School of Social and Political Science

Description

Explore practice education, leadership and ecologies for learning, and delve into the use of creative methods of supervision.

This is an in-person event aimed at Practice Educators. It is essential to book via this platform to guarantee your place. Refreshments will be served.

Practice education, leadership and ecologies for learning in Scottish social work

Social work is an extraordinary job rarely understood by anyone that has not been immersed in it, and the profession is regularly described as at the cusp of transformation. As 2026 brings the emergence of a new Social Work Partnership and the publication of Valuing Practice: Scotland’s Framework for Social Work Education and Learning, there are new opportunities to imagine the shape of how learning happens and how we support this.

We will explore ideas from research studies into social workers’ learning in the workplace, what has inspired their learning and how organisations support pre and post qualifying learning for the profession. Key messages from The Scottish Social Worker’s Practice Learning Handbook will also be shared. This could be mistaken to be an individual social worker’s guide. Instead, this takes a journey through our rich tradition of creative approaches, our treasure chest of research and history of authentic relationships that support social work learning and development. Building on this foundation and reflecting on what we mean by learning environments can help us create a future in which everyone is a learner, an educator and a leader (whether they realise it or not).

Speaker: Dr Gillian Ferguson

Dr Gillian Ferguson is currently a Lecturer in Social Work and Programme Leader for the Doctorate in Health and Social Care at The Open University. She is an educational researcher interested in professional and practice learning. Her research “When David Bowie Created Ziggy Stardust: The lived experiences of social workers learning through work” has helped reconceptualise how we understand social workers’ learning and its complexity. Gillian is the author of The Scottish Social Worker’s Practice Learning Handbook. Gillian has worked across practice settings, in learning and development roles, in regulation and Higher Education across disciplines. She is a registered social worker with the SSSC and an active practice educator.

Workshop: Use of Creative Methods in Supervision

Speakers: Dr Autumn Roesch-Marsh and Karen Armstrong

There is also a growing evidence base about how creative and arts engaged methods support reflective learning and wellbeing. Creative methods can help when supervision is a bit stuck or learners are more visual. In this workshop Autumn Roesch-Marsh and Karen Armstrong will explore with participants some creative methods to use in supervision with social work students. The workshop will be hands-on, with participants getting the chance to ‘have a go’ themselves with exercises they could bring back to use with students.

Dr Autumn Roesch-Marsh is a social worker and Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Edinburgh. Her research interests include care experience, social work education, co-creation, and creative and arts engaged research and practice. For the last four years she has been Co-Director of The Binks Hub, an innovative research Hub dedicated to co-creating research evidence with communities using arts-engaged methods.

Karen Armstrong is a social worker, practice educator, Lecturer and Director of Practice learning at University of Edinburgh.