Creativity, Reflection and Effective Practice

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Creativity, Reflection and Effective Practice
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The Effective Practitioner

• An effective practitioner is one who has acquired
  experience, reflected upon that experience and
  draws upon that experience together with evidence
  and theoretical knowledge in order to provide the
  best intervention for service users in complex
  situations

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Competence is not enough!

• The professional role can be divided into two
• Technical rational aspects of the role
  (competence)
• Exercising professional judgment (creativity)
• (Sheppard 1995)

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• The ability to synthesize information from a
  unique situation into an empowering practice
  intervention
• The ability to think outside the book (SWIG
  2006)

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Professional Artistry

• The meaningful expression of a uniquely
  individual view within a shared tradition and
  involves the blending of practitioner qualities
• Mc Cormack and Titchen 2006)

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A blend of..

• Personal qualities
• Practice skills
• Creative imagination processes
• Practice wisdom

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• Professional artistry
• Professional competence
• Creative reflexivity
• Optimum practice environment and outcomes

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• Hatton (2007) develops a definition of creativity
  incorporating the desire to improve practice and
  to create new forms of practice. He draws heavily
  on European influences of pedagogy to revisit
  relationship based social work and describes
  creativity as having three central elements

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• To modify existing ways of doing things to make
  them more relevant to people providing and
  experiencing services.
• To challenge current ways of doing things and in
  particular to expose the limitations of forms of
  practice which focus on outcomes and which
  neglect relationships as an integral part of
  practice.
• To develop new ways of doing things which build
  on the best elements of current practice but
  which also draw on European traditions of
  pedagogy and social pedagogy. (Hatton 2007 p3)

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• Creativity and innovation are necessary facets of
  good practice
• Practice requires both competence and the ability
  to exercise professional judgment
• Holding onto innovation and creativity is a
  continuing challenge for practitioners

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• Service users value practice that is
  individualised innovative and creative
• Practitioners need to be both reflexive and
  pro-active to maintain innovation

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Reflexivity

• The conceptual minefield
• (Ixer 2000, Quinn 2000, Ruch 2008)

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• Operationalisation of reflection is complex and
  multi-faceted.
• Different modes having different objectives and
  outcomes (moon 1999)

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Anxiety emotions and reflective practice

• The consequences of children experiencing
  emotional and physical pain, betrayal and
  abandonment are the bread and butter of social
  workers caseloads
• (RUCH 2008, P22)

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• Complexity, messiness and ambiguity characterize
  social work practice (Taylor 2006)
• Problems are articulated through practice as
  professionals attempt to manage this messiness
  (Ackoff 1979)

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• The relationship between child care practice and
  the context in which it operates is a symbiotic
  one, they are interdependent upon each other and
  shaped by the others existence it is not
  possible to separate practice from the context in
  which it occurs

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Tensions in practice

• Regulations and accountability
• Managerialism
• Evidence informed practice
• Supervision surveillance and innovation

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CASEWORK CONSULTANT
CRITICAL INNOVATIVE PRACTICE
Employees

Reflection Salaried

Practice innovation
Accountable
Emotional/
Quality
Practical support

Risk Manager


ORGANISATION

PROFESSION
Monitoring

Skills ignored/underdeveloped
Standards
Lack of trust
Emotional costs
Risk aversive

Stressful networks
Optimum supervisory environment for innovative
/effective practice
SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM
REGULATED
AND DEFENSIVE PRACTICE
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Remaining effective

• Learning organisations
• Emotional intelligence
• Reflective and emotionally literate support
  systems

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• Practice over time and with familiarity can
  become mechanistic so also can the reflective
  models designed to facilitate a deeper
  understanding of both self and practice
  situations
• Utilising the literary and visual arts as a means
  of expression can revitalise the reflective
  process and make it more creative and fulfilling

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• it is not the quality of the portrayals as art
  that is the most valuable, it is the quality of
  the
• insights across a number of drafts that capture
  practice and the critical commentary that
  accompanies them (Fish 1998)

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Social pedagogy combining personality with
competence
Productive competence
Analytical competence
The competence of action
Communication competence
Expressive competence
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Some examples from practice..

• What practitioners say
• The task
• The reflection

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• And bending down beside the glowing bars,murmur,
  a little sadly, how love fled
• And paced upon the mountains overhead
• And hid his face maid a crowd of stars

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• As another door closes, another one opens..

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Exercise

• With the materials provided create a
  representation of how you experience a case from
  practice
• The use of art enables exploration of embodied
  knowing (what is like to be creative, do we feel
  creative? What helps or hinders creativity)
• Through the medium of art this knowing is bought
  into the worldview that guides our practice
• Links between cognitive and emotive aspects of
  thinking that are not always joined can be
  expressed

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References

• Clarke , J. (1998) Thriving on Chaos?
  Managerialism and Social Welfare
• Charles , M. ( 2004) Creativity and Constraint in
  Child Welfare inLymbery, M and Butler, S. (eds)
  Social Work Ideals and Practice Realities
  Basingstoke Palgrave Macmillan.
• Hatton, K. (2007) New Directions in Social Work,
  Exeter Learning Matters

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• Loveless, A. (2002) A Literature Review in
  creativity, New Technologies and Learning A
  Report for NESTA Futurelab. Bristol, Nesta
  Futurelab available online http//www.nestafuture
  lab.org.uk
• Morgan, R. (2006) About Social Workers A
  childrens views Report London Commission for
  Social Care Inspection
• Service User Inclusion Group (SUIG) Notes from a
  creativity workshop Unpublished document
  University of Portsmouth

Loveless, A. (2002) A Lite
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• Sheppard, M, (1995) Social work, social science
  and practice wisdom British Journal of Social
  Work 25 p265-293
• Woods, P. (1995) Creative Teachers in Primary
  Schools Buckingham Open University Press
• Ruch G(2009) ED Post qualifying Childcare social
  Work Sage London
• The flower of culture and education
  http//www.gedvedsem.dk/default.asp?ID2645

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• www.socialpedagogy.co.uk