1. Graduate Readiness to Practice
Curriculum mapping and development of a taxonomy

2. Child protection related Critique of social work education
“Child Youth and Family reports that many new graduates they employ lack the required level of knowledge of child protection, youth justice, child development, mental health, addictions and family violence. This means new social workers need to learn these skills on the job.” (Children’s Commissioner, 2015, p.34)

3. Enhancing the readiness to practise of newly qualified social workers (NQSWs)
Funded for three years from 2016 to 2018
Research collaboration between the Open Polytechnic, the University of Auckland, Massey University, the University of Canterbury &
the University of Otago.

4. participating in the study
research questionS
PHASE 3: What professional capabilities, including cultural capabilities, should we expect of NQSWs and of social workers working at more experienced and expert levels of practice?
PHASE 2: How well prepared are NQSWs to enter professional social work practice and how is their learning being supported and enhanced in the workplace?
PHASE 1: What is the content of the current Aotearoa New Zealand social work curriculum and how does it relate to the SWRB core competencies?
Seventeen TEIs recognised by the SWRB
Five Universities
Nine Polytechnics
Two Wānanga
One Private Tertiary Institute
Fourteen TEIs (82%) are
participating in the study

5. Phase one: The curriculum
The Declared Curriculum
Analyse curriculum documents
The Taught
Curriculum
The Learned Curriculum
PHASE 1: What is the content of the current Aotearoa New Zealand social work curriculum and how does it relate to the SWRB core competencies?
Student focus groups
Educator focus group

6. Over 400 curriculum descriptors
Turning documents
into data

7. Code the documents
Extract candidate topics

8. Taxonomy Topic Inclusion Criteria
The topic is part of the social work education curriculum in Aotearoa New Zealand
The topic is significant enough that a social work educator, student or programme quality assessor might want to search the curriculum to discover where that topic is taught
The inclusion of the topic is likely to meaningfully increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the taxonomy as an index of core educational content
Social work educators want and expect the topic to be included
The topic is of medium level granularity, being neither too broad or too narrow in scope

9. AGREE the topics
From over 800 candidates

10. Build The Taxonomy
TISWEANZ.AC.NZ

11. Create a document database
Use taxonomy to tag curriculum documents

12. Map the curriculum Topics & Competencies
The team are currently using the database and maps to:
Identify the most common curriculum topics described in curriculum documents across Aotearoa New Zealand
Describe the diversity of topics represented in curriculum documents and key points of difference
Investigate in which courses, and at which NZQA level, key curriculum topics (e.g. child protection, family violence, mental health and addictions) are described in curriculum documents.
Map the curriculum
Topics & Competencies

13. Most frequently used terms in undergraduate compulsory courses

14. When are terms taught?
Human Development

17. Methodological issues
Curriculum mapping limitations
Course descriptors vary widely in length, structure and content.
Taxonomy is descriptive of terms in use.
Identifying that a term is used tells us nothing about depth and detail of discussion.
Curriculum mapping captures terms used to describe the declared curriculum.
SWRB core competencies are very high level and open to wide interpretation.
Curriculum mapping strengths
Gives us, for the first time, a way of visualising the social work curriculum.
Taxonomy & curriculum database are valuable tools for collaborative curriculum development.
Empirical data for phase two when we inquire about perceived capabilities and the contribution of qualifying degree programmes.
There is also a risk that we are inadvertently feeding neoliberal aspirations for a national curriculum driven by employer and government objectives.
How do we do this kind of work in a way that avoids unintended curriculum rationalisation and standardisation that subjugates the curriculum to employer and governmental imperatives?
How do NZ educators collaborate to improve the curriculum in ways that enhancesreadiness to practice but sustains our commitment to core social work values and critical practice?

18. Visit the project website
TO Find out more
Visit the project website
Enhancer2p.ac.nz