Trends in higher education in Canada and implications for social work education

Canada, like other countries around the globe, is facing new challenges and opportunities with respect to post-secondary education. Trends in higher education in Canada include rising enrolments and falling revenues; a focus on enhancing employability of graduates through experiential and interactive learning; increased calls for accountability through the assessment of teaching and learning; and the rise of technology-enabled teaching and learning. Social work education is, in many ways, well positioned to take advantage of the opportunities presented by these trends due to the focus on case-based learning and practicum education, the focus on assessment of practice competencies as learning outcomes, and the long-standing commitment to teaching innovation and excellence. Nevertheless, meeting fiscal challenges and finding ways to exploit new technologies will require creativity and the development of an expanded body of research on social work education.     

Emerging Social Work Field Education Trends in China

MSW field education in China has been adopting Western models. However, this adaptation cannot address all educational and professional training needs in China. This study used an exploratory qualitative study design and interviewed 54 MSW students regarding their field experiences at a university in Shanghai. Results revealed six key themes: field education curriculum design’s influence on student field experiences, faculty advisers’ influence on student field experiences, field agencies’ expectations toward MSW intern performance, field agencies’ capacity to host MSW interns, student perceptions of their professional competencies, and students’ coping strategies to manage challenges in field practicum. Competency-based social work field education is a potential solution to address the current social work field education challenges in China.     

Cyber Counselling: An Innovative Field Education Pilot Project

With the ascendancy of the cyber world, client demand for online counselling has increased and is expected to continue to increase dramatically in the coming years. The purpose of this article is to describe an innovative pilot practicum project in which social work graduate interns offered cyber counselling within a university to undergraduate students. In this paper, we describe the key elements of this project, including those that are unique and those that follow typical practicum processes, along with the challenges identified. Implications for practice and social work education are offered.     

Teaching self-care: The utilization of self-care in social work practicum to prevent compassion fatigue,burnout, and vicarious trauma

ABSTRACT

Field practicum is paramount to social work pedagogy in the preparation of emerging direct practice professionals. Field students integrate foundational knowledge as they implement practice skills learned in the classroom during the social work practicum experience. Working with clients who are suffering is inevitable in direct social work practice and field practicum students can be exposed to a broad range of intense emotional experiences as they assist clients in need. Integrating self-care skills, techniques and strategies into daily social work practice becomes essential to prevent compassion fatigue, burnout, and vicarious trauma. Incorporating self-care skills into the field practicum enhances opportunities for transformative student learning and helps to strengthen professional socialization during this critical educational experience. This article highlights the implementation of professional self-care instruction, use of activities and written student critical reflection assignments designed to enhance the practice experience through incorporating self-care education and strategies among undergraduate students within the field practicum seminar.     

Competences and the practicum: Experiences on one social work course

In 1991 Hull University introduced the practicum to social work placement experiences. The Hull MA/DipSW programme is briefly outlined and locates the practicum before providing the results of evaluating evidence from the first 101 students to return a placement questionnaire. Student responses were largely favourable concerning their experience of being tested on six core competences. This evaluation of the practicum is placed in the context of the CCETSW review of Paper 30 (1995). Issues for practice are raised concerning competences indicators, integration of theory and practice, academic assignments, the relevance of specialist areas to practicum, and client work and simulation exercises. It is suggested that the practicum represents a successful experiment in social work field education and is developing interesting initiatives in professional training, not least of which is a University based practice agency (FASU).     

Educating Social Workers for Practice in Integrated Health Care: A Model Implemented in a Graduate Social Work Program

ABSTRACT

This article introduces a curricular innovation, the Integrated Health Scholars Program (IHSP), developed to prepare master's-level social work students for practice in integrated health care settings, and presents preliminary findings related to students’ self-reported program competencies and perceptions. IHSP, implemented in a research-intensive school of social work in a large midwestern public university, includes specialized course work, interprofessional education across health science disciplines, and field practicum in integrated health care settings. Curricular components support stepwise learning and follows the British Columbia model of interprofessional education learning tiers: exposure, immersion, and skill mastery. Despite IHSPs successful development in a well-resourced, supportive environment, challenges facing our profession's ability to develop and sustain training of MSW students in integrated health care are discussed.     

Repositioning Risk in Social Work Education: Reflections Arising from the Threat of SARS to Social Work Students in Hong Kong during their Field Practicum

The social work profession has always been involved in dealing with uncertainty and risk in the life politics of clients. However, it is not easy for young social work students to translate this philosophical disposition into their real life practice with clients. In spring 2003, when the SARS epidemic broke out in Hong Kong, a group of social work students from the Chinese University of Hong Kong were doing their fieldwork practicum. Suddenly confronted by a collective sense of risk in their role as social workers, the students went through a period of unrest, as performing their helping duties brought with it a simultaneous exposure to personal risk. This paper is based on four focus group interviews with these social work students, to understand how they processed their experience of risk during their exposure to the SARS crisis, and how they connected the experience to their social work practice with clients. It is found that the predicament arising from the exposure to personal risk brought about by the SARS crisis during the students' field placement engendered the reflective process that enabled a renewed and personalized meaning of professionalism. The results provide a basis for reflection among social work educators on the role of risk in the training of prospective social workers, and on how social work education can better prepare students for practice in a high‐risk environment.     

