The Shared Stories Narrative Model: meaningful involvement of Citizen Educators in social work education in Northern Ireland

This presentation outlines the organic approach the authors adopted in developing and co-producing the Shared Stories Narrative Model (MacDermott and Harkin-MacDermott, 2020). The Model acknowledges that learners (social work students and citizen educators) are active creators of knowledge and collaborators in this creation. Dr Denise MacDermott will provide examples of applying the model to support service users, citizen educators and survivors to participate in the direct teaching within the undergraduate social work degree at Ulster University in Northern Ireland. This pedagogic research focuses on first-year BSc (Hons) social work students and co-production with experts by experience from a voluntary sector agency in Northern Ireland. What emerged from this research was a wholly original, co-produced Shared Stories Narrative Model.

Experts by experience and Citizen Educators have a distinct role in educating social work students by discussing alternative ways of experiencing social work services and the ways in which these services can be delivered. This type of collaborative pedagogic research seeks to address the traditional power relations which exists between service users and social workers, locating students and service users as active participants in shared learning and understanding. It is important for social work students and practitioners to observe the strength and resilience of people with lived experience; doing so challenges the potential that students (and others) have to construct identities for service users that pathologise them as powerless or as victims.

The Shared Stories Narrative Model (2020) publication offers insights and examples, from service users and students, on promoting the personal empowerment of underrepresented groups and individuals in social work education. This collaborative model has the potential to shape curricula, not only within social work education, but across subject disciplines.