{"title":"Mutual aid on WhatsApp: reflections on an online support group for new and pre-tenured faculty","authors":"Akin Taiwo, Stephanie L. Baird, J. Sanders","doi":"10.1080/01609513.2021.1990191","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The global COVID-19 pandemic has created increased isolation and a need for connecting in new ways. As pre-tenured faculty members at a school of social work in Ontario, Canada, the need to connect and support each other has been particularly important. The challenges of balancing new faculty positions and the demands of teaching, service, and research became even more apparent with additional workloads, difficulties accessing overwhelming amounts of online information, and increased isolation resulting from the pandemic. In response, this narrative describes the process of developing a virtual “pre-tenured faculty” chat support group, and the unexpected source of support it provided. Drawing from group work literature and personal reflections, this paper describes the mutual aid that was developed throughout this process and offers recommendations for creating similar peer support chat groups in academic and other organizations.","PeriodicalId":39702,"journal":{"name":"Social Work with Groups","volume":"45 1","pages":"145 - 156"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2021-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"3","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Social Work with Groups","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01609513.2021.1990191","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 3
Abstract
ABSTRACT The global COVID-19 pandemic has created increased isolation and a need for connecting in new ways. As pre-tenured faculty members at a school of social work in Ontario, Canada, the need to connect and support each other has been particularly important. The challenges of balancing new faculty positions and the demands of teaching, service, and research became even more apparent with additional workloads, difficulties accessing overwhelming amounts of online information, and increased isolation resulting from the pandemic. In response, this narrative describes the process of developing a virtual “pre-tenured faculty” chat support group, and the unexpected source of support it provided. Drawing from group work literature and personal reflections, this paper describes the mutual aid that was developed throughout this process and offers recommendations for creating similar peer support chat groups in academic and other organizations.
期刊介绍:
Social Work with Groups is a unique quarterly journal of community and clinical practice, and an important reference publication for those in the social work profession who value and seek to understand the small group. The journal addresses the issues of group work in psychiatric, rehabilitative, and multipurpose social work and social service agencies; crisis theory and group work; the use of group programs in clinical and community practice; and basic group competencies for all social work professionals. The contributions reflect a sophisticated knowledge of the use of the group as a learning medium and a highly developed understanding of instructional technology in the teaching of social group work knowledge and skills.