Week One

This week has been the first of the MA programme and I’ve found it incredibly interesting and at times overwhelming, particularly being one of the few students without a psychology or sociology degree, a question asked by the lecturers of every module. Despite this, as I had done a fair amount of reading before university, I was glad to feel a little acquainted with some of the topics presented and discussed.
I have found a few topics and elements from this week’s lectures particularly engaging. The first is learning and discussing issues that are so topical, issues that crop up on the news each day – not something I’m familiar with from my Classics degree (!)

Our first Social Policy lecture was about the welfare state and our practice essay looks at whether it is tenable during a recession. On the news this morning David Miliband was discussing the same issue at the annual Labour party conference. We discussed it from three angles; the economic, political and structural/institutional and all of these seemed to come together when listening to his broad policies on welfare reform during this financial period. Similarly, we held a debate about the recent riots in our Critical Introductions module which helped me to reflect and refresh myself as to the many viewpoints I’d read about at the time. It did, however, remind me that the political opinions of most people in our class are fairly similar and not reflective of the debates I have had on this topic with some of my more right wing friends. I believe this is something quite important to keep in mind through this module and more broadly the MA programme.

The other element I particularly enjoyed was part of our Foundations for Social Work practice module where we learnt about different methods of communication and the different parts of ourselves we use when communicating; the critical adult or the free child for example. It gave me a good framework from which to reflect on much of my past communication, and helped me, unfortunately perhaps, to see my recent response to a friend’s revelation as coming far too much from the viewpoint of a “critical adult”.

It’s been a great first week and an opportunity not only to learn in lectures but from other students who have a wealth of knowledge between them. I have really enjoyed being in a setting where everyone is so vocal and willing to contribute to the many issues up for discussion.