Experiencing Social Work : Learning from Service Users

Mark Doel, PhD, MA (Oxon), CQSW is Research Professor of Social Work at Sheffield Hallam University. He is a registered social worker and was in practice for almost twenty years, including two separate years living and working in the US. His research focuses on groupwork, social work practice and practice education and he has an international reputation in these fields.

Professor Doel is widely published. His fifteenth book, Social Work Placements: a traveller′s guide (Routledge) introduces readers to Socialworkland, a travel guide approach to practice learning. Other recent books include: Educating Professionals: practice learning in health and social care (Ashgate, with Shardlow) which explores how students learn their practice in nine different professions, using a virtual local community to bring the professions together; Experiencing Social Work: learning from service users (Sage, with Best) which tells the stories of service users who have had positive experiences of social work and reflects on what we can learn from this; Using Groupwork (Routledge) and The Task-Centred Book (Routledge, with Marsh). He is co-editor of the journal Groupwork and founding co-editor of the journal, Social Policy and Social Work in Transition, published in Republic of Georgia.

Mark directs a 3-year, EU-funded project to develop social work education and research in the republic of Georgia and the Ukraine and he is a consultant with UNICEF and EveryChild. He leads training workshops in practice education and groupwork.