The Use of Adjunct Faculty: An Exploratory Study of Eight Social Work Programs

This pilot study of the practice of employing social work practitioners as adjunct faculty analyzes the results of questionnaires returned from 6 deans/directors, 43 adjunct faculty, and 175 students at 8 U.S. institutions offering BSW and/or MSW programs. The responses covered the teaching effectiveness of adjunct faculty (in 1992–93), their reasons for teaching, the support received from and expectations of the programs, and various pros and cons surrounding their employment. Among the findings: students regard adjunct faculty as somewhat less effective teachers than full-time faculty, but appreciate their expertise on contemporary or specialized practices; administrators appreciate the financial benefits and flexibility associated with adjunct instruction; and the adjuncts themselves appreciate affiliation with academic programs.     

Faculty Development: The Continuing Preparation of the Social Work Education Teacher

Faculty in both class and field who are teaching students in these rapidly changing times need the opportunity to continue to enhance their learning on the job. Beyond the advancing knowledge in their own content area, faculty need to be aware of new developments in the field, content on emerging theories in social and behavioral sciences, and refinements in methods of teaching in professional education. This paper explores the need for new and renewed knowledge and various modalities for faculty development based on the experience of the faculty of one school.     

Child Protection Social Workers' Engagement in Continuing Professional Development: An Exploratory Study

This paper reports the findings of an exploratory study into the nature of child protection social workers' engagement in, and understanding of, continuing professional development (CPD) in Ireland. Qualitative methods were used given the exploratory nature of the research. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight child protection social workers from a community-based child protection department in Ireland. Interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. A review of the literature is provided and key findings are outlined and discussed. These findings relate to the nature and frequency of participation in CPD, perceived motivators and barriers to participation in CPD, and social workers' views on the potential impact of statutory registration of Irish social workers (which was implemented in the months after this study was carried out) on CPD participation. Research limitations and suggestions for future research are considered, along with the implications of this study for social work practice.     

Gay and Lesbian Faculty in Social Work:

Gay and lesbian students in schools of social work may experience discriminations and other forms of overt or subtle oppression, which is contrary to the NASW Code of Ethics and CSWE Curriculum Policy Statements. Gay and lesbian faculty in these schools must be encouraged to assume important roles and responsibilities in addressing the needs of these students. Primarily they must make sure that lesbians and gays, and their issues, do not remain invisible,. They should be open about thei9r sexual orientation and actively work toward creating an atmosphere that is truly committed to faculty must have explicit guarantees of nondiscrimination and other sources of support.     

Training Social Workers in Personal Finance: An Exploratory Study

Social workers have opportunities to help individuals and families with their financial problems in a variety of practice settings, yet receive no formal training to do so. Using data from an online survey of social workers and other human service professionals (N?=?56) who completed or expressed interest in a financial social work certification program, we found that respondents were able to apply what they learned to help their clients and valued the practical and interactive nature of program content. We also found that respondents were not immune from experiencing some of the same financial problems that confront their clients. Implications for educating BSW and MSW students about household finance are presented and discussed.     

Senior Faculty Perceptions of Social Work Journals

Abstract

Academic journals are the primary means of disseminating new knowledge. A journal's prestige is a key determinant of its contents' visibility, readership, impact on practice, and use and citation in future research. This article presents a method for assessing the prestige of journals in the diverse field of social work, and demonstrates its application in a 1990 survey in which 421 senior faculty at accredited graduate schools of social work rated the familiarity and perceived quality of 120 journals in their field. The findings have value for researchers seeking to publish their work in the most appropriate journal and for persons attempting to assess the scholarly contribution of social work educators.     

Learning Patterns in Social Skills Training Programs: An Exploratory Study

While Social Skills Training programs have been shown to improve the social skills of children with Disruptive Behaviour Disorders, the pattern of change in the participants’ learning during the training period remains unknown. Identifying this pattern could assist in determining whether more or less training hours are required to maximize the benefits of such programs within available resources. The current study aimed to replicate the social skills improvements found in previous research, and to explore the pattern of improvements in social knowledge and social performance that occurs during a Social Skills Training program. Two groups of eight males with behavioural problems attended 14 one-hour sessions of Social Skills Training. Multisources, multisettings and multimethods were used to measure social knowledge and social performance across five test phases. Multivariate analyses did not support previous findings showing overall improvements in social knowledge and social performance. Patterns of learning were not found to be consistent across different measures.     

The Educational Orientations of Graduate Social Work Faculty

For this exploratory study of the educational orientations of graduate social work faculty, the author surveyed faculty in 38 randomly selected graduate social work departments in the United States in Spring 1991. All were sent a revised Hadley Educational Orientation Questionnaire, which measured their agreement with 12 items each on Mentoring Orientation and Master Teaching Orientation scales. The survey also asked about the source of their educational philosophies. Analysis of 346 responses suggests that faculty tend toward a master teaching approach in attempting to impart essential knowledge and to empower students, but they also incorporate elements from the mentoring approach. Faculty indicated that their educational philosophies were derived principally from work experiences, personal experiences, and professional socialization.     

