BVV3020 Foster home Course description

This course deals with foster homes from different perspectives: cultural, historical, psychological, financial and in relation to due process protection. At the same time, the course is practice-oriented and based on the challenges that foster children and foster families encounter in their everyday lives. How can child welfare officers/sociologists approach the needs of foster children? What does providing guidance to foster parents involve? How can you address the biological parents’ needs as best as possible? The course addresses how foster children build their identity, where the challenge lies in understanding oneself in light of ‘the original’ and ‘the new’.

Systematic documentation and evaluation of the art therapy process and outcome is crucial for developing both the quality and the evidence-base of art therapy practices. During this course students will experiment and learn to use different tools to observe and evaluate therapeutic change, art therapy process and its outcome. They learn to consider ethical issues as well as to know the principles and laws that regulate practice with different clients.

The students’ own art therapy practice is at the core of learning during this course. They will practice evaluation of practice processes and utilize the findings in improving professional self-reflection and the quality of practice work. The course includes supervision of the student’s art therapy practice training.

Knowledge

The student:

• has knowledge of the challenges experienced by foster children, foster families and biological parents
• has knowledge of safeguarding foster children’s right of participation
• has broad knowledge of attachment and rejection
• has knowledge of the special needs of ethnic minority children
• has knowledge of placement with relatives and networks

Skills

The student:

• can explain what a foster home is
• has insight into and can reflect on foster parents’ need for guidance
• can reflect on key topics that are important when providing guidance to foster parents
• can make discretionary assessments in foster home work

General competence

The student:

• has broad knowledge of foster homes and foster home work
• can reflect on professional and ethical dilemmas that characterise foster home cooperation
• is aware of a broad scope of research and knowledge on foster homes and foster home cooperation

After completing the course, the student is expected to have achieved the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and competence: 

Knowledge

The student:

• can critically consider and use ethical principles in evaluating practice

• can analyse and evaluate practice experiences to improve the quality and evidence-base of art therapy

 Skills

The student:  

• can apply different methods and tools to evaluate the process and outcome of art therapy
• can critically reflect and evaluate art therapy process and outcome

• can adjust and develop own practice work in a constructive and flexible manner according to the experiences and evidence of the process and outcome

Competence

The student:

• can evaluate the process and outcome of art therapy

• can contribute to professional collaboration and developing of the quality of art therapy services

The course is combining campus seminars and distant learning. The course will use varied art-based and student-active learning methods. Teaching and learning methods include lectures, workshops and skills training in workshops and practice. It also includes supervised practice

Between the seminars, there will be digital practice supervision and the students will work on the documentation and evaluation assignment that will later be presented and discussed in group.

Skills training takes place during seminars. In professional experiential workshops, the focus is on simulating art therapeutic interaction to enable learning and reflection from the therapist perspective. In personal experiential workshops, students will explore and reflect art making and their own creative process from the client’s perspective.

Practice

The art therapy practice can be conducted both in live and in distant interventions depending of the context of practice and client group. For more detailed descriptions of practical training, see separate plan for practical training.

The course concludes with an individual written home exam over 72 hours with a scope of 7-9 pages. Font and font size: Calibri 12-point. Line spacing 1.5. The approved citation style APA for assignments must be complied with.

Candidates who fail or who were absent from the ordinary exam for a valid reason can take a resit/rescheduled exam.

Individual written project exam up to 1500 words excluding references. Project exam is worked during the course period and contains reflection of the art therapy practice with a client or a group.

The exam answer can be given in English or a Scandinavian language.

All aids are permitted, as long as the rules for source referencing are complied with.

Graded scale A-F

All exams are assessed by two examiners, of whom at least one is external.