Widely used by professionals, educators, and students in undergraduate and graduate courses in schools of social work throughout the world, this text presents a comprehensive, coherent, organised overview of group work practice from a generalist practice perspective.
The new 9th Edition, Global Edition, continues to include typologies illustrating group work practice with task and treatment groups at the micro-,meso-, and macro-levels. Thoroughly updated throughout, the new edition of An Introduction to Group Work Practice includes research on virtual groups, updated and deeper content on practice with treatment and task groups, the most current literature on working with reluctant and resistant group members, updated and expanded sections on working with individuals who have difficulty engaging in and sustaining work in groups, updated material on leadership and diversity, and thoroughly updated reference material and new content from evidence-based practice sources.
Features
Part of Pearson’s Connecting Core Competencies series-foundation-level texts that make it easier than ever to ensure students’ success in learning the nine core competencies as stated in 2015 by the Council on Social Work Education. Included are:
Core Competency Icons throughout the chapters, directly linking the CSWE core competencies to the content of the text. Critical thinking questions for ensuring student mastery of the CSWE standards. A matrix at the beginning of the book aligns the chapters with the CSWE Core Competencies and Behavior examples for easy reference.
Focuses on three important areas of practice:
The individual group member. The group as a whole. The environment in which the group functions. An emphasis on the group as a whole and the environment in which it functions demonstrates the authors’ experiences in supervising group workers and students and conducting workshops for professionals.
Provides a thorough grounding in group dynamics and working with people in both task- and treatment-oriented groups, in a variety of settings.
Chapters on the history of groups, group dynamics, group leadership, and diversity help readers build a solid knowledge base about groups.
Content on values, ethics, and practice standards developed by the Association for the Advancement of Social Work with Groups informs students of the developments in this important area of group work
New to this edition
Research on Group and Social Work Practice in South Africa - This edition, while global in nature, has been updated to include content focused on the group work practices, group formats, and group work associations specific to South Africa. Chapter 1 includes coverage of the values and foundations of group work/ethics laid down by the South African Constitution (1996). New and updated case examples illustrating practice with a wide variety of groups in South Africa - This edition provide students and instructors with illustrations of evidence-based practice examples. Issues covered include, support groups for carjacking victims in relation to roles within social integration and influence(Chapter 3) and reflecting on diversity and handling cross-cultural work in relation to developing cultural sensitivity (Chapter 5) Updated examples, references, and sources throughout the book - In this edition, content has been added, deleted, and revised to reflect current global practices and to be more inclusive. For example, Chapter 5, which looks at leadership and diversity, has been updated to broaden the conversation about diversity and to include coverage on aspects specific to South Africa (such as understanding that culture does not only refer to skin, colour, and race; and looking at different ethnic groups in South Africa, namely Zulu, Xhosa, Ndebele and Swazi, Sotho people, when discussing cultural sensitivity). This edition also includes references to the International Association for Social Work with Groups (IASWG). Thoroughly updated reference material and new content from evidence-based practice sources - This edition provides more global references to help students relate better to the theory or concepts being discussed in each chapter, and not being limited to conversations specific to the United States. New layout and design - In addition to content updates, this edition also provides a fresh new feel for students. Each chapter will open with an image relating to the overall theme of that chapter. Features are provided in an updated, easy-to-identify design for students. A brand new Key Terms section has been included at the end of every chapter to help identify topics/terms that are most important in a chapter.
