Digital competence in social work practice and education: experiences from Norway

Abstract

This article discusses which knowledge areas of digital competence are vital for Norwegian social work education today basing on EU Digital Competence framework (DigComp) and expectation from frontline practice. The research adopted diverse methods for data collection, including a case study of Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV), a document analysis of Norwegian social work education guideline and curricula, and a semi-structured interview with social work educators. The results reveal that the integration of digital competence knowledge areas across Norwegian social work education is still highly limited. There is a significant gap between the EU’s digital competence requirement and the Norwegian social work curricula, although the DigComp framework demonstrates its limitation in conceptualizing digital competence that is relevant social work domain. There is also the gap between the practice in NAV and Norwegian social work curricula regarding digital competence. We need further research to develop a consensus in respect of defining digital competence and its core knowledge areas in social work to prepare future professionals to harness technology advance for every-changing needs in digitalized society.