students participants. Four teacher staff meetings were held (two each week) in order to monitor the progress of the academy, reflect the merit of the activities and their methodology and estimate the range of the aims achieved. Students monitoring was assured by providing a “comments and questions box” available all the time at the secretary office. Students had the opportunity to express their opinions twice a week during evaluation meetings in national and seminar groups.
It was agreed that time for feedback was also provided at the end of each seminar meeting. The co-ordinators and staff from the host university monitored the academy on the permanent basis and shared their reflections during regular staff meetings.
Regularly performed feedback and monitoring sessions enabled to gather material for the evaluation of the whole project. Final
evaluation of the project was done on the last day of the IP by the use of specially designed questionnaires: KUL Evaluation Questionnaire and National Agency Questionnaire that were contents – analyzed and statistically analyzed. The results were very encouraging: 71%
of the participants were satisfied with the academic content of the program. More than 75% liked most of the social program, 86%
were satisfied with the teacher – student ratio, 60% considered the program as innovative and 63% as multidisciplinary in its nature, 77% agreed that the program provided them with a new perspective on the subject area. 75% liked the accommodation and 46% liked the food. Generally 6.6% estimated the program as a good one, 60% as very good and 15% as excellent, so it means that more than 81% of the participants were positive about the program. What is more important, about 93% of the participants will recommend participation in such a program to their peers.
The aims of Spring Academy 2008 should be considered as achieved. In particular, the IP helped to identify the most demanding fields of social exclusion in the countries participating; among others the situation of elderly people, young unemployed people, homeless people, handicapped people, alcoholics, immigrants and children without proper parents’ care (euro-orphans) are among them. The participants’ common observation was that however the problems appear in various forms in different countries, the core of them stays the same. The project succeeded in naming innovative international mechanisms and tools for social work with different groups of clients – sharing and using on a daily basis examples of “good practice”
and co-operation with social work volunteers seems to be the most effective of all. As hosts of the program, we wanted to accustom the participants with the ways the existing social work structures, institutions and methods may be creatively used in solving new social problems. It was done mainly during field visits in different social work institutions not only in Lublin, but also outside the city and in The Association for the Care of The Blind in Laski near Warsaw. The participants have a unique possibility to experience the issue that methods of solving social problems in Poland are effective, both in newly established institutions (Krasnystaw) and in those traditional ones (Laski, Social Welfare Homes in Lublin and in Matczyn). As the
field trips evoked lively discussions, students had the opportunity to share the examples of good practice from their home countries.
Both the contents and form of our IP can be considered as innovative. The discussed issues were of the utmost importance for European society, as they dealt with the most urgent contemporary problems, such as social exclusion of the youths, immigration social policies of EU countries or integration and normalization of life of handicapped people. It is obvious they cannot be addressed only at the national level. Students spend almost all the 11 days of the program together: the whole group lived in one place, enjoyed common dining facilities, undertook trips and participated in classes, lectures and presentations. This organization of their staying gave the participants a unique possibility to get intercultural competencies, openness towards people of different nationalities, cultures, traditions and abilities and helped them fight the existing stereotypes. At the same time one might hope that after the program the participants will definitely become promoters and ambassadors at their home universities for sharing knowledge about fighting social exclusion and building civil society.
An innovative approach to field visits concentrated on students real participation in the institution’s daily activities: Spring Academy students participated in art workshops with mentally handicapped, distributed meals for the homeless, prepared lunch with psychiatric patients, took part in free time activities together with children and adolescents at risk. This kind of participation gave the students real insight into their own motivation and skills for social work.
Language barrier helped to experience a feeling of insecurity and helplessness, so characteristic for social work clients. Field visits cost us a lot of preparatory work but were evaluated as extremely well prepared and highly valuable: more than 80% of participants agreed that the institutions were well chosen for the program and they were important for their social work studies (KUL Evaluation Questionnaire).
Researchers and teachers taking part in the IP represented different science specialization, working as social workers, pedagogues and psychologists. What is more, students, though obliged to study subjects connected with social work, did it from
different perspectives, as they were students of Pedagogy, Social Work, Philosophy, Psychology, Public Administration and Theology.
These mixed backgrounds of both teachers and students created the possibility to discuss social issues with different kinds of specialists from different points of view, and it ensured the character of the IP to be strongly interdisciplinary.
As innovative we consider also putting a lot attention to the spiritual dimension both of social work and the concrete activities in our program. Participants have a possibility to take part in a Sunday Liturgy with Rev. Ryszard Karpiński, Lublin’s bishop and a person responsible for spiritual care of emigrants; ethical aspects of social work were also thoroughly discussed during the seminars. Moreover in some of the institutions visited by the students the spiritual aspect of social work with clients was considered to be a very significant one by the staff and they tried to make the students aware of this fact.
The most important output of the project was the increase of the students’ awareness about the value and necessity of participation in building civil society, not only on national but also on international level and make them ready to fight discrimination and social exclusion in their communities, thus promoting the idea of inclusive society. They also had an opportunity to know better the system of social services in Poland, as field visits were an obligatory part of the course. The teachers had the opportunity to enrich their knowledge about the diversity of approaches towards social issues in different countries, improve their intercultural and language competencies, increase their ability to work in multi-national groups and exchange their views about different didactic approaches, while working with the extensive use of ICT.
However, we are convinced that our IP would be much more enriched by the presence of more practitioners: as the invited professionals were mainly university teachers and the students did not have much practical training, so in some cases we lacked experts who might explain difficult questions first-hand. The second obstacle was the level of English – not all participants were able to express themselves freely, so it inhibited discussions. At the same time IP created a chance both for the students, teachers, Polish administrative staff and volunteer organizational staff for
improving skills and abilities in using ICT and English language.
One of the examples was “Language Seminar” co-ordinated by our Irish partner that concentrated on defining key words of social work.
This initiative further aimed at work out international language of social work.
Conclusion
The described IP responded to the needs and challenges emerging in the sphere of social work on a European level. It should be underlined that the issues of building civil society and fighting social exclusion of different target groups (handicapped, families and children at risk, immigrants) in no way can be solved at national level. Social problems, together with the process of EU expanding and big waves of emigration, cross the internal borders and need to be treated in a holistic way.
The IP showed a strong relevance to the objectives of Erasmus described in the Lifelong Learning Programme, in particular it supported the creation of a European Higher Education Area and strengthened the involvement of high education institutions into promoting innovative solutions in the social care sphere. The project also improved quality and quantity of students and teacher mobility, supported the international co-ordination among the researchers, unified the professional qualities of a social worker in Europe, improved the co-operation between high schools and social care institutions and developed innovative practices in high education.
Building civil society and fighting social exclusion is one of the main priorities of European Union (art. 136 and 137 EU Treaty).
These activities cannot be based only on giving financial help to the underprivileged groups, but should be based on complex, multidisciplinary and international activities aiming at increasing the level of individuals’ activities to change their situation.
Internationalized university education of professionals working in social service delivery centres might be a powerful source of support in this process.
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