Shivani Mishra, Social work Educator
Wishing you all a happy day and fabulous afternoon. I Dr Shivani Mishra , Director, Department of Social Work at Sardar Patel University,. Last 18 years working on multiple roles as a Social Work Educator , Researcher r and Administrator. Let me share how Living Educational Theory makes a difference in my all roles and directed to work on human flourishing.
The acclaim goes to the research paper of Dr Swaroop Rawal titled Making “The Impossible”, who firmly introduced me to the living educational theory. I earned certain research understanding from this paper
Who I am as an Educator?
It clarifies me the meaning of values I live by now as an educator
How my educational values is negating in my practice.- Living Contradiction
Very Relevant to me as it’s all about Social Work.
I felt that my role as an educator should make a positive contribution to the society (of course student too) in which I chose to teach. From her paper I came to know that the creation of living theories begins in practice and the creation begins in the kind of enquiries in answering and researching the question of the kind . This help me to develop enquiry for myself that “How do I enhance the process of Social Work Practicum with the help of modules of Life Skill Education”?
I believe social work pedagogy in my department did not make possible for the students to practice independently in the social work field. The guided fieldwork practice was so teacher-centric that it adversely impacts the students’ learning. Taking into consideration of one of my values is caring with the help of Swaroop Ma’am and I decided to start course on Life Skill Education at my university. I want to free students and teachers from ‘teaching to test’ work. The foundation to the course is Rawal LSE Module wherein 60 hours coursework followed by 346 field hours.
This course is a new pathway towards human flourishing why because here the social work students have their voice & choice in their learning; this self directed learning enabled them to work on field action projects. These projects provide an excellent opportunity for social work students to integrate and apply theoretical frameworks, knowledge, and understanding of the reality of social work practice. I also would like to add that all students who undergone these course are successful in their professional life and gave us a messge this course in boon in pandemic because we learn how to take care of our values.
Lastly i would like to say Since the foundation of social work profession is of value the I now understood how to put value into action and how to negate value into practice.
