Digital Social Work in Mexico: professional training in a syndemic context

Abstract

Introduction: talking about digital social work in Mexico places in debate the use of information and communication technologies as methodological tools in the processes of school practice, from a face-to-face scenario to a digital one; a challenge for the faculty in training students in the discipline of social work.

Objective: to examine the methodological strategies of research / digital intervention from social work in vocational training, with the intention of specifying how these technologies have been incorporated into the educational field in a context of syndemic.

Method and technique: an exploratory, cross-sectional and qualitative study was carried out using the virtual ethnographic method. A focus group made up of four school practice teachers was carried out through Zoom, developed at the National School of Social Work. The analysis was carried out using an inductive, descriptive and interpretive approach.

Results: the teachers carried out intervention processes from digital social work, with the design of digital strategies, which achieved a methodological restructuring in their school practices, and an exposition of the implications and challenges faced.

Conclusions: the syndicate caused by COVID-19 accelerated the use of information and communication technologies, but this is not presented in an equitable way, since there is a digital divide in the use of information and communication technologies in students and teachers of this study.