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Fabled Uncertainty in Social Work

A Coda to Spafford et al

University of Lancaster, England, s.j.white{at}lancaster.ac.uk

• Summary: In a recent issue of this journal, Marlee Spafford and her colleagues reported on a Canadian study of social work, medical and optometry students. One of their findings was that the novice social workers viewed the acknowledgement of uncertainty as a hallmark of professional competence. Drawing on data from UK-based studies of professional reasoning, this article challenges the notion that social work has embraced and engaged with uncertainty.

• Findings: Despite the obvious ambiguities of many cases, much of the time social workers often feel very sure of their formulations. This is because social work takes place in the terrain of human relationships about which we all, qua human beings, routinely make moral evaluations in everyday life. Rhetoric of complexity and reflection should not be confused with uncertainty.

• Applications : This article endorses Spafford et al.'s respect for uncertainty and tentativeness, but argues that it is folly to think that we already have it in social work. A tentative and sceptical vocabulary of the emotional and moral domain is required if social work is indeed to embrace and acknowledge the limits and fallibilities of its technologies and practices.

Key Words: case formulation • culture • emotion • moral judgement • professional identities • uncertainty

Journal of Social Work, Vol. 9, No. 2, 222-235 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1468017308101824


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