Challenging Endings: First Year MSW Interns’ Experiences with Forced Termination and Discussion Points for Supervisory Guidance

Every year, students prematurely end their work with some clients due to the completion of their internship, rather than the client’s achievement of goals and thus a more natural endpoint of treatment. It is important to understand students’ experiences with forced termination to provide them with the necessary knowledge, skills, and support to optimally manage this complex phenomenon. This paper reviews the social work literature on forced termination arising from the ending of students’ internships and presents, in their own words, the experiences of four first-year MSW interns with forced termination. Finally, based on the literature and as borne out by these students’ experiences, some areas for discussion and reflection between interns and their supervisors in handling forced termination are offered. Caroline Rosenthal Gelman, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at New York University’s School of Social Work. She received her M.S.W. in 1991 from the University of California, Berkeley, and her Ph.D. in 1998 from the Smith College School for Social Work. Phyllis Fernandez, Nathalie Hausman, Sarah Miller and Michael Weiner received their MSW in 2004 from New York University’s School of Social Work.     

Critical Commentary: Planning a submission for ESRC recognition

This paper outlines the processes involved in planning a submission for recognition as an ESRC recognised outlet for research training at doctoral level. It identifies the need to address issues surrounding the nature of social work research and in particular, the contested nature of its boundaries and its claim to distinctiveness. This opens the way to planning an overall balance of general and discipline specific components within the overall programme curriculum.     

The Resilient Clinician

This paper describes and illustrates a reflective writing assignment given by a classroom instructor to provide social work student trainees with the opportunity to work through unfinished business left over from unresolved poor supervisory relationships. It is a structured assignment, which integrates reading, emotional expression, and cognitive analysis, and that builds on the ability of writing to foster insight. The discussion details the benefits the students gained from the assignment and the elements inherent in the assignment that enabled them to reap those benefits.     

Social Justice in the Social Work Classroom: Applying a Professional Value to Social Work Education

Social justice is a primary value of social work and therefore has a place in discussions of social work education pedagogy. This is especially true for conversations pertaining to students who are underprepared, due to educational inequalities, for successful completion of writing assignments at the undergraduate level. If underprepared students are treated as equals to prepared students, then the social inequalities that contributed to or caused a student to be underprepared are perpetuated rather than challenged. The authors explore responses to underprepared students that are consistent with social work's professional value of social justice.     

Social Work Students' Feelings and Concerns about the Ending of their Fieldwork Supervision

This qualitative study examines the feelings and concerns of 80 social work students at the ending of their fieldwork supervision. The findings show that students who described good relationships reported mixed or ambivalent feelings about the ending, deriving from their warm feelings of attachment, on the one hand, and from their drive to grow and develop, on the other. Those who described poor or fair relationships were spared feelings of sadness or loss, but they were also left without good feelings and with little ability to express their bad ones. The paper offers practical suggestions for improving the supervisory process and ending the fieldwork supervision.     

Attachment-informed Supervision for Social Work Field Education

Supervisory relationships present a new population for the application of attachment theory, and conceptualization of attachment-informed supervision training offers a new direction for study. This paper presents an 8-month model of supervision training for social work field instructors of MSW students. The training’s design incorporates primary attachment concepts with an understanding of the supervisory working alliance and parallel process. An overview of the in-person and on-line pilot training is presented, including perceptions from the participants regarding the training’s usefulness. This training program has implications for effective social work field education, and recommendations are suggested for future attachment research on supervision.

Towards standardization of field work practicum: experiential reflections from Delhi,India

ABSTRACT

Field work is the signature pedagogy of social work. As a central form of instruction, it enables the course of learning by enabling the students to perform the role of practitioner. Field work contains pedagogical norms with which students learn to connect and integrate theory and practice. The current paper delineates the pedagogy of field work practicum in the Indian context and attempts to explore the challenges in transaction of field work curriculum with respect to placement agencies, at the levels of supervisor and supervisee and the ever evolving and dynamic relationship between the two. Based on authors’ experiential accounts, the paper recommends few strategies for enhancing the scope of professional growth and learning within the broad realms of field work placement.     

