TOWARDS A THEORY OF SOCIAL-WORK EXPERTISE

This paper begins by summarizing the results of a qualitative explorat ory study of thirty experienced social workers which was undertaken in order to identify some characteristics of social work expertise. Some of the features identified include a confidence with professional ide ntity and an ability to deal with complexities. Participants were also able quickly to prioritize relevant factors and were aware of constra ints and resources, but made conscious use of formal theory only minim ally. The full results of this study are reported elsewhere (Fook et a l., in press). The main purpose of this paper is to explore the implic ations of these results in developing a theory of social work expertis e. The issues examined include the debates around the relationship bet ween theory and practice in social work, the generic versus the specia list nature of social work, the relevance of existing theories of expe rtise to social work, and the affirmation of artistic elements of soci al work practice.