ECSWE-36754 - Another brick in social work education: a meta-analysis of the use of arts or about what could be another Pink Floyd song

Education and educational contexts are privileged spaces to generate change and build more socially just, sustainable, and inclusive societies. It is essential to think and rethink educational strategies in Social Work Curricula to promote this potential, particularly in the contemporary context where humanitarian and climate crises and the proliferation of fake news are worsening. Fenton (2020), for example, addresses a concern observed in the younger generations of social workers, both at the level of communication skills, such as assertiveness, and at the level of critical thinking. Through a literature review, this study aimed to identify the strategies used in Social Work education to promote communication and critical and creative thinking skills in students. The literature on this topic points to the contribution of the arts in education and the promotion of critical and creative thinking (Chambon, 2008, Wehbi, 2015) that contributes to the move away from more technicist, instrumental approaches and rigid, bureaucratic organizational environments (Leonard, Hafford-Letchfield & Cauchman, 2018). We advocate that the knowledge and dissemination of the strategies used and described in the literature review on this topic can contribute to stimulating, supporting, and guiding social work educators in the use of art in the training of social workers. Through the use of creative methods, they develop students' ability to think critically about social phenomena and problems, also finding visionary solutions to respond to them.