Greta Sandberg

I am a trained social worker and have extensive experience of social work as a profession, an educational field and an area of research. I am a doctoral student in social work and hold a licentiate degree (2010) with a focus on issues of ethnicity, knowledge and power in social work.

In my current research, I explore how social categories such as class, gender, ethnicity and functionality intersect in educational and professional contexts. I analyse how ideas of intercultural social work, evidence-based practice and professionalism can both create opportunities and simultaneously render certain experiences invisible. A central focus of my research is learning processes within Swedish social work education, and how these are shaped by structural inequalities, norms, diversity and students’ lived experiences. I am particularly interested in how we, together—teachers and students—can shape more inclusive forms of education and practice.

Methodologically, I primarily work with qualitative methods, such as discourse analysis and narrative interviews, and have a particular interest in reflexive and participatory research approaches in which knowledge is understood as situated and context dependent.

Key research areas

• intersectional perspectives in social work and social work education
• neuroaffirmative perspectives and neurodiversity
• learning processes and situated knowledge in social work

Ongoing research projects

Doctoral project: Intercultural social work and Intersectionally situated learning in Swedish social work education

My doctoral dissertation is planned as a compilation thesis and builds on my licentiate research. It consists of two studies. The first analyses discourses on intercultural social work and how concepts such as transcultural perspectives and ethnic sensitivity are addressed within Swedish social work education. The second is based on life story interviews with social work students and focuses on experiences of learning, belonging and professional development from an intersectional and neuroaffirmative perspective.

The overall aim of the dissertation is to contribute knowledge on how social work education and social work practice can be developed in more inclusive, reflexive and equitable directions.