A conversation about social work and never stepping in the same river twice

Erin Segal, Thick Press publisher, first met Julie Altman, a professor of social work, in 2015 at a gathering of the Global Partnership for Transformative Social Work in Vermont. The GPTSW, which formed in the early 1980s as the Study Group for Philosophical Issues in Social Work, consists of social work academics who are committed to exploring the applicability of post-modern and social constructionist dialogues to social work practice. At a virtual GPTSW “How Do I Know What I Think Until I See What I Say” session in 2022, Julie described her time-limited return to direct service (after 22 years in academia) during her sabbatical year. She had conducted autoethnographic journaling throughout her experience and was trying to figure out ways to disseminate what she had learned/was learning. Erin and Julie thought it would befun/helpful to create a conversation about all this as part of Thick Press’ printout series. The transcript below is based on three conversations conducted over zoom between December 2021 and December 2022. The resulting dialogue centers on the dialectical ways social work, and one social worker in particular, have changed over time. It is infused with conviction for the potentiality of relational, strengths-based approaches to practice and teaching, as well as an emphasis on changemaking.