Teaching Successful Community Practice in Social Work

ABSTRACT

This article identifies and addresses a severe problem in the management of community practice projects of students in their second and third year in the Undergraduate Social Work program at the University of Haifa School of Social Work; namely, the current binary evaluation method based on total success or failure of the project.

Using a systems approach, this study creates a framework by which to ensure effective and positive outcomes for community practice projects carried out by undergraduate social work students (Freund, Arkin & Saltman, 1999). This framework is unique in that it draws on knowledge gained from organizational and community theories, as well as instructional theories for teaching social work practice.

The proposed framework includes three components that describe the factors necessary to help transform the student's learning experience: the organization's characteristics, the student's resources, and the evaluative measures.

This inter-conceptual approach enhances the ability of the instructor, the student, and the organization to build an appropriate organizational foundation for students operating communal programs. The underlying assumption is that an integrative approach promotes a better understanding of the components essential for building and evaluating social plans conducted by social work students.     

The Dutch Client Databank in Public Social Work

ABSTRACT

The history of the Dutch National Databank for Public Social Work began in 1960 in the province of Limburg. Social workers in that province met at a seminar and decided to set up a registration system concerning client characteristics and the counselling process which all the institutes of public social work in Limburg could be required to register in a uniform way. Thirty-three years later Dutch Public Social Work agencies are registering data according to a national system which was wanted, designed and developed by the united local authorities and all the institutes of Public Social Work. As a result, the National Databank for Public Social Work administers the data of all of the 166 institutes in the Netherlands and consequently is privileged to deal with the client characteristics and other specific data of the 250,000 client units that are involved every year with Public Social Work.     

Information Technology Availability in Schools of Social Work

Abstract

The introduction of information technology into social work education is essential and inevitable. Little, however, is known about the current use of computers in schools of social work. This study is the first to focus on the variety and availability of hardware and software; the extent to which computer-related courses are integrated into the curriculum; and the types of computers, uses, and users in schools of social work. The sample consists of non-US schools drawn from the membership of the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) and US schools drawn from the membership of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). The study tested three hypotheses: A. Schools in the United States use computers significantly more and for more advanced purposes than do schools in other countries; B. Schools that offer graduate degrees will be better equipped with computers and use them more extensively; and C. The larger the school, the greater the number of computers and the higher the sophistication of computer use. The findings supported these hypotheses and portend a trend for standardization of hardware and software in schools of social work. Based on the findings, the article recommends curriculum and policy modifications that should be considered by schools of social work.     

Technology and School Social Work Services: Introducing Technology in an Alternative School

SUMMARY

The public school system, one of the largest human service institutions in our nation, is continuously engaged in a struggle to balance the needs of a growing and diverse population with continuing threats of budget cuts. Under these conditions, it becomes even more critical that school social workers understand and appreciate the role of technology in delivering and evaluating services. To assess the effectiveness of school social work services, evaluation will have to be planned for, and systems of data collection and processing will have to be conducted on an ongoing basis.

This paper outlines the process whereby school social workers in a local school district proceeded to introduce technology into their service delivery regimen. Secondly, the paper shows how such technology was, and may be, used to evaluate the services provided by school social workers in an alternative school.     

Presence and competences of social workers in Spanish educational centres. Laws vs. reality. A research approach

ABSTRACT

In Spain, School Social Work has had an uneven, non-linear record, with periods of stagnation. This situation still takes place nowadays, partly due to the lack of regulation of their competences and functions, and, above all, due to the fact that the figure of the social worker is not well settled in educational centres yet. The purpose of this article is to find out whether the figure of the social worker has been correctly incorporated into the educational system, as well as to assess the regulation of their competences and functions for the best development of their professional duties. The base of this article is the information obtained from a national ad hoc research, using as data collection technique a structured and self-administered online questionnaire designed by the author and distributed to social workers through 36 professional associations, thanks to the coordination with the Social Work National Council in Spain. Finally, a sample of 146 cases has been obtained. The conclusions show an approximation to the current actual reality of the professional exercise of social workers within the Spanish educational system and, in particular, to the strengths and weaknesses for an effective exercise of their competences and skills according to regulations which include and protect their professional activity.     

