Nettles, snickers and the egg shield: allegory in the teaching of rights

This article describes a teaching session focused on the gap between rights-as-law and rights-as-mentality in social work. The session has run in various forms with BSc, MA and PQ social work students, and is based on three allegorical vignettes, each of which illustrates a problem with a legalistic concept of rights. These are named ‘The Path of Nettles’, ‘The Snickers Problem’ and ‘The Post Hoc Egg Shield’. The paper has four sections—an explanation of the philosophical rationale for, and pedagogical approach of, the session; a description of the session’s components, including the three allegorical vignettes; a setting out of the session itself; and an evaluation of the session. One of the authors has designed and run several versions of this session; the other is a social work manager seconded to Northumbria University and responsible for the university’s ASYE teaching (initial year in practice for newly-qualified workers). The teaching is particularly relevant to Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF) Domains 4 and 9, and its equivalents in other professional capabilities descriptors.