Rethinking Social Work Education: Addressing the development of Intuitive Reasoning in Student Training

Abstract

Intuitive reasoning is regarded as a “below awareness” process of reasoning information. It is considered to play a pivotal role in Social Work practice and the teaching curriculum. Social Work has attracted a significant amount of attention, emphasised by high-profile cases. This has brought into question several aspects of Social Work practice and teaching. This thesis explores how Social Work academics construct and teach intuitive reasoning to students within the Social Work curriculum.
The study utilised a qualitative interpretative multiphase approach. Phase 1, referred to as the pilot study, aimed to clarify the research problem and establish the most theoretically relevant form of data collection and analysis. It consisted of one focus group involving academics from 5 differing people professions. Phase 2, the main study, consisted of 3 focus groups and 5 individual interviews with a total of 18 participants. All academics were known to the principal researcher and recruited through convenience and snowballing sampling methods. Ethical approval was obtained through the University Research Ethics Committee. The data was analysed by way of Reflexive Thematic Analysis.
Intuitive reasoning is a contested area of the Social Work curriculum with there being little agreement about its definition and role. Findings suggest multiple inter-connected factors influencing how academics construct and teach intuitive reasoning to students. Themes of the individual, organisational culture, control and teaching are compelling in the findings.
This thesis concludes that the process by which academics construct and teach their students the concept of intuitive reasoning is complex and remains contested. Academics are influenced by fear, bias, blame and self in the construction and teaching intuitive reasoning. This thesis recommends that the Social Work curriculum in Higher Education should balance the teaching of intuitive thinking and analytical thinking. Academics should consider a range of methods of teaching. A more contemporary theory of “intuitionism” should be theoretically developed.

Date of Award	29 Sept 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Northampton
Supervisor	Eunice Lumsden (Supervisor) & Cristina Devecchi (Supervisor)