Learning is everywhere

 

I have talked in a previous post about the way people learn but I was thinking about where that learning comes from. There are obvious sources such as places of education or training courses but actually there are so many places you can gain new knowledge from, especially in Social Work.

I have attended a lot of training courses and I mean a lot, but I find that a lot of my learning comes from day-to-day experiences that I take for granted. It comes from a conversation with a colleague or another professional. It can come from reading an article or hearing a podcast. It could also come from a conversation with a stranger.

There are certain things in life that I have not experienced because I come from a place of privilege. That does not mean that I cannot attend things or have open conversations that expand my horizons and allow me to learn more about those types of situations. As I am sure you can tell from my picture, I am White British, and this means that I have not dealt with any form of Racism in my life. I find that when I have conversations with people who have that I can learn a lot from them. I am able to hear their struggles and want the world to be better. There are also occasions I have heard people speak about their struggles and what they have had to overcome and can relate because although I may not have experienced it for one aspect of my identity doesn’t mean I haven’t for another.

This is where intersectionality is an important concept to be aware of. Nobody is just one part of their identity, and we need to understand that for example the experience of a black woman will not be the same as a white woman even though they are both women. There may be some overlap, but it will never be the same experienced because the responses received don’t just look at one most of the time.

I also find that I learn a lot from the conversations I have with the people I support. It is so important to understand that people know themselves best and we should appreciate that. They may know what worked last time their mental health declined and that may be a service that we are not aware of. Learning more about it not only supports that person in the here and now it also supports the people we work with in the future who may potentially go through a similar situation. It gives us somewhere to signpost them to instead of needing to go and spend time hunting for that information.

I know that nobody knows everything and that is where I think it is important to share information when you find it. I am fortunate to work in a team where we have a shared resource that is kept up to date with a lot of useful information. That is also added to when it is noticed that something needed is not present.

I think it should be the same when we think about our own learning. I know that I cannot know everything and definitely cannot perfect every skill but that is where it is important that no two people are the same because between us, we can cover a lot more. We can have those necessary skills or personality traits that allow us to support someone else in a situation where my strength may be their weakness and vice versa.

It feels awkward when you are asked about your strengths and weaknesses because I think as humans, we find it much easier to find faults in ourselves than to point out the things that make us special and useful. Everyone has a skill, talent or personality trait that allows them to support others and sometimes it takes a bit of time to find out what it is.