What makes a good learning culture? The role of professional development among child welfare workers

Positive organizational culture, which includes a supportive learning culture, is essential to a healthy child welfare workforce. Learning culture entails how workers learn from each other and transfer knowledge and represents the ideological values of openness, flexibility, and innovation in the work environment. A positive learning culture influences the application of learned knowledge from training to practice as well as helping workers more effectively retain their knowledge and implement it into practice. However, few studies draw from theoretical frameworks to identify factors that support and enhance an organization’s learning culture, particularly within the child welfare setting. Addressing this gap, this study applies tenets of the social learning theory to explore the relationship between preparation and training as well as ongoing professional development with learning culture among child welfare caseworkers (N = 1,790). Using secondary organizational health data collected through a multi-site child welfare workforce project, study findings indicate that preparation for work and professional development are positively associated with learning culture. Findings help build the evidence for the need to provide relevant preparation for work and professional development opportunities in child welfare as a pathway to building a supportive learning culture. Implications for child welfare education, training, and practice applications are discussed.