Mirroring Meaning Making

Abstract

This article illustrates the use of students’ personal narratives and ‘thick description’ in reflecting on field and research experiences in a social work programme. Narrative as an educational tool enabled the authors to collaborate with students, field supervisors and each other in building reflexive links between past, present and future actions. In telling and retelling stories of lived experience around the tasks of social work, all players were able to come together and dialogue at deepening levels of understanding. The complexities involved in taking effective action were brought to the fore by the use of ‘thick description’ in students’ narratives of an identified learning moment. In the history of social work, stories abound of the struggles involved in consciously learning by doing. Our project allowed for such stories, written by students, to be used in facilitating the development of critical reflexivity as an integral part of becoming a practitioner. Subsequently, with student permission, some of these narratives were used in field educators’ workshops. This exercise has made for a weaving of theory, practice and reflection from the perspectives of students, academics and field educators to the shared ends of improving practice.