (CSU) & Associate Professor A. W. (Bill) Anscombe. (CSU)
The project aimed to analyse and develop core virtues of social workers to strengthen the social fabric of individuals, families and communities. The increasing demand for sound judgement and appropriate decision making, often in the unpredictable and uncertain contexts, necessitates a focus on virtue-led social workers' action. The interdisciplinary and mixed method analysis demonstrated the largely neglected role of virtues and/or character dispositions in facilitating improved social services and in building stronger communities. The research has both theoretical and practical implications for virtue-led social work practice that will result in communities living healthy, productive and fulfilling lives.
The project explored social workers' virtues and virtues-based social work practice. The three main objectives were:
The research questions were:
By employing a combination of both qualitative and quantitative research methods, the research was conducted in three phases. Phase I: Biographic data collection and analysis and a workshop with a view to develop ten biographies of social workers and identify virtues in their practice; Phase II: Data collection from social workers, social work supervisors and social work ethics educators to explore whether and how social workers develop and apply virtues in their practice; and Phase III: Data analysis, report writing publication and dissemination.
Photo taken at ARC Workshop held at CSU Wagga Wagga
A first phase of the ARC discovery project culminated into a two day workshop (10-11 December 2014) held at Wagga Wagga campus, bringing together eminent social work and philosophy academics from nine Australian universities. Participants critically discussed virtues in ten biographies of Australian social workers and provided rich data for further analysis and interpretation. The workshop was led by CIs, Prof. Manohar Pawar (CSU), Prof. Richard Hugman (UNSW); Mr. Andrew Alexandra (Melbourne Uni) and A/Prof. Bill Anscombe (CSU). Ten biographies have been published as an edited book, Empowering Social Workers (see below). The successful completion of the first phase of the project led to the second and third phases of the project which have been completed as planned.
Hugman, R., Pawar, M., Alexandra, A., Anscombe, A.W. (Bill) & Wheeler, A. (2021) Virtue ethics in social work practice. London. Routledge.
Pawar, M., Hugman, R., Alexandra, A. & Anscombe, A. W. (2020) A search for virtue ethics: Social work ethics curriculum and educators’ survey. ILWS report 128 Monograph. Charles Sturt University: Wagga Wagga.
Pawar, M., Hugman, R., Anscombe, A.W. & Alexandra, A. (2019) Searching for Virtue Ethics: A survey of social work ethics curriculum and educators. The British Journal of Social Work. doi: 10.1093/bjsw/bcz106 https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/bjsw/bcz106/5576173
Pawar, M., Hugman, R., Alexandra, A. & Anscombe, A.W. (2018) Virtue-led social work practice. In Pawar, M., Bowles, W. and Bell, K. (2018) Social Work: Innovations and insights (Ed.). Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing.
Pawar, M., Hugman, R., Alexandra, A. & Anscombe, A.W.B. (Eds) (2017) Empowering Social workers. Virtuous practitioners. Springer
Pawar, M., Hugman, R., Alexandra, A. & Anscombe, A. W. (2017). Introduction -- the role of virtues in social work practice. In Pawar, M., Hugman, R., Alexandra, A. & Anscombe, A. W., Empowering social workers: Virtuous practitioners (Ed). Singapore: Springer. DOI:10.1007/978-981-10-3809-9_1
Fernandes, C. & Hugman, R. (2017). Voice to the Voiceless — Sue Ash, AO. In Pawar, M., Hugman, R., Alexandra, A. & Anscombe, A. W., Empowering social workers: Virtuous practitioners (Ed). Singapore: Springer. DOI:10.1007/978-981-10-3809-9_2
Pawar, M. (2017). But you can push and push and push — Diana Batzias. In Pawar, M., Hugman, R., Alexandra, A. and Anscombe, A. W., Empowering social workers: Virtuous practitioners (Ed). Singapore: Springer. DOI:10.1007/978-981-10-3809-9_3
Andrew, A. & Pawar, M. (2017). Empower people to take control of their own lives — Tom Calma, AO. In Pawar, M., Hugman, R., Alexandra, A. and Anscombe, A. W., Empowering social workers: Virtuous practitioners (Ed). Singapore: Springer. DOI:10.1007/978-981-10-3809-9_4
Anscombe. A. W. & Rush. E. (2017). Respect and Integrity — John Gavaghan. In Pawar, M., Hugman, R., Alexandra, A. and Anscombe, A. W., Empowering social workers: Virtuous practitioners (Ed). Singapore: Springer. DOI:10.1007/978-981-10-3809-9_5
Rush. E. & Anscombe. A. W. (2017). Respect and Integrity — John Gavaghan. In Pawar, M., Hugman, R., Alexandra, A. and Anscombe, A. W., Empowering social workers: Virtuous practitioners (Ed). Singapore: Springer. DOI:10.1007/978-981-10-3809-9_6
