About
Information about the project and the team
What are we aiming to discover?
Our research aims to explore employer perceptions of social workers professional practice. With this knowledge we hope to uncover any discrepancies between what employers expect and what social work delivers in the workplace, to improve the retention of social workers in the workplace, and support the utilization of the breadth of the social work skill set. This research may also be used to inform regulatory or curriculum changes.
The key questions we are trying to answer are:
The key questions we are trying to answer are:
- What core functions, skills, and knowledge are required for translation of social work values including social justice into practice?
- What expectations do Alberta employers have of Registered Social Workers (RSW) that may be unique to the social work profession?
- What are the perceived benefits/drawbacks of hiring registered social workers, if any?
- What is the relationship between professional social work practice and the code of ethics, from the employers’ perspective?
- How do those who employ Registered Social Work (RSW) practitioners perceive social justice?
- What are the contextual/organizational issues that facilitate or impede the pursuit of social justice from an employer’s perspective?
Meet our Team
Anne Marie McLaughlin, PhD., RSW, Associate Professor, Principle Investigator
My background is in community mental health and child welfare particularly in rural and northern communities. My research interests are in the area of professional social work practice, practice regulation and the translation of professional values into practice. I am passionate about the profession, and I love working with students to become their very best! I am a member of the Council of Accreditation, an arm of the Canadian Association of Social Work Educators. Some of Dr. McLaughlin’s articles and chapters include; A guide to macro-level field placements for social work students, field instructors, and field liaisons, Supporting youth leaving care in rural Canada: Clinical practice and social justice, From tenuous to tenacious: Social justice practice in child welfare, and Mending the disconnect: Child welfare workers embracing social justice.
Patricia Samson, PhD., MSW Associate Professor, Co-Investigator
Dr. Samson is an experienced social work practitioner with over 28 years of practice experience working in the areas of domestic violence, justice support and correctional services, mental health, and community-based healthcare. Her experience working in these fields has helped her bring a depth and breadth of knowledge into her research and developed her passion to create sustainable impact beyond the university. The primary focus of Dr. Samson’s research is in two key areas: 1) social work education, and 2) health and mental health, specifically supporting social workers within the healthcare sector, and service delivery integration around child and youth mental health. The overarching objective in her research is to promote the development of critical thinking and critically reflective practice for social workers, in both education and practice.
Dr. Erin Gray, PhD., Co-Investigator
My research, which utilizes qualitative methods, mixed methods and program evaluative approaches, highlights the necessity, best practices and challenges of promoting productive partnerships across governments, universities and communities to advance health and general well-being among vulnerable individuals, children and families living with low income. My current areas of interest are Indigenous-led housing for youth and young adults and ethical social work practice in the field of child protection. This research is intended to shed light on the need to further develop and improve existing social policies and programs that serve marginalized citizens. I am passionate about the promotion of social justice outcomes in ethical social work practice. I love camping and spending time in the mountains with my family.
Dr. Siu Ming Kwok, PhD., Associate Professor, Co-Investigator
The level of a society’s civility reflects on how it treats its marginalized and valuable populations. Professor Kwok’s understanding of social work is a profession that should be the social conscience of the society. It should find ways to address structural inequalities, translate theories to practical knowledge in order to solve day-to-day issues in local communities; and build a strong democracy to promote human rights for generations to come. With such believes, Professor Kwok insists that a social worker should be trained along three dimensions: research, practice, and teaching. A social worker should be a researcher to investigate a problem, create knowledge, and provide solutions to improve the well-being of mankind. A social worker should be a practitioner to use practice expertise to serve his/her community. A social worker should be an educator with the obligation to train and pass on social work knowledge to next generation of social workers and let them to continue the mission of social work of making the society a better place to live for our further generations.
Roxanne Pereira, MSW, PhD. student, Research Assistant
My professional background has been primarily in forensic social work with youth who have been charged with a variety of offences. I have also worked in private counselling practice, adoptions, and Children’s Services. My teaching experience has been as a sessional instructor at MacEwan University and University of Calgary in social work. I have done research with youth who have FASD and their caregivers, youth convicted of sexual offences, and now on this project regarding social work professionalism. My methodological background is primarily with quantitative methods and have enjoyed learning about qualitative methods through this project. My interests are in critical quantitative methods and social justice.
