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For and against

This article will provide an account of research undertaken in relation to a single session on an MA in Social Work course, which featured a debate on the place of religion in social work. Research on the session was conducted through the use of two focus groups with participants and also through the use of a questionnaire completed by the whole student group immediately after the debate. Material from the research was presented in a workshop in the Seventh International Conference for Practice Learning and Field Education in Health and Social Work in York in July 2008. This article analyses excerpts from the debate itself, the focus groups and material from the questionnaire (appended).Whilst using a debate is an interesting starting point for addressing this topic it has both advantages and disadvantages as shall be seen. The article builds on Gregory and Holloway’s (2005) work on the use of debates in social work education and also draws on a broader framework for social work education published recently by colleagues at the University of Sussex (Lefevre et al., 2008). The article highlights the lack of work published concerning how the topic of religion and spirituality is addressed in social work education and offers the debate as the start of a way forward.