Mrs Aga M. Buckley
Faculties, deparments and locations
- Faculty of Health, Science, Social Care and Education
- Department of Social Work and Social Care
- School of Education, Midwifery and Social Work
- Kingston Hill
Master Social Work Course Leader
- Email:
- aga.buckley@kingston.ac.uk
About
I am a Master Social Work Course Leader and Postgraduate Researcher exploring lived experiences of compassion fatigue among Newly Qualified Social Workers. I teach social work theory, law, applied social work practice and social pedagogy and favour creative and Arts-based research methods. I am passionate about relational approaches to education and social work while advocating for equity, inclusion and human agency. I recently became a Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts (FRSA), which reflects my commitment and passion for creativity, innovation and social impact.
I qualified as a social worker in 1999 with a diploma in social work and a degree in social pedagogy, and I have specialised in mental health over the years. I have a Master's in Advanced Mental Health Practice and worked as an Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) and Best Interests Assessor (BIA), Practice Lead and Principal Social Worker in local authorities and NHS before joining Kingston University's Department of Social Work and Social Care in 2016. I am an External Examiner with the University of Manchester for their post-qualifying courses.
I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) and a lifelong learner. My interest in inter and multi-disciplinary learning and novel ways students and staff learn led to secondment with the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Centre (LTEC) Academic Staff Development, where I supported colleagues in gaining recognition of Advance HE for various categories of Fellowships. As a member of the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) Neurodivergent Social Worker Special Interest Group and Equity, Diversity, Inclusion (EDI) Advisory Group, I regularly engage in various professional social work initiatives and projects that often feed into my engagement with the university's Network of Equality Champions and EDI Action Group.
Qualifications
- MA Advanced Mental Health Practice: Bournemouth University
- PGDip Advanced Mental Health Practice (AMHP/BIA): Bournemouth University
- Graduate Award Consolidation in Specialist Mental Health Practice: Bournemouth University
- Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Pedagogy, Social Readjustment: College of Higher Education in Humanistic Studies Gdansk, Poland
- Diploma in Social Work: College of Social Work, Gdansk, Poland
- Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Domains
Qualifications
- Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Pedagogy, Social Readjustment: College of Higher Education in Humanistic Studies Gdansk, Poland
- Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
- Professional Standards Framework (PSF) Advance HE Assessor (D1, D2 & D3)
Course director
Courses taught
"Through Their Eyes: Compassion Fatigue among NQSWs": current
I am a Postgraduate Researcher and a Doctoral Candidate at Kingston University. My research study received a favourable ethical opinion from the Kingston University Ethics Research Committee (application number: 3149) and is supervised by Dr Melania Calestani and Professor Kathy Curtis. I combined the Hermeneutic Phenomenological lens with an adaptation of the Photovoice in my qualitative research design to research the lived experiences of compassion fatigue among early-career social workers in England.
Conferences:
The Joint Social Work Education and Research Conference (JSWEC) in Glasgow, hosted by the University of Strathclyde on 15th and 16th June 2023. I presented a short series of posters titled "When Heidegger meets Freire..." based on my doctoral research design, winning joint first prize for the best poster award by the JSWEC Scientific Committee. Poster available at Research Gate: DOI:10.13140/RG.2.2.14176.46089.
Interdisciplinary Learning Project: SADRAS (2019-2020)
I co-led SADRAS (Student Academic Development Research Associate Scheme) Inter-disciplinary Learning Project focused on a small-scale study designed and completed jointly with students and colleagues from the School of Nursing as part of the project team. The project received a favourable ethics opinion from the Kingston University Ethics Research Committee and was conducted between November 2019 and June 2020; it was finalised earlier due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The study provided insight into the inter-professional communication between students from different disciplines, contributing to the development of inter-disciplinary culture in helping professions across the Schools and Faculty. An article sharing the study findings was published by The Journal of Practice Teaching and Learning DOI: 10.1921/jpts.v18i1-2.1589.