Jane Slessor, MSW, RSW, PhD. student, Research Assistant
I am an uninvited white settler occupier who lives in Amiskwaciwâskahikan, in Treaty 6 territory and Métis homelands. I have been a registered social worker since 2005 and have spent most of my career working and learning alongside people experiencing houselessness. These days, I teach social work and am a PhD Student. I am, at core, an anti-oppressive social worker who spends a great deal of time thinking about social work practice, education, and research in Indigenous sovereignty. This is a lens I bring to much of the work I do. My research efforts have focused on looking at decolonizing social work and my role in this as a white settler social worker. My master’s thesis looked at the importance of integrating opportunities to connect with culture for Indigenous housing participants in the Housing First program. My current proposed research, Decolonizing nonprofits: Pathways forward and the wisdom of not-so-docile frontline social workers who waver, persist and/or resist, will explore decolonial wisdom in the experiences of frontline houselessness-support system social workers.
Tiffany Gloeckler, MSW, RSW, Research Coordinator
I have been a teacher for well over a decade, with experience in early education all the way up to post-secondary students. I work as a trauma therapist at a non-profit and in private practice, and I occasionally teach social work research courses at the University of Calgary. Informed consent can not exist in the absence of transparency. As frontline social workers, researchers, therapists, and educators, the onus is on us to ensure we create and maintain spaces that are accessible to as many brains and bodies as possible. The onus is also on us to make sure we’ve woven consent into as many parts of our workflow as possible. In social work (and in life!), consent is always a verb and it is always ongoing. In practice, this could mean providing multiple forms or formats of intake paperwork; providing access to translation services; sharing information in different ways; giving service users or research participants as many choices as possible; and setting up physical spaces that reduce physical barriers and minimize the risk of reproducing oppression or trauma. In research, this means we need to be clear and open to participants about what they are agreeing to and what they can expect and being honest about the practice implications of the research project, and what outcomes they can realistically expect. I am a hobby musician – I play the cello and have classical opera training. I am not a hobby performer.
Jesse Henton, MSW, RSW, Research Assistant
I am a recent U of C graduate with a specialization in community-informed practice, just starting out my social work journey. My preferred modalities are emotions-based therapy, narrative therapy, and ecological systems theory. As a counsellor, my areas of focus include newcomers, children and youth, creative and artistic approaches, identity and values, and communication skills. I’ve been a social work researcher since the beginning of my MSW in May of 2020, working on the Transforming the Field Education Landscape project for Dr. Julie Drolet, and later, various projects for Dr. Anne Marie McLaughlin, both instructors at the University of Calgary. My publishing credits include Student Reflections on Field Education during COVID-19: One Year Later (LA), which investigates perceptions of social work students engaged in field education practice during the COVID-19 pandemic. I have a keen interest in theatre—I wrote plays in my youth and I’m interested in ways to combine drama and counselling, like Theatre of the Oppressed.
Selena Sliger, BSW, MSW, RSW, Research Assistant
Selena's professional background includes experience in various public sector areas such as Children's Services, Income Support and working for First Nations Agencies in Northwestern Alberta. Currently Selena is a Mental Health Therapist with a local primary care network and has her own private practice. Bringing awareness and promoting the Social Work profession in important to Selena, along with advocating and being a voice for rural, north social workers' perspectives, challenges and successes. She is working towards her Clinical Social Worker designation and is a Director of the Social Work Association of Alberta (SWAA). Research experience includes assisting with projects focused on: inter-professional collaboration in family centred care, creating meaningful lives for individuals with Autism, dissolution of ACSW association activities and this current project. Additionally Selena was the graduate student representative on the University of Calgary's Faculty of Social Work Research and Partnership Committee and Faculty of Social Work Council. Community involvement, removing barriers for youth to participate in sports, and destigmatizing access to mental health resources are passions of Selena's. She sits on a number of local community boards and in her spare time can be found coaching youth sports, kayaking and spending time in the mountains.
Sharon Stepaniuk, MSW student, Research Assistant
I am currently completing my Masters in clinical social work through the University of Calgary. Most of my work before this program has been focused on macro policy changes. I have been involved in advocacy for the rare disease community in Alberta and nationally to ensure they receive equitable access to life changing medications and therapies. I am committed to engaging in collaborative, anti-oppressive, and strength-based approaches with my service users. I aim to practice with a trauma informed lens and from a place of humility to ensure I engage in continuous self-reflection and growth. When I’m not on this project or focusing on school work I love to spend time with my family, run outside, and enjoy a good book.
Trevor Buttery, MSW student, Research Assistant
Devin Smith, MSW student, Research Assistant
This study draws on research supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.