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Testing Practice Wisdom in Child Welfare

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Book cover From Child Welfare to Child Well-Being

Part of the book series: Children’s Well-Being: Indicators and Research ((CHIR,volume 1))

Abstract

Many practice decisions are based on what is known as practice wisdom. While in our everyday lives, we use such knowledge to make both simple and complex decisions, professionals, such as Child Protection Officers have to decide for example, whether or not to remove a child from home. Thus, they often base their decisions on their “individual theory of practice that represents the worker’s attempt to conceptualize what he is doing” (Bloom, 1975, p. 66). This knowledge however, is implicit and is not available for utilization in practice or research. It is therefore important to conceptualize this source of knowledge, and to explore its potential for utilization in practice and policy (Collins, Amodeo, & Clay, 2008).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Anat Zeira

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  1. Anat Zeira
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work, Columbia University, 1255 Amsterdam Avenue, 10027, New York, NY, USA

    Sheila B. Kamerman

  2. Dept. Economics, Dalhousie University, B3H 3J5, Halifax, NS, Canada

    Shelley Phipps

  3. Hebrew University of Jerusalem Paul Baerwald School of Social Work & Social Welfare Giv’at Ram, 91905, Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Israel

    Asher Ben-Arieh

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Zeira, A. (2010). Testing Practice Wisdom in Child Welfare. In: Kamerman, S.B., Phipps, S., Ben-Arieh, A. (eds) From Child Welfare to Child Well-Being. Children’s Well-Being: Indicators and Research, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3377-2_4

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