Suchergebnisse

Perceptions of professional identity and its formation during education at the Faculty of Social Work, University of Ljubljana

Professional identity in social work can be described as a collection of identifiable and enduring professional qualities of social workers that bind them together as a professional group and make them different and unique compared to other professional groups. As the social work profession is devalued and stigmatized around the world, exploring the processes involved in developing a strong and positive professional identity is of great importance. The need to explore social work professional identity has been recognized in some places abroad and has mainly focused on researching professional identity formation during social work education. This paper presents findings on the definition and role of professional identity in social work, focusing on professional identity formation during education at the Faculty of Social Work, University of Ljubljana. Qualitative research on social work students' perceptions of professional identity is presented, as well as suggestions for a more frequent and discrete treatment of the topic during the education of future social workers.

The article examines the deliberation of
higher education (HE) scholars and practitioners on
research issues in the HE field, which has taken into
account the complexity of current trends of deglobalisation and changing characteristics of globalisation.
More precisely, the article offers a systematic review of
the ideas developed by focus group participants (FGPs)
from different parts of the world while debating internationalisation, globalisation and Europeanisation
with respect to the field of HE. These FGPs agreed that:
1) theoretical definitions used by academics and practitioners are currently socially constructed in a biased
way (in favour of the Anglo-North American point of
view); 2) academic research (notably conceptual definitions) must better take into account the issues contextually and dynamically across time and space; and
3) that HE research is in the stage when a more theoretically refined and a methodologically stronger new
global wave of empirical research is required for further
advancement of theorising and practitioners' work.
Keywords: higher education, methods, theory, definitions, globalisation, internationalisation, Europeanisation

This issue focuses on the digitalisation of education and on utilising technology in teaching and learning. This is not a new topic for the magazine – and with good reason. Both in theory and practice, incorporating ICT into education is a constantly developing field and process; new knowledge and developments are introduced into the practice of teaching more quickly than they are into various official strategies. "Digital transformation" is a term used in politics and at the decision-making level to describe the various processes and recommendations to governments about incorporating technology use in schools. Recently, these processes have been guided by the European Commission's (2021) Digital Education Action Plan. In this and similar strategies, it is important to distinguish between the processes of "digitisation", "digitalisation" and "digital transformation" (Schmidt & Tang, 2020). ; Tokratna tematska številka Andragoških spoznanj se posveča digitalizaciji izobraževanja in vključevanju sodobnih tehnologij v procese učenja. To temo smo v reviji že večkrat obravnavali – z razlogom. Uvajanje IKT v izobraževalni proces je namreč področje in proces, ki se nenehno razvija – teoretsko, pa tudi v praksi –, spoznanja pa se hitreje kot v različne strategije vpeljujejo kar v samo prakso poučevanja. »Digitalna preobrazba« je pojem, s katerim se predvsem na politični, odločevalski ravni opisujejo različni procesi in priporočila vladam glede vključevanja tehnologije v šole. V zadnjem času te procese usmerja zlasti Akcijski načrt za digitalno izobraževanje, ki ga pripravlja Evropska komisija (2021). V tej in podobnih strategijah je treba ločevati med procesi »digitizacije« (angl. digitisation), digitalizacije in pa »digitalne preobrazbe« (Schmidt in Tang, 2020).