Haikus: Using poetry to develop critical reflection in social work practice

Reflective practice is a key social work skill (SWE Standards, 42, 46, 48, 2020) and something that all social work students undertake and develop as part of their studies.

We have been working with students to develop their critically reflective practice by using haikus. We have had very positive feedback from students (qualifying and post-qualifying) and that the process of composing the poem led to a deeper level of critical reflection on their chosen scenario/subject. We have also been using this technique as a form of peer supervision, as we also run a support group for women who experience DVA.

We would like to share this activity with fellow social work practitioners and educators to support the development of critical reflection on practice. The activity supports people to distil the learning from an experience and aid their critical reflection on practice. Our research and experience has shown us that using this method has proved quite straightforward.

This workshop will explore the theory, share our research, include the experiences of the students who have taken part and give workshop attendees the opportunity to undertake the activity, and share their outputs (poems). The outcome of the event is to share good practice and a creative tool with students, practitioners, and all those involved in social work education to support the development of their critical reflection on practice. This is a very versatile tool, that supports the development of critical thinking and as such could also be a technique that could be used as part of social workers’ CPD and used as a peer reflection activity. This activity aligns with the themes of Social Work Week of Learn and Connect: as within the activity participants will be given the opportunity to share the haikus that they create.

Participants will be asked to write their haikus about their own experiences within practice and share them anonymously on a Padlet wall for all those attending to read. We will ask them to compose their haikus on the following topics:

• What being a social worker means to me
• The future of social work
• A practice dilemma

For further information on this event please contact Dr Orlanda Harvey, harveyo@bournemouth.ac.uk

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