Designing and developing interprofessional education–an example involving social work and interpreting students in Sweden

Abstract

This paper contributes to the research field of interprofessional education by reporting on an ongoing collaboration between a Social Work Study Programme and two Public Service Interpreting programs located at three universities in Sweden. The article explores the question of what is required to establish a sustainable curriculum for interprofessional education to prepare social work and interpreting students to manage interpreter-mediated social work encounters. Based on experiences made from six IPE sessions over the past three years, two important perspectives are identified and discussed. Firstly, is the pedagogical perspective, where the IPE seen as a situated learning activity, offering a learning space in which awareness of communicative skills such as the organization of turns and division of labour in interpreter-mediated social work encounters are made visible, practiced and reflected upon. The communicative skills relate both to professional and interprofessional expectations and duties of these groups of students. Secondly, is the organizational perspective, where the IPE is regarded as an example of educational collaboration. At a general overall level, the crucial aspects identified for establishing a sustainable IPE are the actual needs-basis, persistence over time and small-scaleness of the development process. The online format, close collaboration between the interpreting programs and the specific IPE team are other crucial aspects identified in the organization of this collaborative venture. The feedback from students have so far been very positive and with an IPE in place, there are now good opportunities to develop these training sessions in different directions and systematically assess the IPE.