Minority Social Workers Share Their Previously Tacit Knowledge: Patterns and Importance of Sharing and the Context

Abstract

Abstract The gap between fieldwork demands and academic knowledge necessitates the sharing of tacit knowledge to ensure continuity of context-appropriate professional knowledge. The research describes and explains patterns of minority social workers’ sharing of their previously tacit knowledge, the knowledge’s significance and the context where it was acquired. In data drawn from in-depth semi-structured interviews with twenty children and youth workers in Arab welfare bureaus throughout Israel, Arab social workers exposed tacit knowledge they had revealed and shared concerning prolonged institutional deprivation in out-of-home settings that dramatically limited their ability to ensure the minors’ rights. This knowledge was shared in four ways: retention, transmission between colleagues, documentation for the future and publication. Social workers invested insufficient efforts to share their tacit knowledge, due to inappropriate relevant professional training and lack of a suitable infrastructure and organisational culture. They were aware that sharing and dissemination of their previously tacit knowledge could serve three players in the Children and Youth Services: the target population (giving them a voice), professionals (uniting their ranks for collective action) and government institutions (reflecting the reality and equipping them with data concerning service gaps). Social work should reconsider the potential value of sharing such knowledge.