Context-driven gero-infusion: lessons learned from a curriculum development institute cohort

This article describes and compares the successes and challenges experienced by three social work programs in the United States working to infuse geriatric competencies into foundation Master of Social Work (MSW) courses, including field education. Adhering to the Planned Change Model each project utilized a range of approaches and strategies that emerged in each setting’s unique organizational and community context. This article examines and analyzes three context-driven accounts of curricular infusion for gerontological social work and lessons learned in this effort to establish gerontology as part of the implicit curriculum in social work programs in universities diverse in mission, size, programming priorities, and student population. Given the experiences of these programs, following the Planned Change Model, maintaining the context as being central to the process, anticipating common challenges, and preparing to engage strategies to overcome challenges are offered as recommendations for successful infusion and sustainment of the efforts.     

Social work education crossing the borders: a field education programme for international internship

The demand for setting international social work education standards are on the rise. The increased prospects of global exchange in teaching learning process initiated by different international universities, as a part of their agenda for international collaboration and cross cultural immersion in the profession are major impetuses for the same. Social work interns who participated in international exchanges appreciated the need for knowledge of global priorities and strategies to advance social work education, research and skill development for practice which also has lead to future collaboration between the institutions in these areas. But there are many challenges for the intern as well as the institutions involved, which should be integrated during different phases of the exchange process. This requires meticulous planning from the part of host institution. This paper focus on the need for international social work, the challenges involved in international internship and the process and content of field education provided to the international students based on experience of the author. The intention of the paper is to propose a general model of international field education, which may be mutually shared and agreed by the home institution as well as the host institution.     

Motivations to become a master in social work: a typology of students

ABSTRACT

In the field of social work education, many studies address students’ motivations to become social workers. Most of these studies focus on bachelor‘s students in social work and confirm that altruistic and expressive motivations underlie students’ decisions to enter the social work profession. However, few studies focus on students earning a Master in Social Work (MSW). The purpose of this paper is to explore why students want to earn a master’s degree in social work. An online questionnaire was developed, and the results of six focus group discussions were used. The sample includes 116 graduates from the past 8 years and current students from the MSW programme at the University of Antwerp. We use exploratory factor analysis and identify two types of motivation. In line with earlier studies, we find that the first type is an expressive motivation. These students want to learn more about poverty and social justice and are motivated to improve the life conditions of vulnerable target groups. The second type is an instrumental motivation. These students are oriented towards the development of their professional careers.     

Social work educators and social policy: a cross-professional perspective

This article seeks to contribute to the ongoing debate within European social work on the role of social work educators in influencing social policy. It reports on a study that examined the role of social work educators in furthering social policy by comparing Israeli social work educators’ engagement in policy with faculty members in professional schools with strong ties to social policy, namely education and healthcare. While the findings show some similarities between the three groups of educators, they also underscore marked differences between educators in social work and the other professions. In particular, social work educators are more involved in, and more committed to, social policy engagement than faculty members of other professional schools are. These divergences are attributed to the greater focus upon policy practice in social work and its prevalence in teaching programmes, as well as to the profession’s focus on disenfranchised clients, who are especially impacted by social policies.     

Conceptualizing anxiety among social work students: implications for social work education

Student anxiety is frequently discussed within social work education. Due to its potentially devastating impacts, social work educators need to have a full understanding of anxiety in this context, in order to determine the best way to support students. Research on student anxiety from a broad body of literature provides implications for social work classrooms and field education. Key underlying concepts from previous social work and related research on student anxiety inform a conceptual model to help educators develop a more complex understanding of student anxiety. Implications for further research and important next steps in the development of support strategies for social work students are identified.     

Inter and Intra Professional Social Work Differences: Social Works Challenge

Social work historically has had two overarching domains. One domain is concerned with communities and policy development, the other with direct practice involving individuals, groups and families. Both the macro and micro domains are infused with concerns of social justice and advocacy. Conflict in the profession between social justice and casework began over a century ago, with early social work leaders Mary Richmond and Jane Addams. Controversy within the profession continues today. This paper will present many of the differing viewpoints within the ever-changing kaleidoscope of the profession. The paper will objectively present the issues of debate regarding micro and macro foci and recent debates related to professionalization, licensure, and the education of social workers. It will challenge readers to critically think about their own practices and view points. The synergy of the profession is much more than either people changing or society changing. As a profession we must move beyond the discord to the embodiment of harmony. The problem of AIDS will be discussed in order to demonstrate the challenges of working at both the micro and macro levels. Dorothea Marie Epple, PhD, LCSW, BCD is an Assistant Professor in the MSW program at the University of St. Francis. She received her PhD in 2002 at the Institute of Clinical Social Work Chicago and an MSW from Loyola in 1982. Dorothea has 25 years experience in Clinical Social Work in mental health, hospital and hospice settings.     

