ABSTRACT
Although the heading for this chapter is ‘student survey’, the convenient sample included existing, and former students who had attended the University of Reading but were now qualified practitioners undertaking front line social work. Having taught and/or teaching the participants, and had the opportunity to listen to some of their experiences, there was an expectation that this sample group would provide useful information drawn from their lived experience in Africa and the UK. It is recognized that the information obtained from this group is specific to members of this group; however, some common experiences emerging from this group were also noted from other studies on African family life. Comprehensive studies on this subject have not been carried out within African countries possibly due to limited financial resources or lack of interest in the subject matter. In the UK, this has not happened either, possibly because of the methods used to determine priorities for funding empirical studies, and yet various academic papers (Chand 2008, Graham 2007, Barn and Harman 2006, Boushel 2000), all point to the shortage of empirical evidence on African family life. My interaction with students on health and social work undergraduate and postgraduate programmes over a number of years suggested that students needed to learn and understand African family life because they were unsure whether the knowledge gap was real or imagined. The uneasiness made some students think that they might find it difficult to meaningfully engage with African families in their professional capacity. It is hoped that the views expressed by this group of survey participants could make a contribution towards putting the issues raised on the research agenda by generating interest among potential researchers and funders. The emphasis on evidence based practice highlights the need to generate empirical evidence to inform practice interventions with African families.
