Lessons from American Social Work Education: Caution Ahead

Abstract

Similar trends are occurring in Australian and US social work education, as universities increasingly adopt a rigid market orientation to tertiary education. This marketisation shapes social work education in manifold ways, including the pressure to increase revenues (and effect greater efficiencies) by expanding the size of social work programs. The unregulated growth in social work programs leads to lowered admission standards, as programs are forced to compete for students. An oversupply of social workers will also drive salaries downwards as supply eclipses demand. These issues are examined in the context of a “big” versus a “small” (fewer but more highly trained social workers) model of social work. Emphasis is placed on the lessons that Australian social work educators can learn from the challenges facing US social work education.     

Learning to Be a Social Worker in a Non-traditional Placement: Critical Reflections on Social Work,Professional Identity and Social Work Education in England

Drawing upon findings from a national evaluation of student social workers' experiences of ‘non-traditional’ placements with a national charity, this article considers what such placements can contribute to the development of an individual and collective sense of professional identity for social work. This is explored against the background of current developments in social work education in England, including changes to the requirements for practice placements and the introduction of ‘fast-track’ routes to qualification, preparing students for social work in statutory children's services. The article suggests that with the establishment of The College of Social Work and the development of the Professional Capabilities Framework, relevant to all social workers throughout their careers, the profession has an opportunity to promote a concept of social work in England beyond that required by statutory sector employers; and that practice learning in non-statutory and non-traditional settings has an important role to play in this.     

Changes in Admissions Work Arising from the New Social Work Degree in England

The business of admissions to higher education in England is a significant task for academic and support staff. This paper draws on the Evaluation of the New Social Work Degree Qualification in England (2004–2008) to describe the changes in admissions work for social work staff in higher education associated with the change from diploma to a degree level qualification for entry to the profession; to report how staff involved in admissions work are managing these changes; and to identify elements of admissions processes that are perceived to be fulfilling the new requirements of the degree and those which are identified as more problematic. The article draws on two telephone/email surveys of a national sample of social work programmes and on face-to-face in-depth interviews with a sample of teaching staff from nine social work programmes in six higher education institutions undertaken during 2005–2007. The work of admissions staff is rarely scrutinised in studies of higher education or specifically in social work programmes: this article discusses the spectrum of approaches. It recommends monitoring of the outcomes of practices in admissions work that are recasting Department of Health Requirements as the minimum.     

Some of my Students are Prisoners: Issues and Dilemmas for Social Work Educators

Higher education recruitment principles and procedures which seek to redress social exclusion have inadvertently resulted in the authors discovering that some of their students are incarcerated. Notwithstanding the important logistical issues which may emerge as a consequence of accepting prisoners into a programme of social work education, it would seem that the inclusion of prisoners is symbolic of a fundamental difference in philosophy with a risk management stance which expects that social work educators act as gatekeepers to the profession, especially in respect of students with criminal convictions.     

Toward Rigor and Relevance in US Social Work Education

Abstract

After reviewing the major changes taking place in American higher education, the present paper discusses a select number of challenges confronting US social work education. These challenges are broadly characterized as those of rigor and relevance. The paper presents the author's reflections on the best ways to meet these challenges and stresses the promotion of research and social innovations as important foci for social work education.     

Social Work within a Community Discourse: Challenges for Teaching

This paper considers the continuing debate about the relationship between social work and community work. We write about our collaboration as educators, one from a social work background and the other from a community work background and discuss the challenge of teaching community work to social work students in a way that is relevant for contemporary practice, and that embraces community work principles and values. Our paper explores Ife's framework of competing discourses of human services and discusses how it has helped us to articulate our thinking and teaching practice in the Irish context. For us, the framework integrates social work and community work within a community discourse that provides a language transcending disciplinary boundaries. This approach represents a means of familiarising students with the community work process and enabling them to take action on issues of social justice. The framework represents four competing models of human service delivery: the managerial, the market, the professional and the community. We discuss how we use this conceptualisation to teach and engage students in a process of critical reflection. The paper discusses methods we use to undertake this process, and the development of our teaching practice over the last two years.     

