The narration of professional experience as an expression of knowledge in Social Work

Abstract

This article focuses on the narration of experience as an artistic expression of professional practice and the possibility of obtaining this knowledge. Starting from the critique of scientism-based desire that seems to dominate social work in Spain, we defend the need to incorporate experience into our research agenda so as to allow a deeper and more detailed description of the problems that we deal with and to thereby achieve a type of knowledge that is valuable for social intervention. We argue in favour of the integration of reflective practice in our professional activities to discover the uniqueness and complexity of our work through a narration in which the researcher is part and parcel of what is described. Despite the traditional epistemological opposition and obstacles to combining action-focused reflective practice with the investigation of an object that the researcher forms part of, we explore the possibilities of a specific type of narrative inquiry, automethodology, as a means and method to enhance experience and improve professional social workers’ practice in an environment in which our work is increasingly complex and difficult. We also offer some illustrative texts as examples.