Strengths-based Education as a Tool to Reduce Uncertainties and Risks

Risk and uncertainty are basic characteristics of the postmodern society (Bauman, 1995). Despite the fact that humans have been facing risk from the beginning of their existence, its character, impact and consequences have changed. This work deals with the shift in understanding risk and its impact on the activities of social workers in the context of post-modern society. I proceed from the assumption that a shift in understanding risk should have an impact on professional education. Whereas traditional approaches to education understood risk and uncertainty as sources of danger that had to be eliminated, the postmodern approaches regard them as an integral part of the practice of social workers. I introduce strengthsbased education based on clients’ strengths and understanding risks as a challenge and a new impulse for a novel outlook on the situation of the client as well as problem solving. The contribution aims at answering the following question: “How does the strengths-based education integrate uncertainty and risk in the preparation of social workers?”