The First Week

Day 2-3; The Real Shit

Day 2 was another round of introductory classes, with a twist at the end - the Introduction to Social Work class threw us our first actual assignment. We got put into subgroups within the subclass, of about 5 per group. We then got assigned an article that we're meant to analyze and feedback on. Each group got their own paper, but the other subclasses are doing the same assignment, so I actually managed to chat with someone in the same broader program attendance after a lecture on Day 3 about the same paper. Which is great!

The article in question is Carries of the Troublesome Violence: The Social Services’ Support for Female Victims of Domestic Violence by Veronica Ekström (2014). It's an interesting dive into how social workers in Sweden interact with domestic abuse victims and what the systems in place do to help these women.

Day 3 (Wednesday) had three lectures in a row that all adhered to the overall class of Introduction to Social Work, and covered the basic history of social work as a practice, definitions of social problems, and social work as an organization. Very interesting stuff! The history as such dates back to the 1800's, with the growth of the cities and people leaving the countryside to find work. At the time, social work was more of a "non-profit" function, usually handled by people like priests or church volunteers. In 1921 the Institute of Social Politics and Communal Education & Research" was founded, which is when Social Work as a profession and research field was properly established. So much more, that's just like the first 5 lines of my notes. Definitions of social problems was interesting, because by the end the lecturers main point was that there is no definition - what constitutes a social problem changes constantly across time and location. What's a social problem in Sweden might not be a social problem somewhere else, because it's all mandated by culture and legislation. And, on the topic of organizations, we got to look more at what institutions do exist, the kind of workplaces we can expect in the future (unions, unemployment agencies, elder care, youth facilities, hospitals/clinics, private clinics, even our own private establishments). Just very fun.

I would share my notes but, they're all in Swedish. And quite hefty. I'll share one from the first lecture, just so you can get an idea of how much my wrist was hurting.

Day 3 wrapped up with me sitting in the library perusing the article we got in class. Me and my group decided to read individually, and then get together on Monday to discuss our finds, and write this into some sort of disposition for the hand-in. I'm on page 7, and will finish this up tomorrow, but my first impressions of the article aren't great. The sample size is quite small - 16 social workers were "semi-structurally" interviewed from 11 municipalities, which makes me question how scaleable the study is. As a pilot study it'd be good, but the author states they already did a pilot study of 3 social workers, and claims that the 16/11 they have now is "a lot of data points". When I mentioned this to the other classmate who is also doing this paper (but not in my group) she said the exact same thing, that that's kind of a strange assessment. On top of that the author doesn't "intend" to change anybodys mind, in fact wants the reader to make their own mind up from the presented data, but that's making for a very flimsy argument.

Later in the evening, the Student Union for the Social Workers Faculty held a pub round! So me, the marshals and a couple of people from the program (a surprisingly small amount of maybe 18 people out of 160+ attendants...) went out for some drinks at a couple of bars! It was great fun, I made some new acquaintances, got to chat more with people from the other groups (and my own) - I'm still the oldest person, and having drinks with people born in 2007 is itself making my head spin But there were some 96'ers and 97'ers, so even if my '95 still has me up there, I didn't feel super alone!

Also got to talk more with the marshals, and a little bit about that paper too - they also thought the points I mentioned were strange! So if people who have already done this part agree, I think I might be onto something. In fact, I kind of wonder if the lecturer intentionally gave us contentious papers, with the INTENT that we would pick them apart. I might have to ask him about that tomorrow.

By the end of the night, it was just me and 3 of the marshals left! I held out the longest! One of the marshals started ripping a patch off his own overalls and gave it to me. So, I have my first patch, and I don't even have the overalls yet!

Today, Day 4, was just hangover recovery, and some chores around the house. No classes, no lectures. Nothing special. So I just took it easy. Tomorrow though, Day 5? End of the week. And it is a big one. 3 lectures starting at 9, ending at 12. Lunch, then a 3 hour class after that. Finishing at 16. Phhheeew.