Cooperation and resilience in professional role (BBA302)

The course focuses on the child welfare educator’s professional role, collaboration, emotional work, leadership and coping with challenging work conditions.


Course description for study year 2024-2025

Facts

Course code

BBA302

Version

1

Credits (ECTS)

15

Semester tution start

Autumn

Number of semesters

1

Exam semester

Autumn

Language of instruction

Norwegian

Content

The purpose of the course is to highlight issues that are important regarding the work and collaboration child welfare educators are involved in.

Key topics include collaboration with children, young people and parents, interdisciplinary and interagency collaboration, organisation and management, different forms of knowledge, ethics and characteristics of the professional role.

The course will be divided into 4 parts:

  1. Collaboration and interdisciplinary collaboration in work with vulnerable children and young people.
  2. Working environment and management.
  3. Emotional strain and coping with the professional role.
  4. Preconceptions, knowledge and ethics.

Learning outcome

After successfully completing and passing the course, candidates will have achieved the following learning outcomes defined in the form of

Knowledge

  • Has broad knowledge about interdisciplinary, interagency and interprofessional collaboration.
  • Has knowledge about power and distribution of tasks, challenges and obstacles involved in interagency and interdisciplinary collaboration.
  • Has knowledge about communication, conflict management and collaboration with children, young people and families living with complex challenges.
  • Has knowledge about the relationship between professional ethics, key dilemmas and challenges in management, change processes and professional work involving complex child welfare processes.
  • Has knowledge about the occurrence and risk of violence and threats in child welfare work.
  • Has knowledge about health, safety and the environment in child welfare work.
  • Has knowledge about the working environment, and risk and protective factors in professional practice.
  • Has knowledge about the dangers and consequences of burnout and compassion fatigue in child welfare organisations and work.
  • Has knowledge about the history of the child welfare field with emphasis on development, innovation and different forms of knowledge.
  • Has knowledge about fundamental philosophical issues that are discussed within the fields of ethics, epistemology and philosophy of science, with emphasis on professional ethics and forms of knowledge.

Skills

  • Can reflect on the power relationship that exists between organisations in the child welfare field and children, young people and their families.
  • Can reflect on the power that lies in the role of being a child welfare educator.
  • Can apply academic knowledge to communicate and collaborate appropriately with children, young people and parents living in vulnerable life situations.
  • Can obtain and apply knowledge from children, young people and/or parents in work involving interventions and the evaluation of interventions in child welfare work.
  • can apply academic knowledge and expertise to initiate and lead interdisciplinary collaboration.
  • Can apply knowledge about management, changes and innovation in order to analyse and reflect critically on one’s own and workplace practices.
  • Can investigate and analyse experiences of child welfare work independently and in collaboration with others.
  • Can apply experiences from supervised professional training combined with the course’s academic knowledge to reflect on different forms of supervision, and approaches to supervision, in order to master the professional role.
  • Can orient themselves in relation to employee rights and instruments for coping with emotional work, risk factors and stresses in the professional role.
  • Has knowledge about methods for preventing burnout and compassion fatigue in organisations.
  • Can master and reflect independently on fundamental issues discussed within the fields of philosophy of science, ethics and epistemology with emphasis placed on professional ethics and forms of knowledge.

General competence

  • has insight into and can manage ethical and emotional issues in the subject area and their own service provision.
  • Can relate critically to scientific knowledge production in the child welfare field.
  • Is generally oriented in ethics and philosophy of science with regard to child welfare issues.
  • can reflect on how the working environment and management are important for work involving children, young people and families in vulnerable situations.
  • Can reflect, document and communicate their own work and collaboration in writing and orally, and together with others.

Required prerequisite knowledge

BBA101 Child development and developmental environment, BBA102 Children and youth at risk, BBA103 Welfare policy and welfare organisation, BBA104 Welfare law, BBA201 Socio-pedagogical work with children and youth, BBA202 Work in child welfare service

Recommended prerequisites

BBAP20 Practical studies

Exam

Form of assessment Weight Duration Marks Aid
Portfolio assessment 1/1 Letter grades All

Portfolio examination consisting of 4 tasks. 2 practical skills tasks and 2 written assignments. The tasks and assignments are presented and discussed in the seminars before the portfolio is submitted. The criteria and format for the various parts of the examination are specified in more detail by the course coordinator on Canvas.Students who do not pass the ordinary examination can submit a revised version of the portfolio when taking a re-sit examination. Students who fail the re-sit or re-scheduled examination must take the course examination together with the subsequent year group, and follow the teaching and examination arrangements that apply to this year group.

Coursework requirements

Nærværskrav

This compulsory activity must be approved in order for the student to take the examination. Approval/non-approval of compulsory activities is announced on Studentweb, normally no later than 7 days before the examination. Students who lack approval will be withdrawn from the examination.

Attendance requirements: Minimum of 75% attendance during the seminars. If attendance requirements are not met, students lose the right to take the examination, regardless of the reason.

Course teacher(s)

Course coordinator:

Andreas Håheim

Study Program Director:

Erik Paulsen

Method of work

Lectures, seminars, group work, presentations, self-study and portfolio work

Literature

The syllabus can be found in Leganto