Creative teaching: a case study

The paper reports on a student project that combined my creative interests in social work teaching and photography. The common ground between social work and photography was demonstrated through an audio-visual presentation entitled An alternative view of Durban which was presented at the Annual Congress of the Photographic Society of Southern Africa (PSSA) held in Durban in 1996. The audio-visual show of the case study of the women of Block A K was first presented at the IASSW Congress in Washington in 1992 and the accompanying paper was published in the International Journal of Social Work in 1994. When I was first invited to talk about the work that I do at a photographic congress, I was quite mystified as to how I would present social work to an audience of photographers drawn from all over South Africa and all walks of life. This challenge led me to think about the relationship between my work and my photography, both of which I love with a passion. What follows is the text of my talk, which was illustrated with accompanying slides taken during my work with students on field trips.