Trends in Student-Faculty Ratios and the Use of Non-Tenure-Track Faculty in MSW Programs

This article reports on a study of enrollment trends, staffing patterns, and student-faculty ratios in master’s degree programs in social work and three related fields. Results for MSW programs show (a) that the median ratio of students to faculty in MSW programs has grown 36% since 1981 and, for the past five years, has exceeded the Council on Social Work Education’s recommended maximum; (b) that since 1978, the number of full-time tenure-track faculty has declined by nearly 8% despite sharply increased student populations; and (c) that the number of part-time faculty has increased, but not in proportion to the number of students. None of the related fields examined in this study showed a similar combination of enrollment growth and full-time faculty decline.     

Faculty Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Web-Based Instruction in Social Work Education: A National Study

SUMMARY

This paper presents the findings of a national study that examined the perceptions of faculty with Web-based teaching experience concerning the effectiveness of Web-based instruction as compared to face-to-face instruction in social work education. The findings suggest that faculty perceived face-to-face instruction to be more effective than Web-based instruction in all curriculum areas. However, the extent of perceived effectiveness of Web-based instruction varied by curriculum area. Also, online teaching in areas such as practice was viewed as least effective, suggesting that the traditional “no significant difference” conclusions between face-to-face and online teaching need to be examined more closely.     

Development of Promotion Materials for Social Work Non–Tenure Track Faculty: Internal and External Factors

Throughout U.S. higher education, non–tenure track faculty (NTTF) are experiencing tremendous growth. Traditionally part-time instructors, increasing numbers of NTTF are full-time faculty but have lower salaries, fewer benefits, and less integration into their schools than tenure-track peers. Although this general trend is reflected in schools of social work, information regarding this phenomenon specific to schools of social work is scarce. This article examines reasons driving the trend by comparing national patterns with 1 school of social work’s current project that aims to develop guidelines regarding job promotion for a diverse cohort of NTTF. We highlight factors contributing to the creation of NTTF promotion materials, and we discuss the strengths, challenges, and costs of this process.     

The Writer's Guild: A Model of Support for Social Work Faculty

The retention and promotion of social work faculty is partially dependent upon their success in publishing. Because of a perception among junior faculty at one Midwestern university that writing barriers posed a threat to their career development, they developed a Writer's Guild. The Guild model represents a collaborative, non-hierarchical approach to supporting scholarship. In this article, the authors describe the model, discuss some of the challenges involved in its formation, and offer recommendations for transplanting the model to other schools.     

Partner Abuse Among Women Whose Children Have Been Sexually Abused: An Exploratory Study

ABSTRACT

To explore partner abuse among women in families in which a child has disclosed sexual abuse, 102 mothers completed a measure of partner abuse and the Coping Responses Inventory. Results suggest that, like women in the general population, mothers of children who have been sexually abused have often experienced partner abuse. As expected, physical abuse in a current relationship was found to be related to the use of avoidance strategies in dealing with the sexual abuse disclosure. The implications for practitioners and for future research are discussed.     

Prenatal Cardiac Function and Postnatal Cognitive Development: An Exploratory Study

Fetal cardiac function was measured at 24, 30, and 36 weeks gestation and quantified in terms of heart rate, variability, and episodic accelerations. Children's representational capacity was evaluated at 27 months in terms of language and play. Thirty‐ and 36‐wcek‐old fetuses that displayed greater heart‐rate variability and more episodic accelerations, and fetuses that exhibited a more precipitous increase in heart‐rate variability and acceleration over gestation achieved higher levels of language competence. Thirty‐six‐week‐old fetuses with higher heart‐rate variability and accelerations, and steeper growth trajectories over gestation, achieved higher levels of symbolic play. Cardiac patterning during gestation may reflect an underlying neural substrate that persists through early childhood: Individual variation in rate of development could be stable, or efficient cardiac function could positively influence the underlying neural substrate to enhance cognitive performance.     

Rituals of Exchange in the Social World of Israeli Beggars: An Exploratory Study

Based on a fieldwork in a central bus station in Israel, this study offers a novel consideration of the symbolic interactions underlying processes of communication, social exchange, and status attainment among beggars. The case study presents a possible alternative to sociological analyses of beggary as “deviant activity” by drawing upon the constructs of social-world perspective and symbolic types.     

Selection and Preparation of Faculty for Schools of Social Work

The need to prepare social work administrators for the field is now recognized. As schools belatedly mobilize to address this need, there is uncertainty concerning our knowledge base and ability to perform in this area. While these concerns are genuine, there is a wealth of experience in curriculum development that should guide the profession. This paper focuses on the field instruction component of the administration concentration. Problems pertaining to the development of administration placements are identified and special arrangements are suggested to engage them that require a departure from traditional field instruction models and school-agency relationships.     

An Exploratory Study on Attitudes Toward Persons with Disabilities Among U.S. and Japanese Social Work Students

ABSTRACT

This exploratory study was conducted to understand and compare attitudes among social work students in the United States and Japan toward people with disabilities. The Modified Issues in Disabilities Scale (MIDS), designed to measure attitudes toward people with physical disabilities, was implemented on convenient samples of 92 U.S. and 73 Japanese social work students. The findings suggest that social work students in both countries hold moderately positive attitudes. Other similarities as well as differences among the sampled students from the two countries, and their implications to social work education, will be discussed in this paper.