Dr. Erna O'Connor
Asst Prof in Social Work/Fieldwork Co-Or, Sch Office - Social Work & Social Policy

Dr Erna O Connor has worked as an Assistant Professor of Social Work and Practice Education Co-ordinator at the School of Social Work and Social Policy (SWSP), Trinity College, Dublin, since 2002. She was Director of the Master in Social Work programme from 2014-2020 and was the School of SWSP Director of Teaching & Learning Postgraduate from 2021-2023. Erna holds a Bachelor of Social Studies degree from Trinity College, a Master in Communication and Cultural Studies from Dublin City University and a PhD from Trinity College. She is a CORU registered Social Worker. As a Practice Education lead, across undergraduate and postgraduate CORU accredited social work programmes, Erna works at the interface of social work research, education and professional practice. She has developed partnerships with a wide range of statutory and community sector human service organisations in Ireland and internationally, to secure and support in excess of 180 assessed student placements each year. Erna is a founder member of the National Practice Teaching in Social Work Initiative (NPTSWI), an inter university collaboration, supported by the Irish Association of Social Workers and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) towards the expansion and development of social work practice teaching in Ireland. Erna has been a member of international, inter-disciplinary and inter-university research teams examining a range of issues in practice education including identification of the components of effective learning in practice; practice education during the Covid pandemic; issues in failed placements and practice teacher perspectives and motivation. This research has been published in international peer reviewed journals including Social Work Education, the Journal of Practice Teaching and Learning and Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning. In 2022 and 2023 Erna and her colleague Dr Sinéad Whiting were awarded National HSCP Office Prioritised HSCP Practice Education funding to establish and evaluate a pilot tutor-led placement programme in conjunction with the social work service at St. James's Hospital. Erna and Sinéad have also collaborated on the development of a Hybrid Placement Model, aligned to CORU proficiencies, which was widely used across social work placement providers as a response to the Covid pandemic. Prior to joining the university Erna worked as a social worker in drug treatment and HIV services and a senior social worker and acting principal social worker in hospital-based social work. Her PhD titled 'Relationship-based Social Work: A 'Thirdspace' in Responding to Trauma', was awarded by Trinity College in 2015. Adopting a Constructivist Grounded Theory approach, the study was based on practitioner research undertaken while working as a senior social worker in the emergency department of an acute adult hospital. Erna continues to work with frontline services as a volunteer with a national suicide prevention service and as a board member of a national organisation working towards the eradication of poverty through a human-rights approach. Her teaching and research interests reflect her focus on the intersection of social work education and practice and include practice teaching and learning, social work supervision, health-related social work, bereavement, trauma informed practice, poverty aware practice and reflective and relationship-based practice. Erna supervises Master and PhD students undertaking qualitative and mixed methods research in these areas.