Exploring the Potential of a Collaborative Web-based E-portfolio in Social Work Field Education

ABSTRACT

In most Australian workplaces that provide placement opportunities, social workers are unlikely to receive reductions in their workload for supervising students and completing the administrative requirements of field education subjects. Associated time costs lead to reluctance to supervise social work students. This article investigates the potential for a web-based e-portfolio tool to support and streamline social work field education and assessment processes. Social work students, field educators, and university-appointed liaison staff (N = 110) from a large Australian university completed an online survey administered at the end of placement. The majority of participants reported that the e-portfolio provided a useful framework for recording evidence of student learning; was simple to use; saved time; and had the capacity to enhance the quality and immediacy of communication between parties. We argue that e-portfolios can efficiently capture evidence of student learning and provide a robust mode of supporting social work students on placement.     

Reflective Practice,Reflexivity, and Critical Reflection in Social Work Education in Australia

Reflective practice, reflexivity, and critical reflection are now widely accepted as important in contemporary social work practice. Despite this, there remain differences in how the terms are discussed within the literature. This results in confusion in how students are instructed about reflective practice, reflexivity, and critical reflection. This paper presents a proposal for clarifying these concepts based on the results from an interpretive study of reflective practice in social work education and practice in Australia. The study utilised three different methods: autoethnography, an archaeological analytic, and qualitative interviews. It found that reflective practice is understood as a capability, a form of critical thinking, a discipline response to a changing sector, and a way of theorising from practice. Conceptual clarifications of reflective practice, reflexivity, and critical reflection are presented.

IMPLICATIONS

• There is a need for clarification about the meaning of reflective practice, reflexivity, and critical reflection within social work.

• Findings from a qualitative study on the meaning and use of reflective practice in Australian social work education may provide conceptual clarification of these terms.

     

Social Work Education and criticality: some thoughts from research

This article has been developed from a keynote speech delivered by Bill Badham at a Practice Teaching Conference held in Leicester on 13-14 October 1998. The aim of the conference was to explore practice teaching in the context of the voluntary sector and consider strategies for development and change. The article considers the value to voluntary sector agencies of offering assessed practice placements to social work students. From the benefits to practice teachers and individual agency representatives, it broadens the discussion to the benefits to social work as a whole of having an integrated voluntary sector perspective in social work education.     

Online Teaching in Social Work Education: Understanding the Challenges

There is a rapidly growing industry of online learning and distance education programs at the Master of Social Work and Bachelor of Social Work levels both within Australia and globally. A number of best practices have emerged from the literature that warrant consideration when delivering social work programs in online learning and distance education modes. Given the significant advancements in technology that are likely to continue into the next decades, social work academic leaders and accrediting bodies must be prepared to address the changing landscape of higher education, including limited financial resources. Social work academics need to become aware and implement best practices in online learning and distance education e-teaching environments to ensure positive student outcomes, student retention, and student engagement to meet the flexibility needs of students in higher education settings. The purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss the challenges and benefits of distance education and online learning for consideration when providing a social work program in these delivery models.

IMPLICATIONS

• Given the significant advancements in technology that are likely to continue into the next decades, social work academic leaders and accrediting bodies must be prepared to address the changing landscape of higher education.

• Social work academics need to become aware and implement best practices in the distance education and online teaching environment to ensure positive student outcomes, student retention, and student engagement to meet the flexibility needs of students in higher education settings.

     

A Pedagogical Approach to Engaging Social Work Students in Research

Attitudes of US-based students in graduate-level social work master's in social work (MSW) toward required research courses often appear ambivalent, but developing an effective pedagogical approach to research could have lasting implications on students, educators, and the field. This article uses Bandura's social learning theory (SLT) to provide a framework for successfully engaging MSW students in the content of an introductory research class. This article outlines the thinking behind and the strategies used to engage students in the course content.     

Mindfulness in Social Work Education

Social work is beginning to explore the role of mindfulness in the education of future practitioners. This article reviews literature from social work education and other disciplines to suggest that there is much that is yet to be explored about mindfulness, its contribution, and the experience and implementation of it into the educational experience. I conclude with some reflections on areas requiring further attention and investigation in the role and teaching of mindfulness in social work education.     

Integrating the Natural Environment in Social Work Education: Sustainability and Scenario-based Learning

This article presents an approach to curriculum design that incorporates natural environmental content into social work education using sustainability principles. The curriculum development project outlined here used scenario-based learning (SBL) to integrate sustainability themes into contemporary social work practice challenges. SBL offers a flexible pedagogical strategy to integrate environmental content and explore social complexity. Importantly, it presents eco-social concerns as a central consideration of all contemporary social work practice.     