Qualifications
- Hermeneutic Phenomenology UCLan International Course for PG Researchers
- NIHR ARC Leadership Research Academy
Specialisms
- Mental Health Social Work Applied Practice, Theory and Legislation
- Compassion Fatigue, Secondary Traumatic Stress and Burnout
- Higher Education Teaching and Learning
- Hermeneutic Phenomenology
- Interdisciplinary & Interprofessional Practice
Qualifications and Professional expertise
- Approved Mental Health Professional (Masters Advanced Mental Health Pracice)
- Best Interest Assessor (PGDip Advanced Mental Health Practice)
- Senior Fellow Higher Education Academy (Advance HE)
- Social Pedagogy (BA Pedagogy)
I am appointed as an External Examiner with the University of Manchester, since 2021. I support the work of academic staff on several level 7 modules at the Approved Mental Health Professional Course.
Qualifications and expertise
- MA Advanced Mental Health Practice
- PGDip Advanced Mental Health Practice (AMHP & BIA)
Professional and scholarly affiliations
- Social Work England
- British Association of Social Workers
- Manchester University
- Kingston University
Publications
Neurodistinct social workers need allyship
BASW Neurodivergent Social Workers Special Interest Group, Solomon, Deb, McCabe, Jenni, Symonds, Sandy, Buckley, Aga and Grimm, David, 2023, Professional Social Work (Mar/Apr), pp 35
Book Review of 'Writing analytical assessments in social work, 2nd edn' by Chris Dyke
Buckley, Aga M, 2022, The British Journal of Social Work (52), 3, pp 1785-1786
Book Review of 'Errors and mistakes in child protection. International discourses, approaches and strategies' edited by Kay Biesel, Judith Masson, Nigel Parton and Tarja Pösö
Buckley, Aga, 2022, The British Journal of Social Work
What professional language do you speak? Exploring inter-disciplinary communication with nursing and social work students via SADRAS Project initiative
Buckley, Aga M., Richardson, Sally, Newcombe, Sophie and Dobrzycka, Marzena, 2021, The Journal of Practice Teaching and Learning (18), 1-2
Bona Fide : neither specious nor counterfeit...more often sincere than genuine, yet always 'in good faith'
Buckley, Aga M., Alice, Cat and Mad Hatter (2023). In: Maclean, Siobhan, (eds.) and Bentley-Simon, Kelly, (eds.), Emergence : hidden narratives from neurodivergent social workers. Lichfield, U.K.: Kirwin Maclean Associates, pp 124-128
Pause...for the centuries-old concepts in the future university teaching : Pestalozzi's pedagogy of love
Buckley, Aga(2024). In: 50th International Conference on Improving University Teaching, 31 July - 2 Aug 2024 :Milwaukee, U.S.
Through their eyes : compassion fatigue among newly qualified social workers
Buckley, Aga(2024). In: South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust’s Annual Mental Health Social Work Conference 2024, 09 Apr 2024 :London, U.K.
Peer support groups : nurturing nuanced understandings of racialized positionalities of personal tutors
Essilfie, Will H., Paliokosta, Paty, Calabrese, Gianpiero and Buckley, Aga(2024). In: UKAT Annual Conference 2024 : Personal Tutoring in the Spotlight, 08-09 Apr 2024 :London, U.K.
Neurodivergence and risk of burnout
Buckley, Aga(2024). In: Emotional Resilience and Wellbeing Conference 2024, 22 Feb 2024 :Kingston upon Thames, U.K.
Neurodiversity, gender and HE
Buckley, Aga(2023). In: Kingston University Athena SWAN Café, 05 Jul 2023 :Kingston upon Thames, U.K.
When Heidegger meets Freire
Buckley, Aga, Calestani, Melania and Curtis, Katherine(2023). In: JSWEC 2023: Social Work Education, Research and Practice in Turbulent Times, 15-16 Jun 2023 :Glasgow, U.K.
Cultivating range in educational developer role
Buckley, Aga M.(2023). In: SEDA Spring Conference 2023 : The role of the educational developer in an ever-evolving landscape, 19 May 2023 :Held online
The neurodivergent practitioner : an atypical experience of social work
Solomon, Deb, Hawker, Max, Morgan, Miranda, Buckley, Aga and Bentley-Simon, Kelly(2023). In: Social Work England : Social Work Week 2023, 20-24 Mar 2023 :Held online