Learning from Others

 

 

 

 

 The writers was constantly completing a self evalution through the entire semester because of the complexity of the populations the course explored.  Many populations explored such as intimate partner violence offenders and the criminal offenders have been marginalized by society.  Completing the self evaluation made the writer realize the amount of personal judgement, bias and disdain present.  Evaluating the different views of the writers peers of such populations has been beneficial.  For an example, when exploring the criminal population, if it was not mentioned by one of the writers colleagues that the negative childhood experiences may have been a contributing factor to the recividism, the writer would’ve continued to view the population in a stereotypical manner.  The overall practice of looking below the surface and being selfless in working with the forensic populations can embody the influences of the writers colleagues on this future social worker and her understanding of foresnic social work practive.  At the conclusion of this semester the writer has learned to embody the true elements of social work and serve as a bridge for these marginalized populations and not a wall, which they have encountered in many other facet of society.