Keith Adamson is helping bring new voices to the development and delivery of social work education

Keith Adamson, Associate Professor, Teaching Stream at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work was invited to help develop a new Specialized Curricular Guide on Service User Involvement in Social Work Education.

The new guide is being created by the CSWE (Council of Social Work Education). Adamson will Co-Chair the project with Joe Duffy, an Emeritus Professor at Queen’s University Belfast, and Sabrina Sullenberger, a Professor at Belmont University.

Adamson is no stranger to co-creating innovative learning experiences. In 2022, he received an Early Career Teaching Award from the University of Toronto. That year, he was appointed Deputy Director of U of T’s Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation for a three-year term.

When Adamson realized that social work students were lacking information on the experiences and perspectives of the clients that they were learning to serve, he set out to co-create and co-lead a course with service users.  Last year, his research on server user involvement in social work education was featured on the Simmons School of Social Work podcast.

“Involving service users in social work education, whether through curriculum development, teaching, or assessment has been shown to raise students’ awareness of the social issues that affect clients and their families. It also reduces stereotyping and negative attitudes towards marginalized populations,” says Adamson. “It’s something that has been mandated in the United Kingdom for years.”

Adamson is now among those at the forefront of bringing this change to Canada and the United States.

“There are now calls within academia to move from isolated and ‘tokenistic’ service user initiatives to coordinated programs that incorporate the expertise and voices of those who use social services,” Adamson says. “This is becoming increasingly essential to social work training.”