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biography |
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staffs university |
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It may help to have a brief summary of my story so far to help you get to know me, and what I may be able to offer you. Becoming Professor of Social Work Education and Spirituality at Staffordshire University in 2006, and a National Teaching Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2004, were not only career highlights; they were also important benchmarks in understanding what is important to me personally and professionally have been involved in social work education at Staffordshire University since 1993. The University has always been strongly committed to the celebration of diversity and to widening participation, and I have enjoyed the ‘buzz’ from teaching, supporting and encouraging students from a wide range of backgrounds to achieve the best possible results. My approach to learning and teaching has always had a strong student-centred, experiential focus to it. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in the ways I have delivered the Communication Skills for Social Work module over the past 10 years. The emphasis has been on creating a safe, enjoyable and challenging environment in which students can learn how to develop the communication skills which are so fundamental to social work practice. |
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If you would like to see me in action, click here. What you will see are clips from a DVD I produced for the University showing how I use large group role play in social work education. Maybe the time I spent on various theatrical stages in North Staffordshire bore some unexpected fruit!
The sessions culminate in a court-based role play in which the students ‘run the court’ from beginning to end with a scenario they have helped to create over the preceding weeks. If you would like to read more about it, you will find it written up in Social Work Education ( …………).
The journey to Staffs
As with so many people today I have had a mixed and varied career. I like to think that the jobs I have done before coming to Staffordshire University have all enriched my knowledge, experience and understanding, and have also enabled me to enrich the education of our students.
Seven years as a Probation Officer in Staffordshire brought me face to face with the harsh realities of life for people caught up in the Criminal Justice System. I was able to see the (at times) unbearable tension that some people experience when trying to live in a society where poverty, discrimination, oppression and disadvantage take their toll.
Before that I worked as a University Chaplain at Keele for 10 years in what those who know Keele well sometimes refer to as the grey battleship – the University Chapel !. It came as a great surprise to me when in my first post as a minister in Dewsbury, Yorkshire I was encouraged to apply for the Keele job. It came as an even greater surprise when I got it! Exploring the relationship between faith and the complexity of living was a fascinating and at times far too challenging an experience.
Throughout my career I have explored a variety of people-work opportunities. I was founder Director of the Samaritans of Wakefield and District; then I trained as a Marriage Guidance Counsellor just before the organisation was re-named Relate. Since moving to North Staffordshire I have trained as a family mediator, and have contributed to the work of the local Mediation Advisory Service; Stoke on Trent Citizen’s Service Bureau and North Staffs Community Mediation Service. Alongside all of this my wife Sheila was the Administrator of the Elizabeth Trust, the women’s refuge in Newcastle, for 10 years, so between us we had a pretty good picture of what life was like for large sections of the community!
Strands which have come together.
My various community involvements deepened my understanding of people-work, and enriched my teaching. It has only been in the last few years, however, where the strand of spirituality has become more prominent in my professional life.
| In social work education it is fair to say that there has been something of a long-standing suspicion around religion and spirituality. Understandably, the track record of some religions with regard to women and various minority groups including gay people, has caused profound dismay to a profession which is rightly proud of its commitment to anti-discriminatory practice and the celebration of diversity. In recent years, however, we have begun to appreciate that there is another story to tell. For many people religion and spirituality are important facets of their lives as far as resilience, hope and purpose are concerned. Work is being undertaken which shows that there are positive correlations for some people between their religious and spiritual beliefs and their general well-being. Furthermore, the contemporary debate about spirituality, with its emphasis upon themes such as hope, resilience, meaning and enrichment, as well as (for some) a commitment to social justice, suggests that this is a theme to which everyone can relate, whether or not they have a religious belief or commitment. Social Work education therefore has to begin to take these themes seriously. |
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It was to explore some of these issues in a wider context of health and well-being that the Centre of Health and Spirituality at the University was established in 2003, and I became its first Director. My National Teaching Fellowship Project explores the interface between religion, spirituality and social work education and training. At a national and international level, work is beginning to gather momentum around these fascinating challenging and important themes.
The main strands in my career have now begun significantly to intertwine and interact together, which makes me feel that the best is still to come!
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all material copyright Bernard Moss 2007 - site last updated 13 May 2008 - a blueshawk web |
