Enhancing Professionality Through Reflectivity in Social and Health Care

Walter Lorenz, PhD  is a recognized expert on professional social work education. German by birth he trained as a social worker at LSE and practiced in East London before teaching social work in Ireland, Italy and other European countries. As president of the European Centre for Community Education he steered the first Erasmus Thematic Network for the Social Professions in the 1990s which helped to develop country-specific curricula in various European countries, oriented towards the creation of autonomous professionals. Together with Hans-Uwe Otto he was co-founder of the International Summer Academy TISSA and launched the European Journal of Social Work and later the online journal Social Work and Society. Since retiring from the Free University of Bozen, Italy he holds a visiting appointment at Charles University Prague. His research and development specialties are didactic forms of professional courses that enhance students’ reflective abilities, integrating knowledge, experience and personality with sound social policy analysis.   

Zuzana Havrdová, CSc  is a clinical psychologist, trained psychotherapist and clinical supervisor who practices individual, group and team supervision in social work and uses her extensive experience in guiding supervision training. In the last 20 years she has been the Lecturer and Programme leader of the master's programme in Management and Supervision in Social and Health organisations at the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, and board leader and supervisor of the PhD programme in Social Work, both of which were founded by her. She is part of the group of experts who have been building up social work in the Czech Republic after 1989, giving particular attention to the aspects of practice and social work methods (e.g., developing competences and minimum standards in social work practice) in collaboration with other schools of social work. She has extensive experience in developing study courses and curricula for master's and PhD levels in social work and social and health care and was also a leader and member of EU international higher education programme. She has co-edited and co-authored international books and papers in partnership with scholars from different European countries (Finland, Scotland, Portugal). Her research and educational focus is on external supervision in helping professions, which is based on collaborative reflection and knowledge of good practice.