Haikus for Case study on practice

The purpose of this co-produced qualitative case study was to explore whether poetry, specifically haiku, is an effective tool to support social workers to develop critical reflection skills. The participants comprised the research team, with two former social work students who use haikus to reflect on their practice and two experienced social workers who used haiku to critical reflect whilst facilitating two domestic abuse support programmes. The haikus were used as raw data to be interpreted through reflective thematic analysis to explore the effectiveness of haiku as a form to develop critical reflection on practice over time. The findings evidence that the use of haiku enhanced social workers’ critical reflection skills, including the development of use of self in their own practice and to explore risk, ethical issues and support advocacy. There is potential value for using haiku across a placement as tool for supervising and assessing professional development.