Social work education. The Relational way

The article presents the Relational paradigm to social work education. Through the presentation of the main principles and key concepts offered by this paradigm, in the paper are discussed the experiences developed at the Catholic University of Milan and Brescia to educate the future social workers. Empowerment, reciprocity, critical thinking, peer facilitation and valorization and involvement of service users encouraged educators to support teaching and learning processes focused on the development of reflexive social workers. The discussed experiences inspired by both human and methodological issues opened social work education to innovative and relational ways sustaining in the practice both educators’ and students’ roles.