TY - JOUR
T1 - Crossing the Threshold
T2 - Addressing Multiple Exclusion Homelessness in Social Work Education
AU - Mason, Karl
AU - Harris, Jess
PY - 2025/1/20
Y1 - 2025/1/20
N2 - This article presents the results of a study considering the extent of teaching on ‘multiple exclusion homelessness’ in social work curricula in England. A national ‘Call for Evidence’ was sent to all universities in England providing a social work qualifying programme and yielded 45 responses from 39 universities. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 key informants (social work academics, students and placement providers) in order to elaborate upon the results of the ‘Call for Evidence’. We found that only 50% of universities provided specific teaching on this topic, but that 85% offered placements in homelessness settings, suggesting ambiguous attitudes towards teaching about multiple exclusion homelessness in social work education. Whilst an overview of the ‘Call for Evidence’ results will be presented, this article focuses on a thematic analysis of the qualitative interviews. The findings suggest that teaching in this area has the potential to be troublesome, affective, integrative and transformational, challenging fundamental ideas about what ‘real social work’ comprises. As such, multiple exclusion homelessness can be considered a ‘threshold concept’ for social work education. The article concludes that social work education needs to cross this threshold in order to equip social work students for working in this complex area.
AB - This article presents the results of a study considering the extent of teaching on ‘multiple exclusion homelessness’ in social work curricula in England. A national ‘Call for Evidence’ was sent to all universities in England providing a social work qualifying programme and yielded 45 responses from 39 universities. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 key informants (social work academics, students and placement providers) in order to elaborate upon the results of the ‘Call for Evidence’. We found that only 50% of universities provided specific teaching on this topic, but that 85% offered placements in homelessness settings, suggesting ambiguous attitudes towards teaching about multiple exclusion homelessness in social work education. Whilst an overview of the ‘Call for Evidence’ results will be presented, this article focuses on a thematic analysis of the qualitative interviews. The findings suggest that teaching in this area has the potential to be troublesome, affective, integrative and transformational, challenging fundamental ideas about what ‘real social work’ comprises. As such, multiple exclusion homelessness can be considered a ‘threshold concept’ for social work education. The article concludes that social work education needs to cross this threshold in order to equip social work students for working in this complex area.
KW - Multiple exclusion homelessness
KW - curriculum
KW - threshold concepts
KW - transformational learning
KW - social work education
U2 - 10.1080/02615479.2025.2455003
DO - 10.1080/02615479.2025.2455003
M3 - Article
SN - 0261-5479
JO - Social Work Education
JF - Social Work Education
ER -