The Art and Science of Intuition

Introduction: Intuition is a “below awareness” process of reasoning information which is brought to consciousness allowing for rapid judgements (Cook, 2014, Fook, 2012 and Luoma, 1998). It has attracted significant attention within Social Work , many positing it as critical in decision making, emphasised by recent and historical tragic high-profile cases. Social Work is often seen as a profession that is stifled by pre-determined policies and frameworks, leaving little room for intuitive reasoning (Fook, 2012 and Ferguson, 2018). How Social Work academics construct and teach intuition are central focuses to this thesis, with many split over the best methods for delivery (Simpson et al., 2019).

Methodology: This research is undertaken in 2 phases. Phase 1, already completed with academics teaching on the People Professions courses. Phase 2 of the research has been guided the findings from phase 1 and seeks to expand on the factors that influence the constructing and teaching of intuition. Data is collected through both focus groups and interviews and analysed by way of Critical Discourse Analysis.
Conclusion-hypothesis: Initial suppositions suggest multiple inter-connected factors influencing construction and teaching of intuition by academics, with bias and reflexivity being dominant themes.