Bringing Technology to School: An Online Resource Guide for the School Social Worker

SUMMARY

The Internet can assist social workers and other human service professionals to obtain information that may potentially benefit both themselves and their clients. There is little doubt among those who are familiar with the Internet that this electronic medium has revolutionized the way we communicate and access knowledge. This article provides school social workers and other human service professionals with links to resources that can be incorporated into practice by offering specific Web pages related to school social work practice.     

Voter Registration

Abstract

Historically, social workers have used voter registration to politically empower their clients. This paper describes the agency-based voter registration project of the University of Connecticut School of Social Work, Nancy A. Humphreys Institute for Political Social Work, including the project's implementation, and evaluation. Voter registration principles emerge from analyses of successful agency-based voter registration programs.     

Graduate Education for Social Change

ABSTRACT

Is it possible to conduct an effective, progressive, and politicized program for graduate students in our contemporary conservative context? This article evaluates the outcomes over seven years of a pioneering program in Political Social Work. Based on survey data of Political Social Work alumni, it addresses four outcome measures: enrollment, satisfaction with curriculum and field opportunities, job and career development, and persistence of political ideology and practice. While being “political” during the past decade is clearly different than it was in the 1960s, the evidence proposes that political content and practice can have a significant place in both social work education and the field. More specifically, the study demonstrates that politicized social workers in the 1990s were able after graduation to secure employment, sustain progressive values, and practice political social work.     

Building an Institution Second to None: Dr. Inabel Burns Lindsay—A Social Work Leader in the Academy

ABSTRACT

This article describes Dr. Inabel Burns Lindsay's leadership as the founding dean at Howard University School of Social Work during her 30 years of service from 1937 to 1967. It chronicles her efforts to build the School as well as her efforts to highlight social injustices of the time. Her lifelong efforts promoted the inclusion of African American social workers in the workforce and the need to understand sociocultural factors in working with different ethnic and racial groups. As a female dean, Dr. Lindsay was an avid promoter of social justice and a prolific writer and speaker on the topic. This article introduces the reader to this under-recognized social work pioneer, with emphases on the challenges of her time and her leadership style.     

Teaching Note—Asserting Social Work’s Role in Developing an Interprofessional Education Project

ABSTRACT

Interprofessional (IP) education is an essential component of today’s health care education. IP education has been recognized and supported for its potential to educate workforce-ready health care clinicians with the knowledge and skills, necessary to collaboratively deliver high-quality, client-centered care. While social work’s reflective, patient-centered, and holistic approach to care is invaluable in addressing healthcare challenges at all levels, social work’s lack of involvement in IP health care team practice is evident in the development of IP education curriculum with other health care disciplines. This article describes how one School of Social Work at a regional public university became part of a longitudinal IP education project in collaboration with a large R-1 research university, creating an IP opportunity for Master’s in Social Work (MSW) students. It also discusses the process taken for social work inclusion in the IP project, an experiential elective course designed to supplement the project, as well as Transformative Learning Theory, the conceptual framework used.     

Response to Greene 2001, Redefining Social Work

ABSTRACT

This article is in response to the article titled Redefining Social Work for the New Millennium: Setting a Context, by Dr. Roberta Greene. I have come to view social work as a profession that seeks to enable others not just the poor and undeserved, the opportunity to better understand and navigate any situation that causes them stress or presents some type of barrier to their health and well-being.     

Information Technology and Quality Management in Public Social Work

ABSTRACT

Managing a non-profit organization for public social work is primarily a matter of quality management which is the responsibility of the service manager. Because of (a) the actual state of quality assurance in the public social work branches, and (b) the professional character of the organizations, a Public Social Work Quality System asks for intensive involvement of professional workers in the development of the system. PS+QS is both a development method and a system model. It organizes the clients' routing through the institution. The major part of the workflow management concerns phasing of the service and counselling processes. PS+QS is a system of communication structured by information techniques. Professional counsellors and their service managers apply the professional standards and check on their application.     