Threshold Theory and Social Work Education

Critical reflection is a concept in social work education that holds a significant place—it provides both foundational theoretical ideas about the practice of social work, and is also a process used in career-long learning. Understanding critical reflection as a threshold theory concept—a higher education learning and teaching concept—providing a framework which assists educators in teaching critical reflection. Threshold theory identifies certain concepts as foundational within a discipline—these are transformative in profoundly altering the way students understand the subject. As with critical reflection, they are also integrative, conceptually difficult or ‘troublesome’ and difficult to forget.

The intrinsic nature of critical reflection makes its use as a conceptual model in practice a complex task: it requires the integration of theoretical knowledge, in a multiple-step methodology. Students must fully engage with the process, in identifying the impact of their lived experience, values and beliefs on their practice, as well as power, social structures and influential discourses. This article argues that threshold theory assists educators in understanding the nature of learning that is required for students to master critical reflection in social work education     

Involving Service Users in the Teaching and Learning of Social Work Students: Reflections on Experience

This article describes and reflects on a project to develop service user involvement in the teaching and learning of students on one social work degree course. It includes the perspectives of a service user who took a lead role in the project and a part‐time academic member of staff given a specific contract to develop the work. The aspects of the project discussed are: getting started; bringing people together; student learning from individual voices; and student learning from collective experiences. Achievements and obstacles are discussed and key points of learning noted.     

Evaluations of Social Work Education: A Critical Review

Since the introduction in England of the social work degree in 2002, there have been a number of significant changes to social work education culminating with the implementation of the Social Work Reform Board's innovations in 2013. This article critically explores the role of evaluations of changes in social work education and their implications for social work pedagogy. Evaluations can be linked to wider trends in society such as modernity, reflexive modernity, and the audit society. These wider influences affect the use of evaluations. A way forward for social work is proposed. Social work education needs to develop a critical pedagogy of hope to transform the profession's relationship not only to evaluations but to practise as well. The key message of this article is that evaluation studies of social work education mirror the underlying tensions of late modernity. Therefore, social work education needs to adopt a critical pedagogic approach to the use of evaluation research.     

Rotational Field Placements: Integrative Review and Application to Gerontological Social Work

Despite the long held social work tradition of year-long field placements, there is a growing trend among social work programs in the United States to include a rotational field placement (RFP) track, particularly for gerontology students. Through the RFP program, students rotate systematically between multiple placement sites within the academic school year. Inclusion of RFP models represents a decisive break from traditional field practicum models, raising fundamental questions with regards to educational outcomes and student experience. This article provides a comprehensive review of available empirical data on social work RFP programs, summarizing the benefits, risks and problem areas associated with such models as well as model design options and added structural supports social work programs have used to bolster the success of their RFP programs.     

A Snapshot on the Development of Social Work Education in China: A Delphi Study

Social work education in China has now been reinstated for almost two decades, after it was discontinued in the early 1950s. Due to various reasons, so far, there has not been a standardised social work curriculum in China. This article reports on the first empirical study finished in late 2001. Employing a Delphi technique, 47 social work scholars were invited to provide their opinions on the nature of social work in China, the requirements of social work graduates and the social work curriculum at the undergraduate level. The findings indicate that despite the influence of the Western model induced mainly by social work scholars in Hong Kong, social work education in China is moving towards an indigenised model within its unique social–political–cultural context. Respondents tended to adopt an expert model and the ‘helping people to help themselves’ principle. Social work is understood as being instrumental to enhancing the rapid economic changes by employing scientific knowledge and skills to resolve social and personal problems, stabilise society, and enhance social participation. To nurture its graduates with the competence to fulfil these social assignments, a broad‐base of social science knowledge, generic social work skills, special personal qualities and political sensitivity is included in the curriculum.     

Interprofessional Education for Practice: Some Implications for Australian Social Work

Abstract

Social workers work with many other professionals in the workplace and being able to work in a team is both a practice standard for professions and a desirable graduate attribute of most universities. However, student learning about teamwork is often inconsistent and serendipitous, albeit some attention may be given to it as part of field education and work preparation. Students and new graduate social workers usually adopt the teamwork approach that prevails in the agency in which they work and teamwork behaviour is often a result of socialisation and acculturation. Internationally, over the last two decades, interprofessional education for interprofessional practice has achieved prominence in social work curricula. This article covers recent Australian initiatives in interprofessional education and the involvement of the social work program at a leading Australian university in an interprofessional education project. Implications for social work student education and social work practice are discussed.