Information and Knowledge Management based on the use of Technologies in Social Work: Challenges to training from the perspective of professional experiences in the south of Chile

Abstract

This work addresses the experiences of Social Workers graduated from the Universidad Católica de Temuco, southern Chile, in terms of the management of information and knowledge through the use of technologies in their professional practice. The research consists of a critical review of the competencies model and the production of disciplinary knowledge inserted within a neo-liberal context that conditions and compromises the professional practice of this discipline. In methodological terms the approach was exploratory and critical, gathering in-depth information though interviews and placing emphasis on the tensions provoked by the use of technologies associated with the generation of knowledge on the Social Work profession. The results evidence the ethical-political challenges that the overvaluation of institutional and social policies incorporating digital management systems pose to the professional practice. The solution proposed for training purposes is to strengthen the ethics of information and knowledge management through ITC, and to develop a critical and situated understanding that will make it possible to value and enhance dialogue between different types of knowledge in Social Work intervention and research processes.