The School Success Profile Online

SUMMARY

This article provides an overview of the purposes, development, and implementation of the School Success Profile Online (SSP)–a computerized, self-report survey for middle and high school students. The SSP takes advantage of World Wide Web technology and the increasing access of public schools to computers and the Internet to assess students' perceptions of their neighborhoods, schools, peers, and families, as well as their own psychological and physical health and school performance. The individual and group profiles generated by the SSP can help school social workers identify areas of concern, plan their interventions with students, and evaluate the impact of their efforts at the end of interventions.     

The Social Work Outreach Service Within a School of Social Work

ABSTRACT

This article describes a unique community outreach service that is designed specifically to meet the needs of the local community, provide training ground for social work students, and experiment with the development of new practice models. Located within a school of social work, the service was born in an atmosphere in which both the university and the school were being called upon to play a greater part in the community. Since its inception in 1992, it has successfully served the local community through direct service, community organization activities, and consultation. Despite these successes in outreach to the community, internal challenges continue to exist.     

Omniscience at the Edge of Chaos: complexity,defences and change in a Children and Families Social Work department

ABSTRACT

This paper will explore a period of organisational change in a Children and Families Social Work team, applying ideas from complexity theory and psychoanalysis to explore the changes that occurred. In doing so it will critique the Newtonian concept of cause-and-effect linear causality, instead positing a nonlinear model of an organisation as a complex adaptive system in flux as it interacts with its environment. The paper will go on to posit that Bion’s psychoanalytic concepts of Omniscience and K Activity are self-organising forces in social care organisations, and when anxiety is not managed effectively, reductionist technical-rationale approaches to Children and Families Social Work dominate practice. It will conclude by outlining how the organisation’s effective management of anxiety through the creation of containment, created a series of organisational changes. These changes better supported the management of the complexity and uncertainty inherent in the social work task, raising possibilities of improvements in social work practice beyond the organisation.     

Professional morale and social work training: A study

This article presents the results of an empirical study that was designed to ascertain the state of professional morale of the membership of the Connecticut Society for Clinical Social Work. The data suggest a dissatisfaction with career choice. Reassessment of the character and quality of social work supervision emerges as one of the study's implications.This article is adapted from the author's Masters thesis,Social Workers, Social Work, and Professional Self-Perceptions (1978), for the Smith College School for Social Work. The author wishes to thank Professor Roger Miller of Smith for his helpful comments.     

Interdisciplinary Collaboration for LGBTQ Students in Foster Care: Strategies for School Counselors

abstract

Unsafe and ill-prepared school environments exist for many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) students in foster care. School counselors are uniquely positioned to develop safe and inclusive schools for this vulnerable student population; however, strategies for interdisciplinary collaboration and advocacy with schools, families, and systems incorporated with LGBTQ youth in foster care are limited. This article explores how school counselors can advocate across disciplines for LGBTQ youth in foster care, including K-12 education systems, family/caregivers, and social service organizations providers.     

Business in Social Work Education: A Historically Black University’s Social Work Entrepreneurship Project

The destabilization of the current economy has sparked increased interest in entrepreneurship, especially for underrepresented minority social work students. The entrepreneurial thinking of these social work students entering social work programs at historically Black colleges and universities needs to be fostered in a learning environment. This article describes a historically Black university’s creative social entrepreneurship venture in response to the Social Work Congress’s 2010 imperative “Business of Social Work—Infuse models of sustainable business and management practice in social work education and practice.” The social entrepreneurship project uses the interprofessional collaborative educational model and attempts to provide meaningful and relevant education to social work students interested in social entrepreneurship through the collaborative efforts of the university’s School of Social Work and the School of Business and Management.     

Must Schools of Social Work be Freestanding? Yes!

Abstract

Point/Counterpoint is a regular feature of the Journal of Social Work Education. Its purpose is to provide a vehicle for the expression of contrasting views on controversial topics in social work education. Our goal is to illuminate important debates and explore the diverse perspectives that are shaping social work education.

In each issue of the Journal, social work educators are invited to comment on a topic about which they have differing viewpoints. Each commentator is given an opportunity to make a brief rebuttal. In this issue, Barbara Shank (Chair, Department of Social Work, University of St. Thomas and the College of St. Catherine), Irving Piliavin (Director, School of Social Work, University of Wisconsin-Madison), and Marsha Seltzer (Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison) address the question: Must schools of social work be freestanding?