Learning to Use Theory

“To practice without theory is to set sail without a map. Theory without practice is not to sail at all.” (Susser, 1966, cited in Lishman, 1991)

Social work is a difficult job. When it works well, social workers can help people transform their lives. In extreme cases, social workers can even save lives. I have seen lives turned around by good social work practice. But bad social work practice can ruin lives, create misery, and even result in people dying.

Knowing what to do, when, how, and why to do it is far from easy in social work. Social workers don’t deal with easy problems. They don’t even usually deal with complicated problems. They deal with Wicked Problems. These are problems that are hard to define, hard to understand, and hard to solve, and worse still, where every potential solution runs the risk of making the things worse.

Therefore, a solid grasp of a range of theories is vital for good social work practice.

With a good grasp of theory you will have a clear sense of what your job is as a social worker. You will be able to help people make sense of their situations in ways that lead to positive change. You will be able to work with other people to create plans that will help people face the challenges of life and will enhance their well-being, and be able to implement and monitor the effectiveness of those plans.

All of this sets the scene for understanding what the learning objectives are for this site.

A Word of Warning About Writing Style

This website has been written primarily with a focus on practice, on the doing of social work, not on the academic requirements of studying social work. As a result, in many places, it breaks academic rules. The writing style is chosen to help me, the writer, communicate with you, the reader. It will, therefore, be quite informal. It is also a living, growing, developing website, so not every page will be as well supported with references and evidence as I would expect from a student essay.

I ask you to be aware of that and recognise the limits of this site. I also strongly urge you to use the suggested further reading you will find throughout this website.

Having read this Introduction, why not take a look at the next page where I outline the Learning Objectives for this site.

Last update by M. Allenby – 12.9.17