This paper presents results from a study in Aotearoa New Zealand¹ which explored the ideas of social work practitioners on public perceptions of social work and how to improve them. This qualitative research was part of a Master’s project for two of the authors and followed on from two previous quantitative studies on this topic in Aotearoa. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 social work practitioners. Thematic analysis was used to create themes concerning what the perceived public perception was, what contributed to it, and how to improve it. The findings have implications for being better able to understand factors that contribute to the public perception of social work so that it may be improved, for increasing the public’s understanding of social work, and for recruitment of students into the profession.

本文介绍了在新西兰Aotearoa进行的一项研究的结果¹它探讨了社会工作从业者关于公众对社会工作的看法及其改进方法的想法。这项定性研究是其中两位作者的硕士项目的一部分，随后是在奥特罗阿（Aotearoa）上有关该主题的两次定量研究。对15位社会工作从业人员进行了深入，半结构化的采访。主题分析被用来创建关于什么是被感知的公众感知，对其做出了贡献以及如何加以改善的主题。这些发现的意义在于，能够更好地理解有助于公众理解社会工作的因素，以便加以改进，提高公众对社会工作的理解以及招募学生加入该行业。