ABSTRACT
Social work as a practice-based discipline has espoused a commitment to the integration of theory and practice (Compton and Galaway, 1975). However, whether its realisation is the responsibility of academics, of practitioners, or a combination of the two in either formal or informal partnership, has been a matter of contention (Dominelli, 1997). The difficulties created by this uncertainty have long been apparent in social work education in Britain, despite the recognition that cooperation between academic institutions and social work agencies is essential, if academic learning is to be successfully integrated with practice experience. For many years cooperation rested on informal local arrangements which drew on the goodwill and vision of the academics and practitioners involved in a particular course. Inevitably this led to wide variations between courses in the provision of practice learning. When a new qualifying award, the Diploma in Social Work (DipSW), was introduced in 1990, these informal arrangements were transformed into formal partnerships in an attempt to ensure that effective collaboration became the norm. Potentially, formal partnership promised a more equitable distribution of power between the academy and the field and the possibility that the taken-forgranted nature of the latter's contribution to student learning would cease. The increasing involvement of practitioners and their agencies in social work education is now apparent in the selection of students and in contributions to teaching and assessment in the academy and in the field. This is a positive step, but whether it
should be seen as a move towards genuinely egalitarian relations and an active valuing of the field is a matter we consider in this chapter.
