Systemic Approaches, AI and Social Work, Social Work Policy, Staff Retention in Social Work, Social Work and Diversity.
My focus is to promote social work as a profession to support individuals, families and communities to thrive. I do this through research and practice, and by teaching, supervising and advising. I achieve this by working in authentic collaboration with organisations, practitioners, social work students and people who have had lived experience of social work practice. I hope to complete my systemic psychotherapy training by April 2025. However, the older I become, the less I know.
Academic qualifications
MA (Learning and Teaching in Higher Education) (SETU) 2014
PhD (LSE) 2004
MSc (LSE) 1994
BSS (TCD) 1992
Teaching and supervision
Registered as a social worker with Social Work England (SWE), I currently supervise PhD students from Asia and Africa in the following areas: Social Work Policy, Youth Justice, Social Work Practice and Autism.
I lead teaching on the following modules on our qualifying social work programmes.
Social Work and Social Justice.
Social Work Skills and Methods.
Professional Development for Practice.
I am currently writing up two research projects funded by the Department for Education.
First, in collaboration with the Royal Borough of Greenwich, we have been investigating why social workers stay or leave social work employment.
Second, in collaboration with practitioners and academics from South-East London, we have been understanding the constraints and opportunities that Global Majority Social Workers experience in terms of career progression.
With Dr. Caroline Frizell (Goldsmiths), Principal Investigator, and a collaborative academic-voluntary sector team, we are researching the effects of austerity in the UK on parents with children with additional learning needs.
Recently, I have also published on how social work practitioners, local authorities and communities have benefited from practitioners teaching social work students in University settings. A theoretical paper, drawing on systemic and social constructivist ideas, outlines how this happens, and it will appear shortly in the journal, Social Work Education.
Academic writing, teaching and research - as well as direct practice - experiences have been enriched by recent systemic psychotherapy training. Consequently, I recently published a reflective paper on ethical dimensions of what practitioners can do when they lose empathy for a client. I also hope to publish a systematic review in 2025 on the application of the Social Graces in social professional practice.
I am interested in working with others to research and apply systemic ideas in social work. These ideas include self and relational reflexivity, interrelationships in teams, interrelationships between feelings, embodiment and beliefs, and the evolution of AI and systemic social work approaches.
If you are interested in us collaborating, please drop me an email:)
Taylor, Mark. 2016. Wicked Problems and Social Professional Competence. In: Perry Share; Tamsin Cavaliero and Breda McTaggart, eds. Wicked Problems and Young People: Co-creative teaching for the social professions. Sligo, Ireland: Institute of Technology, Sligo, pp. 9-20. ISBN 9781907592058
Taylor, Mark. 2012. Social Policy. In: Maire Mhic Mhathuna and Mark Taylor, eds. Early Childhood Education & Care: An Introduction for Students in Ireland. Dublin, Ireland: Gill & Macmillan.
Taylor, Mark and Mhic Mhathuna, Maire. 2012. The Montessori Approach to Early Childhood Education. In: Maire Mhic Mhathuna and Mark Taylor, eds. Early Childhood Education and Care: An Introduction for Students in Ireland. Dublin, Ireland: Gill & Macmillan. ISBN 9780717153244
Taylor, Mark and Mhic Mhathuna, Maire. 2012. The Future: where are we going? In: Maire Mhic Mhathuna and Mark Taylor, eds. Early Childhood Education and Care: An Introduction for Students in Ireland. Dublin, Ireland: Gill & Macmillan. ISBN 9780717153244
Taylor, Mark. 2024. 'Social Work Challenges in Uncertain Times'. In: Transformative Social Work: Mental Health Experience and Outcomes in Uncertain Economic Times. Westminster Hall, Palace of Westminster, United Kingdom 25 March 2024.
Taylor, Mark; Costello, Caroline and Share, Perry. 2015. 'Creatively Addressing ‘Wicked problems’'. In: Social Care Ireland Annual Conference: Building Relationships and Breaking Barriers. Sligo, Ireland.
