Dr Lucy Rai

Profile

Lucy worked as a qualified social worker in a range of statutory settings with children and families in the South West before becoming involved in teaching in higher education in 1995. Her experience included statutory child protection work and therapeutic groupwork and counselling with children and families. While her teaching focus has remained on social work, she has also developed her interest in adult learning and widening participation in social work with a specific focus on writing.

Lucy has worked for The Open University since 2000 where, as Assistant Director of Social Work, she led the development of the BA Social work and is currently involved in leading the development of a postgraduate programme for post qualified professionals working with children and families.

Lucy has been acadmic advisor on two successful and influential BBC series, A Child of our Time and Someone to Watch Over Me and is currently working on a new BBC series, Protecting Our Children.

 

Qualifications

BSc Hons, Social Administration, University of Bristol

CQSW and Certificate in Applied Social Studies, University of Bristol

PGCE, University of Greenwich

PhD Student writing in social work education The Open University

Academic leadership development programme, The Open University

Teaching Interests

Lucy has taught across a range of social work courses but her key area of expertise is in children and families and also facilitating professional teaching and learning at all academic levels. She led the development of Understanding Children, an entry level short module, and Foundations in Social Work Practice, the first level module on the BA Social Work. She has recently been involved in developing flexible practice-based CPD modules for qualified professionals working with children and families.

Lucy also has an interest in supporting students at all levels to develop academic and professional writing capabilities and has written integrated and stand alone teaching materials.

Lucy was one of the directors of the Practice based professional learning CETL in 2008-9 and is co-convenor of the faculty Health and Social Care Teaching and Learning Group.

Lucy is an academic reviewer for the Open University Validation Services.

External Examiner

University of the West of England - 2006-2009

Royal Holloway (University of London) - 2011 -

Goldsmiths University of London - 2011-

Research Interests

Lucy has been researching writing in social work for 10 years, initially focusing on student writing and latterly exploring professional social work writing and the ways in which writing undertaken during qualifying education prepares practitioners. She has particular interests in refelctive writing, identity and the role of emotion in writing.

Lucy completed her PhD in 2008 which was entitled Student writing in social work educaiton and is currently writing a book entitled Writing in social work: Making a differnece to be published by Policy Press in 2012.

PhD Supervision

Ruth Hamilton ‘Women’s Writing and Widening Participation in Higher Education in the UK’

 Jenny Macmilan ‘Widening Participation for Women:  Are non-traditional educational routes truly empowering for women seeking professional qualification through the social work degree?’

Publications

Book Chapters

 
 

Current Research Projects

Lucy is involved in ongoing research with Dr Theresa Lillis (Faculty of Language and Communication) exploring social work writing in the academic and professional domains. Their projects have involved working with a number of social work agencies including North East Derbyshire, Cambridgeshire, Warwickshire and Islington.

Publications

Other Interests

Lucy has broad interests in the pedagogy of work -based and professional learning. She was a director of the Practice based professional learning CETL, hosted by The Open University, 2009-10 and co-chairs the faculty Teaching and learning group. Lucy is also a reviewer for Social Work Education.