Interrogating 'home alone': The critical deconstruction of media representations in social work education

Children left unattended at home often results in the intervention of child welfare services in the UK and elsewhere. The media's discursive construction of 'Home Alone' provides a vehicle to enable social work students to address a range of issues which are central to practitioners' theoretical concerns and their day-to-day engagement with children and families. Furthermore, a detailed deconstruction of 'Home Alone' provides a springboard for social work educators to prompt debate and discussion on a range of themes that are central in the professional formation of social workers. The interrogation of 'Home Alone', it is suggested, is merely one example of how media accounts can be used creatively on social work programmes.