Group Work

Learning and Practice

Nano McCaughan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781032064000
• eBook ISBN: 9781000437898
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Health Care Delivery

Group work is central to social work, whether it be work with individuals and families, residential care, community work, management or social work education. Despite, however, the upsurge of interest in this aspect of social work method at the time Group Work: Learning and Practice, originally published in 1978, represented the first attempt at providing an up-to-date and carefully integrated source book for students – in the form of a series of mainly original and British papers on social group work: its knowledge base; the possible varieties of practice settings and objectives; and its implications for social work education and training models.

For new directions in social work education suggested that the small group was to become the core system around which much future social work teaching would be based. The main concern of this new National Institute for Social Work reader – the development and demonstration of intervention skills in practice – would be particularly relevant. The book draws attention to the opportunities for work with groups in the community, in residential institutions and with families, where the emphasis was rapidly shifting towards the need for greater understanding and use of the small group dimension.

Group Work: Learning and Practice would have been widely welcomed both by specialists in group work at the time and all those more generally interested in social work methods – as teachers, students, practitioners, supervisors and as local authority training officers. It would also be of interest to a wider readership of teachers, youth workers and those concerned with the group dynamics and counselling fields.

PART I FRAMEWORKS FOR PRACTICE

The papers in this section reflect different ways of establishing a context for group work. To undertake this intellectual task implies that the group worker must answer questions about the nature of the particular function of the social welfare agency which the group work will hopefully implement. A useful way to concretise thinking is to enumerate the task or tasks which the group worker and clients should be engaged in together. If one establishes clearly enough the context of the intervention, it is then more evident what knowledge, theories, skill and activities can be ‘selected’ in, for guidance in the group project.

In my paper ‘Continuing Themes in Social Group Work’ I have listed and discussed what I take to be enduring principles guiding the practice of group workers during the last one hundred years. These principles have been elaborated and altered by changing social philosophy and mores in society, but still connect group work practice theory with its historical roots. It is comforting to note that problematic issues such as ‘leadership’ and ‘control’ are by no means resolved.

Anne Vickery, Charlotte Rawcliffe and Veronica Ward trace the formation and career of a self-help group of elderly people, who resided on the same housing estate. The context of this group illustrates the use of a unitary approach to social work practice, and how the group work is chosen as a feasible and effective solution to discovered need. Alternative responses or intervention could have been made; in fact different ‘models’ of group work introduced. As I stated, the framework used by the workers in exploring and assessing the need led logically to the choice they made and no doubt ensured the consistency of their actions in the group.

Peter Smith extrapolates from social psychological research some theories and conceptualisations which illuminate various aspects of group work practice. His emphasis is on the influence possibilities in group work: both that exerted by worker on members (and vice versa) and that likely to be exerted among the members. The two aspects of ‘support’ and ‘confrontation’ are explored as necessary concomitants of change and factors affecting their appropriate use discussed.

Chris Payne analyses tasks which residential workers are faced with, whatever their setting. He discusses how group work interventions might enhance the work, suggesting the desirability of forming some groups for special purposes in an institution, as well as developing skill in exploiting the natural group living situation on behalf of residents. Payne implies that it is important and possible to attempt to ‘boundary’ both forms of group intervention.

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION: A FRAMEWORK FOR THINKING ABOUT GROUP WORK

Nano McCaughan

I Purpose of the Reader

The purpose of this reader is to enlarge the scanty resource of British publications about social group work. The design was created to emphasise the complex skills that are required from the formal leaders in social work groups, skills which have many different purposes. The authors were selected because of the concern manifested in their teaching, thinking and practice for this element. The first two sections include the work of social work teachers and trainers who are aware that education should be designed for the development of competence in action as well as for the acquisition of knowledge. The last section includes some accounts of social work practice in a variety of groups.

