Resident participation as learning and action - a participatory action learning project in social work education

This article presents an innovation project in social work education carried out in collaboration between a university college, an organization for housing tenants, MSW students, social workers in the field and people living in social housing facilities. User participation is highlighted in government plans for social housing but has been a difficult concept to implement in practice. Based on interviews, we started a project-oriented course aiming to work with concrete problems. The students met with social housing residents, hearing their stories and established partnership projects to work on throughout the course. Lectures and supervision were given related to student feedbacks and needs. The course resulted in four projects with different aims and different levels of participation. Recognizing the lack of participation and structural inequality as well as student empowerment and experiences of partnership were key themes in the students' learning outcome. The course showed positive learning outcomes, and had an impact on actual residents' life in, but also highlighted challenges in mediating between resident ownership of the projects, academic expectations and practical considerations. Situating the projects in the lived experiences also of the students appeared important.