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Susan Preston

Susan Preston

Associate Professor
EducationBSW, MSW, PhD
OfficeEPH-221, Eric Palin Hall
Phone416-979-5000, ext. 556218

Before entering academia, Dr. Susan Preston practiced social work in child protection, criminal justice systems and with homeless youth. Through critical inquiry that deconstructs neoliberalism and its influence on social work practice, policy, and education, her research examines government and institutional policies and practices affecting service users, social workers and students. She examines how policies and practices are both produced by and reproduce notions of capital.

Her research includes broad scale examinations of social policy, through analysis of policy texts and processes — including child protection legislation and regulations, public participation in policy development, and how neoliberalism gets taken up but also can be resisted in social work education.

More recently, her scholarship has included working in collaboration with social workers in northern Canada, examining social work practice in the Yukon, and how those practices can inform a more authentic engagement in all forms of practice, including practice beyond northern Canada.

In her research, Dr. Preston takes a critical/interpretive stance concerned with interrogating underlying assumptions, practices of power, intersectionality, and the production and reproduction of social relations enacted through capital. Her empirical work primarily utilizes case study, institutional ethnography and discourse analysis as methodological approaches.

  • Social work research
  • Social work ethics
  • Social work practice
  • Social work groupwork

Research interests:

  • Social policy
  • Institutional practices
  • Social work education
  • Social work research
  • Intersectional methodologies for critical social work research
  • Rural/northern social work

Research projects:

Project: Understanding social work practice in northern Canada: Yukon Study

Year: 2016

Role: Principal Investigator

Funding received: $75,000

Funded by: SSHRC

Project: Understanding social work practice in northern Canada: Whitehorse Pilot Study

Year: 2014

Role: Principal Investigator

Funding received: $18,000

Funded by: Toronto Metropolitan University and Yukon University

Project: Disrupting dominant norms through a discursive analysis of young parents in the Greater Toronto Area

Year: 2012

Role: Principal Investigator

Funding received: $7,000

Funded by: Toronto Metropolitan University

Peer-reviewed publications

Articles:

  • Preston, S. (2023). Social work in Canada under scrutiny: An overview. Sozial Extra, 47(5), 236-241. 
  • Preston, S., George, P., Silver S. (2014). Field education in social work: The need for re-imagining. Critical Social Work, 15(1).
  • Preston, S., Aslett, J. (2014). Resisting neoliberalism from within the academy: Subversion through an activist pedagogy. Social Work Education, 33(4), 502-518.
  • George, P., Silver, S., Preston, S. (2013). Reimagining field education in social work: The promise unveiled. Advances in Social Work, 14(2), 642-657.
  • Ajandi, J., Preston, S., Clarke, J. (2013). Portfolio-based teaching and learning: The portfolio as critical praxis with social work students. Critical Social Work, 14(1).
  • Woodford, M., Preston, S. (2013). Strengthening citizen participation in public policy-making: A Canadian perspective. Parliamentary Affairs, 66(2), 345-363.
  • Woodford, M., Preston, S. (2011). Developing a strategy to meaningfully engage stakeholders in program/ policy planning: A guide for human services managers and practitioners. Journal of Community Practice, 19(2), 159-174.

Book chapters:

  • Preston, S., Silver, S., & George, P. (2024). Teaching to the tensions: Pushing the boundaries of qualitative social work research. In D. Onishenko, N. Doran, R. Torres, & D. Nyaga (Eds.), Critical reflexive research methodologies: Interdisciplinary approaches. Brill Publishers.
  • Preston, S., & Aslett, J. (2017). Youth engagement in governmental and community organizations: Contradictions and recommendations. In S. Wehbi, & H. Parada (Eds.), Reimagining anti-oppression social work: Reflecting on practice. Canadian Scholars Press.
  • Preston, S., & Redgrift, L. (2017). Phenomenology as social work inquiry: Parallels and divergences with anti-oppressive research. In H. Parada, & S. Wehbi (Eds.), Reimagining anti-oppression social work: Reflecting on research. Canadian Scholars Press.
  • Clarke, J. Preston, S., & Ajandi, J. (2017). Professional portfolio: Bridging the classroom-practice divide in social work education. In S. Wehbi, & H. Parada (Eds.), Reimagining anti-oppression social work: Reflecting on practice. Canadian Scholars Press.
  • Preston, S., Hughes, J., & Woodford, M. (2017). Qualitative methods for research on groups. In C. Garvin, L. Guitierrez, & M. Galinsky (Eds.), Handbook on social work with groups (2nd ed.). Guilford Publications.
  • Wehbi, S., Preston, S. & Moffatt, K. (2016). Introducing art into the social work classroom. In J. Britnell, J. Waddell, J. Gingras & L. Cooper (Eds.), Teaching as Scholarship: Preparing Students for Professional Practice in Community Services. Wilfrid Laurier University Press