Skip to main content
“By creating we think, by living we learn” Patrick Geddes
Main University menu
 

Intranet

School of Education, Social Work & Community Education Top-Level Menu

School of Education, Social Work & Community Education Sub Menu

Jane Fenton

Jane Fenton
Jane Fenton

Biography

Jane Fenton has worked as a lecturer in social work at the University of Dundee since August 2006. Prior to this, she was employed for approximately 11 years in Criminal Justice Social Work (CJSW) with Dundee City Council, as both a social worker and a first line manager (for the final seven years). She is passionate about CJSW, and loved working with complex situations and making finely balanced decisions about rights and risks. She quickly learned just how important it is to have a strong value base and a real belief in social justice, especially in a field which has become more and more about 'managing' people and less about working with them.

Her teaching is informed by her practice experience, as is her recent entry into the world of research. Her Phd aims to aims to explore whether criminal justice social workers experience 'disjuncture' i.e. the ethical stress generated when values and behaviour are out of synch. If social workers do experience disjuncture, what are the main contributory factors?

Previous work experience includes family placement work in Angus, and three years pre-qualifying work as a residential social worker in a 16 bedded unit for adolescents. To this day she thinks that during those three years she did her best, and hardest, social work. The young people in residence taught her the essentials about not labelling, about 'hearing' their stories, really and truly listening and the importance of trying to understand the 'why' in what people do. She is very grateful to them!

Degrees & Qualifications

Research Interests

Teaching

Publications


Journal Papers
Fenton, J. & Walker, L., 2012 Fenton, J. & Walker, L. (2012). When is personal care task not just a task? Can understanding personal care within practice learning opportunities enhance the learning of student social workers? Journal of Practice Teaching and Learning, 11(1).
Fenton, J. , 2012 Fenton, J. (2012). Risk aversion and anxiety in Scottish Criminal Justice Social Work: can desistance and human rights agendas have an impact? The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice (forthcoming).
Fenton, J., 2011 Fenton, J. (2011). Bringing together messages from the literature on criminal justice social work and "disjuncture": the importance of "helping". British Journal of Social Work Advance Access, published online September 2011. http://bjsw.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/09/30/bjsw.bcr136.short?rss=1
Conference Presentations
Walker, L. & Fenton, J., 2011 Walker, L. & Fenton, J. (2011). Getting your hands dirty: encouraging social work students to become professionals within residential practice placements. Scottish Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Stirling, November 2011.
Fenton, J. & Walker, L., 2011 Fenton, J. & Walker, L. (2011). When is a Personal Care Task not a Task? 9th International Practice Teaching and Field Education in Health & Social Work Conference, Bournemouth, April 2011.