In my graduation thesis I qualitatively explore how studying at the Faculty of Social Work affects students. In the process of social work education, students are exposed to various teaching contents in different fields relevant to social work, they gain their first practical experiences, they learn about certain concepts and principles of social work, they are taught (self-)critical and reflective thinking and, in addition to their professional competences, they develop and strengthen some essential personality characteristics for social work practice. The students involved in my research have, to a lesser or greater extent, observed changes in all the personality areas I have explored in this thesis. After years of studying at the Faculty of Social Work, students describe themselves with personality traits indicating a greater degree of openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness and a lesser degree of neuroticism. In their personal life they also become more and more interested in the topics related to the social work profession and during their studies they internalise the values and viewpoints of the profession to some extent. Above all, they become more aware of those values and views and therefore attach greater importance to them. Their view of themselves also changes and by the end of their studies becomes more positive, resulting in greater self-esteem and self-care. For many, studying social work is also the start of the process of self-development.
In my research, I also show that social work requires certain personality characteristics in addition to specific professional knowledge and skills. This is the first study in Slovenia and one of the few in the world to examine the impact of study on students, and I suggest further and deeper research in this field, as it has been shown that the interconnection and interplay between professional and personal identity in social work is strong.
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