EDITORIAL

Editorial

Prof Sulina Green

Department of Social Work, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa

The articles in this issue of Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk cover topics related to the innovative utilisation of approaches and methodologies for teaching and learning in social work education and for intervention in social work practice.

The first two articles examine the incorporation of technology-enhanced teaching and learning in social work education in the digital era. The first article provides insights into the emerging developments of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, especially for curriculum renewal to prepare prospective practitioners to operate in both online and offline environments. The second article describes how an authentic e-learning framework can provide a pedagogically improved method of course design for groupwork education.

The next pair of articles engages with community programmes for the poor and unemployed in South Africa. One article reports on some barriers to effective monitoring and evaluation of poverty-alleviation projects, and the consequences of the barriers for the management and sustainability of these projects. The other article reveals that, owing to limited income-generating opportunities in the Karoo, unemployed people are turning to waste-picking on the streets and at landfills, which makes their situation in some respects more insecure than those of waste pickers elsewhere in South Africa.

The focus of the next three articles is on intervention with older persons and women in demanding and difficult situations. The first article looks into older people's experience of eye movement integration (EMI) as intervention for their symptoms of trauma and makes suggestions to improve EMI when working with older people. The second article explains a social work integrative intervention model for basic care which can guide social workers to meet the welfare needs of widows. The third article identifies the need for social workers, health care professionals, volunteers and welfare organisations jointly to enhance the social functioning and resilience of mothers caring for their children with cerebral palsy.

The concluding article in this issue presents guiding principles for facilitating children's participation within multidisciplinary meetings in child and youth care centres.