Day 12

I am finally done transcribing the 3rd FGD, which is the longest one yet. Despite it being conducted in English, it still was not the easiest thing to transcribe - again because of the voices being muffled. However it was easier to figure out what they were saying than the previous FGD recordings. Suddenly I'm quite thankful that the FGD with the Lion Befrienders was done in English and without a recording device, because it means that I merely have to neaten up the notes and don't have to do anymore transcribing, though it meant being slightly more stressed during the FGD itself.

After transcribing about half of the FGDs, I'm beginning to get quite excited about doing the analysis, because I am beginning to see so many common themes and issues popping up amongst the various groups. However I would probably have to do some revision about doing FGD analysis (i.e. qualitative analysis) as I have not done this before.

I have to say that I am enjoying this field placement more than what my friends had thought (as they did warn me prior that, this being indirect work with a lot of research, I might get bored due to the lack of human contact). When doing direct work I hardly had sufficient time to sit and truly reflect about the theoretical and macro perspectives about the work I was doing or seeing being done. Instead, I was more focused on reflecting about my microskills, about how the clients were doing and the various cases I was seeing. Being able to take a step back and use different skills and look at things from a different perspective is refreshing.

Doing this placement is making me consider how it would be beneficial for all social work students to do at least one micro and one macro field placement each, so that they get a better feel of the field. Or, for honors social work students to do an additional field placement or internship in a macro setting (so that would total two micro setting placements and one macro setting placement). This way they get to experience two very different direct practise methods/settings and environments, and get to experience indirect work as well. While it was unfortunate that I have to redo my placement, in many senses I am very thankful that I do get to experience three different practise settings, as that gives me a much better understanding of how all the different aspects/arms of the social services work and how they interact and influence each other. The logistics of doing a third placement however would possibly not be welcomed by the school or the students, particularly as it does eat at the school holidays. It would be an interesting thing to suggest to the school however - particularly in relation to modules such as policy planning and research.