Key educational principles

Within the Partnership Experiential Knowledge in higher education we are focusing on the elaboration of Key principles to integrate experiential knowledge in Social work and Nursing education programs.

Through a joint reflection with all partners we currently have developed a working document about principles of experiential knowledge. This is the result of a literature study and group discussions in  meetings with researchers, educators, students and Experts by experience from each partner institution during the conference and seminar working with Experiences in Higher Education in Vilnius (May 2023), Lithuania, and the conference and seminar in Lund, Sweden (May 2024).

You can download this paper here or read it below.

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Brief update

The development of a document on key principles for the integration of experiential knowledge in Social work and Nursing education is underway. The first version of the key principles document will be enriched with emerging feedback from the workshop held during the conference in Vilnius (Lithuania) and findings from data collected through group discussion sessions with educators, students and experts by experience implemented by each partner in different participating countries. During the Conference in Lund, two colleagues of Italian team, Camilla Landi e Marco Grassini, presented a workshop entitled ‘Co-creating transnational knowledge through national group meetings’. In this workshop they shared the findings from the group meetings organized in 9 partner countries. Participants enriched the presentation with comments and questions.

In addition, during the Conference in Lund the Italian team organized a Worldcafè activity aimed at exploring through different voices the ethical issues around the involvement of experiential knowledge in social work and nursing education.

The activity was participated by 16 people from 7 countries, including professors, social workers, social work students and experts by experience. Through 3 table round participants shared many information and example based on their experiences.

Findings from Worldcafè activity will be analyzed soon. These findings will contribute to the development of the third part of the framework document of WP 1.

A joint message by a social worker (Elisa Pellicone) and an expert by experience (Nadeem Shahzad) who attended the conference activities in Lund:

“It was a great experience to join the activities and the seminar that took place in Lund. We had the possibility to gain plenty of knowledge about experts by experience and their involvement and role inside the University field. Discovering how different Countries and Institutions try to promote the contribution of EBEs was inspiring. Also, the participation of EBEs at the conference activities has been worthy: everyone had the possibility to share thoughts, feelings, discoveries, approaches and ideas and each voice was as precious as the others. The discussions among lecturers, researchers, students and EBEs have been exciting and could probably lead to an improvement in social work courses around Europe” (Elisa and Nadeem)

Elisa and Nadeem were part of the Italian team, also composed by Elena, Camilla and Marco. This is a nice picture taken in Lund.

Another joint message by a social worker (Simona) and an expert by experience (Fatma) who attended the conference activities in Vilnius (May 2023)

Reciprocity and Plurality of Voices: our Experience in the International Seminar on Experiential Knowledge at Vilnius University

This reflection has been written by Fatma, expert by experience, and Simona, social worker and educator at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Milan, Italy) who participated in the Vilnius Conference and in the Seminar on Experiential Knowledge.

This experience allowed us to reflect on the importance of integrating professional knowledge and experiential knowledge in the Social Work programme, to rework the activities carried out at the University with this approach, to share the learning with other participants, to learn from the experiences of other countries and to strengthen our skills.

We do not consider the concept of experiential knowledge in Social work education as an acquired concept, but as a process of continuous learning and awareness: the Vilnius experience was a step forward in this sense.

 

The view of Fatma, expert by experience

My involvement as an expert by experience at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore began two years ago, when I was invited in a Social Work course to speak about my participation in a community work project.

I decided to accept because I believed in the goodness of the project we had set up to promote well-being for and with single mothers in our district: it had helped me and other people. However, at first, I didn’t really understand how my difficult life experience could help the students.

This conference helped me to become more aware and better understand how our experiences can be useful in training courses. I appreciated the welcoming and sensitive atmosphere, I felt free to share my contribution.

A few years ago, I would not have been ready to talk about my experience, now I have accepted and processed it and I am ready to share it both for the training of future social workers and as a woman for other women who are experiencing or have experienced a problem similar to mine.

 

The view of Simona, social worker and educator

Learning from encounters with experts by experience is important and constructive in the training of future social workers. Over the years I have approached this topic from different perspectives: as an inexperienced social work student who met experts by experience during my studies, as a social worker and as a young educator. In each of these positions, the participation of experts by experience was and is a learning opportunity for me, as was the event in Vilnius.

The conference allowed us to reflect on the activities of the different countries that have already experienced the involvement of experts by experience, to exchange practical indications on how to involve experts by experience and to give and receive new impulses.

It also allowed experts by experience, educators and professionals to reflect together, on an equal footing between participants from different backgrounds, on possible developments in cooperation and reciprocity.

The international meeting left me with the desire to experiment with new ways of involving experts by experience, aware of the human and professional value they bring to the training of social workers.

I believe that the fruitful success of the conference and the seminar is proof of the virtuous collaboration, also in this case, between experts by experience, educators and professionals.

 

Read more about the seven work packages

1. Key educational principles 
2. Guide with didactical and pedagogical methods 
3. Training programme for lecturers
4. A support kit for experts by experience
5. Framework for integrating experiential knowledge
6. Digital forum with state-of-the-art literature
7. Monitoring and evaluation 

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Key educational principles