While there was a majority approval for same-sex marriage based on the 2017
postal survey, 38.4% of Australian did not support same-sex marriage. This raises
concerns over discrimination that same-sex attracted people may experience both in
general society and social services. Social work students’ views, opinions, attitudes
and beliefs of same-sex parents can affect their service provision. It is important to
understand their views and how they might align with values and ethics as described
by their professional accrediting-body, the Australian Association of Social Workers
(AASW). To understand the views of emerging social workers towards same-sex
parenting, this study utilised an online qualitative survey of 136 social work students
from four AASW-accredited university courses. The survey questions invited
exploratory responses to open-ended questions. The study utilises Braun and
Clarke’s reflexive thematic analysis to analyse data. This presentation will report
emerging findings from this in-progress study. The findings will illuminate social work
students’ views towards same-sex parents, the influences of socialisation on these
views, and the contribution of social work education to their beliefs. The study will
compare and contrast this data to the core values of the profession including respect
for persons, social justice and professional integrity. Australian Social work
scholarship will benefit from this study as there is currently a lack of qualitative data
that reveals the specifics.