I make the assumption that the development of group work skills would be a useful addition to the repertoire of activities of social workers, and that clients might actually be better helped by their peers in a group setting in some situations, than by other forms of intervention. The evidence for this assumption is difficult to come by in any rigorous form. I would have liked to include a paper on recent researches on the outcomes of group work. A preliminary search of the literature revealed a dearth of material, apart from studies into psychotherapy groups. (Some useful references can be found in Yalom, 1970, and in the Tavistock Publications List (Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, 1975).) However, some positive evidence for the effectiveness of group work, or of a multi-method approach, can be found in studies such as The Canford Families (Sociological Review, 1962), Girls at Vocational High (Meyer et al., 1965), and the Wincroft Youth Project (Smith et al., 1972). Although there are many accounts of group work practice in British and American journals in recent years, the analysis of outcomes is either based on the group worker’s subjective judgement, or left for the reader to judge for himself.

Content

All but two of the papers have been written especially for this Reader. In commissioning the papers I decided to omit papers on areas of work that have been very adequately dealt with elsewhere. For example, in the first section, ‘Frameworks for Practice’, the contribution of the work of social psychologists to the understanding of groups has been limited to Peter Smith’s paper – who naturally could only touch on a few relevant findings, and chose those which inform his particular view of the group worker’s role. The ever-increasing body of knowledge about small groups drawn from ‘laboratory’ studies will be found summarised in most recent group work texts (see Northen, 1969; Hartford, 1972). A supplement to Smith’s paper is my own chapter summarising some group behaviour theories for community workers (McCaughan, 1977a). The usefulness of these laboratory studies for practitioners can be questioned, as well as the validity of applying the results to the general population. However, the information exists and its richness and diversity create a problem for teachers of group behaviour when they attempt to select content for their seminars.

In this book the authors demonstrate an approach to their work which has been formed by theoretical viewpoints drawn variously from psychoanalytic theories, behavioural psychological theories and theories of social role. One must turn to the relevant source for a more detailed discussion of these approaches, and their derivations which have been translated into the newer therapies used in groups, such as transactional analysis, gestalt therapy.

Social work courses increasingly provide students with opportunities to develop in self-awareness and sensitivity through a consciously examined group experience. Accounts of these experiences and their outcomes for the individuals who take part can be found in some recent journals (Papell, 1972; Hunt et al., 1974; Smith, 1975). In this book Barry Palmer and Tom Douglas have contributed papers which will add to this small store. They demonstrate models of learning and teaching about groups which attempt to integrate intellect, feeling and action.

It was not appropriate to include detailed discussion of such aspects of group work as composition, size, group development stages, recording, etc. These have been very adequately written about in the group work texts over the years (for example, see Konopka, 1963; Northen, 1969; Trecker, 1972; Hartford, 1972; Douglas, 1976). The use of activities in groups discussed in Catherine Briscoe’s paper is one exception, as this has not been covered very fully in these writings.

The authors who describe their practice in this book are eclectic in their use of theories, drawing from various sources concepts, frameworks and principles of action which appeared useful to them in understanding and enhancing the work they had undertaken. The intention was to demonstrate by this small selection the wide range of possible consumers of group work and the difference in goal setting, and formal leadership role that follows.

II A Framework for Thinking about Group Work

As a framework for planning the book I have used four crucial concepts, an elaboration of which may be useful in helping the reader find some common ground in the different approaches to group work. The first is the understanding of the group as a small social system, and the consequences that flow from regarding it in that dynamic way. The majority of the contributors have in the forefront or background of their minds a systems model as a useful framework for planning, organising and evaluating the outcomes of group work (see Vickery, Whiffen, Thomas, Breslin and Sturton).

The other three concepts that are also derived from this model are notions about boundary, task and role. A system is defined by a boundary, which is permeable in terms of admitting the ideas, attitudes and feelings which the members carry with them from other meaningful groups. A human or social system is largely defined by its goals which must be put into operation by the members engaging together in appropriate tasks. This work provides opportunity for members to take up different roles, which serve to reinforce familiar behaviours or cause the member to develop new repertoires of behaviour. As much as any other member the group worker, or formal leader, will have to struggle to find an appropriate role for himself, and constantly re-examine the authority he has in his role.

