ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on students' motivations, hopes and fears as they enter the social work profession. They write about their life experiences and how these experiences have influenced their decisions to become social workers. The lives of students are embedded in the social, cultural and political relations of their society. Some of the narratives are brief and sketchy while others are longer and more detailed, and include views and perspectives about a wide range of issues. This reflective space captures student narratives, moving along the primary themes of identities, outsider perspectives, social justice, empowerment, child welfare, and journeys through social work education. The narratives invite readers to find a space, sit back and discover more about their own experiences as they engage in an ongoing dialogue with narratives revealing the interweaving of personal and professional selves. In this way the reader is invited to connect and relate to these narratives themselves.