Pawar, M. & Wendy B. (2017). A people world, rather than a paper world — Bronwyn Hyde. In Pawar, M., Hugman, R., Alexandra, A. and Anscombe, A. W., Empowering social workers: Virtuous practitioners (Ed). Singapore: Springer. DOI:10.1007/978-981-10-3809-9_7
Pawar, M. & Briskman, L. (2017). I cannot give up, I cannot give up on the children — Bernadette McMenamin, AO. In Pawar, M., Hugman, R., Alexandra, A. and Anscombe, A. W., Empowering social workers: Virtuous practitioners (Ed). Singapore: Springer. DOI:10.1007/978-981-10-3809-9_8
Pawar, M. & Nipperess, S. (2017). You roll up your sleeves and help people — Robyn Miller. In Pawar, M., Hugman, R., Alexandra, A. and Anscombe, A. W. Empowering social workers: Virtuous practitioners (Ed). Singapore: Springer. DOI:10.1007/978-981-10-3809-9_9
Pawar, M. and King, S. (2017). Hunger for movement and action — Sue Vardon, AO. In Pawar, M., Hugman, R., Alexandra, A. and Anscombe, A. W., Empowering social workers: Virtuous practitioners (Ed). Singapore: Springer. DOI:10.1007/978-981-10-3809-9_10
Anscombe. A. W. (2017). What You Know Plays Out in Action — Jill Wilson, AO. In Pawar, M., Hugman, R., Alexandra, A. and Anscombe, A. W., Empowering social workers: Virtuous practitioners (Ed). Singapore: Springer. DOI:10.1007/978-981-10-3809-9_11
Pawar, M., Hugman, R., Alexandra, A. & Anscombe, A. W. (2017). Virtue-led social work practice. In Pawar, M., Hugman, R., Alexandra, A. and Anscombe, A. W., Empowering social workers: Virtuous practitioners (Ed). Singapore: Springer. DOI:10.1007/978-981-10-3809-9_12
The details of the research project have been presented at the following 12 national and international platforms.
The expected outcomes include:
Contributions to existing field:
This discovery project has provided a new perspective to social work education, practice and research by focusing on the application of virtue ethics in social work and thereby contributed to the interdisciplinary research. Compared to the professions such as medicine and nursing, the social work profession has lagged in purposely researching and integrating virtue ethics in social work. This project has clearly contributed to addressing this gap in social work as a discipline and profession. The process, outputs and outcome of this research has engaged
interested social work practitioners and scholars, and virtue ethicists in this line of inquiry that will raise awareness of the role of virtues or character/qualities and will strengthen the professional and personal being in an integrated manner so as to deliver quality services for the benefit of people and communities.
Discoveries made:
The project has led to:
Importance of research conducted:
Social workers and social services play crucial roles in building Australia’s social fabric as well as globally. Although the need for quality social work services is growing in several sectors, including child protection, ageing, mental health, community service organisations and community development areas, people’s willingness regarding helping and volunteering is changing. In a fast ageing society with several social consequences, this research helps to develop helping virtues in people so that they live in a strong sense of community and contribute to creating a good society. By reading and discussing biographies of inspiring social workers and their qualities, helping professions and professionals can be trained and prepared to serve people and society with commitment, passion, courage and integrity. Overall, the development of such qualities help deliver high quality services and serve people better.
New research direction identified:
Future research needs to focus on further conceptual clarity and development of virtues. As the demand for education and awareness is likely to grow in coming years, evidence-based educational and training resources are needed. Research on virtues from philosophical perspectives to practical perspectives is needed.
Innovations, for example use of new, untested methods or theories:
In many respects, the conceptualisation of research project may be considered as innovative as to our knowledge, such a project has not been conceptualised and implemented in the Australian context. The discovery project was innovative in terms of (1) adapting and developing Wengraf’s (2001) Biographic Narrative and Interpretative Research Method; (2) developing and analysing social workers’ biographies from virtue perspectives; and (3) identifying and analysing virtues from practice experiences of social workers.
CONTACT
Prof Manohar Pawar
CSU-Wagga Wagga
email