In its present state of development the systems approach in social work intervention is probably more useful in planning and initiating group work intervention than it is in guiding the worker through the actual process of face-to-face interaction with the group members. The following vignette may illustrate this statement.

A social worker employed by a voluntary agency stands anxiously awaiting the arrival (or perhaps non-arrival) of some students to the first of a series of literacy tutorials she has organised. There had been months of preparatory work. It was necessary to gain the approval of her agency director for this venture. Suitable voluntary tutors had to be recruited and briefed. The target population – illiterate adults with a motivation to acquire skills in reading and writing – had to be identified, informed of the project and invited or persuaded to attend. The setting is a ‘drop-in’ centre owned by the agency – shabby but homely, the walls hung with posters depicting the activities of the centre.

The middle-aged men in working clothes arrive, looking extremely sheepish. As the worker greets them and identifies them as students, the door is flung open and heralds the arrival of Bill, the aggressive but indispensable caretaker. Bill was an ex-client and is now a part-time employee of the agency. Within a minute the atmosphere the social worker was attempting to create is destroyed by Bill demanding ‘Are you the chaps who can’t read or write – what happened to you – didn’t go to school I expect when you should of.

The social worker attempts to intervene as one of the students begins to move towards the street door. To be successful her intervention must achieve several purposes in a brief period of time: a definition of group purpose and her own attitude to it; expression in word or body language of her awareness of the feelings of the students as they stand on the edge of a venture which requires new role behaviour and risks a loss of self-esteem; some form of reparation to Bill who she realises was not fully informed about this invasion of territory she knows he feels is his; and the exercise of authority in refusing to permit him to sabotage the project because of his feelings.

An examination of this group encounter and the events that led up to it reveals tasks, attitudes, needs and problems that require a special kind of synthesis in order for the worker to intervene with skill. She must not focus solely on Bill’s needs to assert his power and ownership of territory by claiming superiority over the incipient group; neither should she concentrate on the group members’ problems in experiencing a no doubt familiar jeering comment on their inadequacies. She must focus on those two in interaction and at the same time monitor her own inner experience and attitudes to the participants. She has to work out the balance between authenticity and expected role behaviour; probably she has to control a very human response to the affront to her authority as project leader. If she demonstrates too forcibly ‘I’m the person in charge here’, will she later convince the students of her belief that the centre is for their use as members of the local community? The success of the project will rest on their efforts and motivation, and not solely on the skill of the tutors.

If the social worker concerned had used a systems model, she would have commenced her thinking about a new group project from a somewhat global conception of two systems in interaction – her agency with its primary task of giving service to the disadvantaged members of the local community. When the problems the residents faced had been discovered, among many other instances of unmet need, illiteracy with its effect on employment and recreational opportunities, as well as the self-esteem of some citizens, was selected as a target. To work towards meeting this felt need could enhance the material and emotional opportunities for a potential group.

Resources to work on this problem could be identified both in the agency and in the community: herself as organiser, a friendly and appropriate environment, financial aid for equipment in the former; potential voluntary ‘teachers’ in the latter. Working together in this way would demonstrate the reciprocity and interdependence of a caring agency and its local community. But even ‘caring agencies’ require some leverage to persuade them to liberate their resources – particularly if the project is an innovatory or unusual one. The social worker must grasp the dynamics of her organisational system sufficiently accurately to assess the amount of change needed there to sustain the growth of a new project. Likewise in the local community: it would be necessary to promote the project in a variety of ‘systems’ in the hope of recruiting both teachers and students for it, gaining goodwill and a change of attitude locally t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Table of Contents
• Notes on Contributors
• Part I: Frameworks for Practice
• Part II: Aspects of Training
• Part III: Aspects of Practice
• References
• Index