Social Work Education: Reevaluating Undergraduate Quality Assurance in the Social Work Unit, Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone

Abstract

This paper explores the policy and quality assurance discourse in social work undergraduate academic education ensuing at the Social Work Unit at Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, following the recent reengineering approach due to the Covid-19 pandemic and technological polarisation. Regrettably, final year social work university pre-service social work student’s practicum or internship evaluation could not be finalised. The practicum or internship is a critical component in social work education as it engenders professional transformation, thought and development. Unlike other academic modules, which could be downright via online and distance education, the practicum or internship, being a practical undertaking in a classroom atmosphere, accorded unique challenges. The research question that the paper addresses is: How would certification of social work students be finalised when this time-tested evaluation had not been done? The paper employs content and discourse analysis to unwrap the philosophical and professional discourses being promoted by faculty in order to appreciate how they are likely to regulate succeeding management of social work education. The discourse is that the emerging ‘current normal’ should not trade-off the quality assurance structures that evolved consequently.