Postdoctoral Fellow University of Denver Denver, Colorado, United States
Overview: Podcasts have grown in popularity, including in academia and social work, with potential to reach those beyond the classroom. However, little is known about how podcasts could be used and expanded to achieve greater synchronicity across social work educators, practitioners, researchers, and policymakers. Benefits, interactions, and opportunities are thus discussed.Proposal text: Podcasts have grown in popularity in Singapore and around the world, boasting millions of shows, episodes, and listeners. Across academia, podcasts too have been increasingly used as research and/or teaching resources (Harris, 2019; Lepikhova, 2021), especially in public sociology (Gans, 2016). Within social work, extant literature has focused on podcast (or community radio) usage in the classroom and how it has been used for critical teaching and learning (Ferrer et al., 2020; 2021; Hitchcock et al., 2021). Featuring as consumers and/or producers of podcast episodes, which often complement existing social work pedagogies, educators and their students engage with critical social work issues and discuss recent social justice developments. Recent studies have also used public podcast episodes as data sources for thematic analysis of youth civic engagement and political participation (Kwan, 2021).
In this vein, the podcast medium also has the potential to reach those beyond the classroom, including social work practitioners and policymakers involved in the social service sector. Having identified existing complementarities with podcast usage between social work education and research, the medium could be used and expanded to achieve greater synchronicity across social work educators, practitioners, researchers, and policymakers (Kwan, 2021; 2022). However, little has been documented about these benefits and interactions. Informed by these knowledge gaps, this study thus examined how the four groups (educators, practitioners, researchers, and policymakers) each benefited from a Singapore-based social work podcast, described interactions between and across the four groups involved, and identified opportunities for future engagement.
Consistent with the tradition of constructivist grounded theory (Charmaz, 2014; Corbin & Strauss, 2014), the findings were based on the analysis of [PODCAST TITLE REDACTED], a five-season, 90-episode podcast dedicated to social service research, practice, and policies in Singapore. Because the podcast covered COVID-19 community initiatives (including over a strict lockdown), social policies during a general election, and issues related to social work research and practice, all four groups were represented as hosts/co-hosts, guests, partners, and listeners.
Educators used relevant episodes to guide classroom discussions (e.g., the minimum wage) and highlight contrasting perspectives. Practitioners advocated for policy changes while sharing their day-to-day experiences (e.g., pay and burnout) and their desired centrality in practice-research partnerships. Researchers condensed and communicated their paywalled journal articles and esoteric research publications (e.g., pandemic-related insights), while using episodes as data for research projects. Policymakers extended their parliamentary advocacy and aggregated relevant research perspectives in consultation initiatives (e.g., to advance mental health endeavours). Through these different modes of podcast-facilitated consumption and production, the four groups interacted and worked in specific partnerships to augment individual benefits. Finally, despite the medium’s novelty, future engagement is likely sustained by diversifying listener demographics, involving community members as guests more intentionally, and drawing deeper connections between episodes, its guests, and its initiatives and/or organisations.
The implications for social work education, practice, research, and policies are embedded in the podcast medium and this study. The findings indicate how the four groups might work more effectively together, broaden public participation, and advance much-needed social work discourse around the world.
Learning Objectives:
Upon completion, the participant will be able to articulate the benefits, interactions, and future opportunities of the podcast medium for social work education, practice, research, and policies.
Upon completion, the participant will be able to identify specific examples of how educators, practitioners, researchers, and policymakers used a social work podcast through consumption and production.
Upon completion, the participant will be able to build upon these findings to broaden public participation and advance much-needed social work discourse around the world.
