- Title
- Articulating creativity in social work practice
- Creator
- Nicolas, Justin Francis Leon V.
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2019
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- Some social work scholars have concluded that creativity is central to social work practice but, despite this assertion, creativity has not found its rightful place in social work theory and practice. While acknowledging the importance of creativity, the social work profession has not given support, commitment, and value to the study of creativity, thus the lack of consistent theorising in this area. Creativity is considered present in practice in ways not explicitly expressed. This is because creativity is difficult to articulate. Thus, there is no theory of creativity in social work practice. This makes it doubly difficult to articulate what creativity in social work practice involves. This study aimed to establish whether, how, and why creativity was central to social work practice and asked whether it was implicit in the profession’s values and principles. Using a creative critical phenomenological research design, the study explored the social work participants’ lived experience of creative social work practice (the phenomenological aspect) and the conditions that made creativity possible in social work practice (the critical realist aspect that presumed the existence of creativity even if it were curtailed by the organisational or practice environment). The study found that creativity inhered in the individual and in the helping relationship. It was a generative activity that was influenced by context, involved improvisation, and enhanced practitioner reflexivity and, therefore, had value. Creative practice was competent, ethical, inclusive, transformative, and motivated by compassion. The framework developed from the study’s findings placed creativity in social work at the intersection of three dimensions: 1. Structures of practice (the individual social worker, context, client, practice, helping relationship, and community). 2. Phases of creativity (preparation, incubation, engagement, co-creation, and elaboration). 3. The interconnections arising from the meaning that social workers gave to creativity (synthesised knowledge, synergistic connections, social action, and spiritual experience). The intersection of structure and process formed a typology of creative approaches in practice.
- Subject
- creativity; social work practice; creative process; levels of creativity; phenomenological critical realism; relationship-based creativity; creative dimensions
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1408197
- Identifier
- uon:35809
- Rights
- Copyright 2019 Justin Francis Leon V. Nicolas, This thesis is currently under embargo and will be available from 10.10.2023
- Language
- eng
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