Termination of Parental Rights: A Commentary on Ben-David

Ben-David (this issue) introduced us to the complexity of the factors that courts consider in termination of parental rights (TPR). It is an opening to understanding which factors are taken into consideration and how courts make these challenging determinations. Yet there are other questions that must be asked before we truly understand the TPR decisions made by courts across a variety of legal jurisdictions. This commentary argues that we must take the inquiry deeper, asking questions that will unpack the complexity assisting researchers and clinicians. Thus, we will want to know how courts weigh such important issues as the credibility of the evidence. What is it about such factors as parental competence, failure of remediation, and other issues identified by Ben-David that cause courts to determine TPR is the best choice? Consideration is given to how Ben-David’s work might be extended using a Canadian perspective.     

Diverse students and literacy in social work education: pedagogies for a new tertiary landscape

In the Western policy landscape, students from diverse cultural, linguistic, economic and other backgrounds are increasingly represented in an expanded tertiary education system. Structural and technological changes have challenged traditional pedagogies designed for more elite cohorts, and shifted the boundaries of textual practices in both universities and professional worlds. In spite of these momentous trends, university literacies often remain tacit and inaccessible to those new to them, and pedagogies rarely explicitly engage with the complexities of these shifting boundaries. University students unfamiliar with these tacit literacies can become marginalised and ultimately struggle with the literacy demands of their academic and professional worlds. This is problematic in social work education, as professional practice demands complex written and oral communication, with potentially significant social and legal repercussions. This paper reports on pedagogies initiated by action research in a Bachelor of Social Work programme in an Australian University. Pedagogies were introduced to make elite codes explicit, use students’ literacies as assets for learning and encourage ‘code switching’ between literacy practices to resist colonising into more powerful literacies. Students’ capacities in academic and professional literacies were significantly enhanced by these practices, and their cultural inheritances valorised, encouraging their contribution to the social work discipline.     

Noah: a story of peacebuilding,nonviolence, reconciliation,and healing

ABSTRACT

For years there has been a failure to show the relevance between the application of religious text within social work and the social sciences. This paper provides a functional framework on the reason for the separation between social sciences and religious studies and then uses the Genesis account of Noah and the flood to show how the two can be integrated for peacebuilding, reconciliation, and healing. The paper applies the Noah story to micro, mezzo, and macro applications of social work practice and concludes with a call for a deeper integration of religious text into social work practice.     

Social Work Education without Walls: Ethnography as a Lens for Transformative Learning

A call for innovation in social work has been put forth to address our society’s greatest problems. This call applies to social work education, which encompasses multiple functions including teaching, research, and practice. Yet, innovation in social work is constrained by the limits of current social work approaches and methods. Increasing social work’s impact in the real world requires illuminating the complexities of reciprocal forces between human lives and the environment. Understanding such complexities incorporates spatial and interdisciplinary approaches, such as ethnography. Ethnography, as method and metaphor, is a lens for transformative learning in social work education: It is the message. Ethnography illuminates real-world complexities and deepens social work education through its core contributions: methodological holism, methodological engagement, and methodological comparison. In deepening social work education, ethnography renders visible salient links in social work’s field of dialectics, invoking the systems perspective. Yet, ethnography extends beyond and expands on the systems perspective, emphasizing engaged integration. Engaged integration of social work’s dialectics forwards the discourse about the profession’s identity. Thus, ethnography is a tool for advancing knowledge and promoting transformative learning in social work education.     

‘It simplifies research!’: impact of a song lyrics exercise among MSW students

ABSTRACT

The use of pop culture sources in social work education enhances the learning of MSW students in the human behavior, policy and diversity courses. Pop culture sources can enhance learning because of the potential for a quicker recall of content, revealing hidden talents and sophisticated understanding of the concepts, and making the assignments more enjoyable for students. However, the impact of utilizing pop culture sources among MSW students in research courses remains unknown. It is imperative that contemporary teaching modalities be implemented in research courses because MSW students have mixed feelings about taking research classes and conducting research of their own. The purpose of this article is to report findings of the implementation of a pop culture source-analyzing song lyrics-in an introductory MSW research class at one university in the USA. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from (N = 17) MSW students. Findings lend support to utilizing the song lyrics exercise, as students reported enhanced self-efficacy and knowledge of the research process. Future research should assess the impact of this activity with larger samples.