Student perceptions of the learning process during undergraduate field practicum: a qualitative study

As social work education in China expands rapidly since 2000, field practicum is one of the most challenging areas. This qualitative study explored the field learning experiences of 27 students from a pioneer social work undergraduate program. Analysis resulted in six major themes revealing the students’ perspective on the process of learning by performing various practice events during 4-week summer block placements. Discussion focuses on the key features of this learning process. Suggestions for future research and implications for field instruction are included.     

Implications and challenges for social work education in Greece in the time of austerity

Following a discussion of the implications of one of the largest fiscal adjustments in modern times the paper identifies current challenges to social work practice and social work education in Greece and discusses the future of social work with radicalism as one of the central themes emerging during the crisis. It is argued that while at the moment radical social work has barely found any support from Greek social work practitioners, the implications of the socioeconomic crisis have given a significant boost to radical and critical social work on the educational front. It is further argued that in order to enhance these developments future efforts should concentrate on providing an effective guide for everyday practices that acknowledge the particularities of the specific context and will also include humane and holistic value-based approaches as well as the promotion of emancipatory values such as authenticity. In a progressively depoliticized public sphere that fosters the spread of individualism the above elements might be a critical step toward a more politically engaged social work education.     

Diversity and difference in the field education encounter: Racial minority students in the practicum

The practicum in social work oftentimes induces fear, anxiety, tension and excitement. Additional concerns occur for racial minority students given historical treatment and present realities since racism and discrimination are embedded within the structures of dominant societies. This study describes the experiences of racial minority students in the practicum. The findings reveal the different experiences of students according to agency, field instructor and the context of work. More importantly, questions emerged around student identity, professionalism and the realities of practice. The survey responses are analysed together with a focus group discussion where students described subtle, pervasive and blatant forms of discrimination, prejudice and racism. Positive student experiences were also shared and are incorporated for change. Practical suggestions are offered as well as the need to introduce more in-depth analyses of oppression, colonization and imperialism in field education.     

A SWOT analysis of social work education in Canada

This paper draws upon the research carried out for a study of human resource needs of social workers in Canada to make a SWOT analysis of social work education and the profession. Strengths that were identified included a holistic practice orientation; the linkage between theory and practice; regulation and certification; a generalist approach to practice; increased cultural relevance of social work education; high quality social work programs; a continued demand for social workers; and the values of the profession. Weaknesses included a lack of professional identification, or identity crisis; an inability to promote the profession; the diffuse knowledge base of the profession; conflict between the values of social action and social control; a lack of preparation to manage the stress of our work; insufficient aboriginal, visible minority and multicultural members of the profession; and for aboriginal people, that social work can be seen as a residual effect of colonization. Threats to the profession included a trend to neoliberalism; increasing identification of social workers with the bureaucracy; increasing managerialization; increased community responsibility for service delivery; and interdisciplinarity. Opportunities identified included design of cost effective programs which meet service user needs; exercise of responsibility for social advocacy; development of managerial competence in social workers; extension of job opportunities through privatization; and articulation of social work competencies.     

Challenges to Bridging Field and Classroom Instruction: Exploring Field Instructors’ Perspectives on Macro Practice

Field education and macro practice have been highlighted as central educational domains in social work education; however, little scholarship has looked at how macro social work practice competencies have been integrated into field-based learning. This exploratory study aimed to gain perspectives from field instructors regarding macro social work and the integration of macro practice into their work with practicum students. Consistent with scholarship that has elucidated the impacts of neoliberalism on social work, including the marginalization of macro practice, emergent themes demonstrated that field instructors face barriers to incorporating macro work into their training of students. Challenges include prevalence of the medical model, time constraints, and funding limitations. Further, field instructors observed gaps among students, their university, and their organizational setting in regard to expectations for integrating macro practice into field education. Recommendations and directions for future research are discussed.     

INTEGRATING EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE AND SOCIAL WORK FIELD EDUCATION

The social work academic community is currently considering and critiquing the idea of evidence-based practice (EBP). Given the vital part that practicum education plays in the social work profession, understanding the views of field instructors on this subject is essential. The George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University surveyed 283 field instructors within 180 agencies and found that the majority (87%, N=235) viewed it as a useful practice idea. However, most of the indicators employed to assess use of scientific evidence in social work practice revealed that it occurs too infrequently. A lack of time was reported as the greatest obstacle.     

Questioning Heteronormativity: Lesbian and gay challenges to education practice in British Columbia,Canada

This paper explores social movement organizing within social institutions, using the cases of the Surrey book banning and the Trinity Western University, two cases of activist litigation in British Columbia, Canada. In these cases, lesbian and gay teacher activists challenged heteronormative constructions in educational practices, in one case by introducing lesbian and gay-positive reading materials in the elementary grades, in the other by challenging the right of an evangelical university to train teachers for the public education system. In the context of the existing literatures on social movements within institutions and challenges to education practices, the paper emphasizes two main conclusions: 1) challenges to educational practice may be mounted by teachers themselves, despite their professional and 'insider' status and 2) a range of different types of relationships are possible between social movement challenges within social institutions and social movements outside of institutions. In the cases presented here, the strategies, discourses and frames of 'insider' challenges to educational practices were drawn from the teacher-activists' location as part of the broader legally focused Canadian lesbian and gay movement.     

The role of social work field education programmes in the transmission of developmental social work knowledge in Southern and East Africa

This paper reports on the findings of a study on the role of social work field education programmes in the transmission of developmental social work knowledge in Southern and East Africa. It highlights the challenges in locating developmental social work placements and the creativity shown by social work educators in addressing these challenges and improving learning opportunities for social work students. Both academics and students were found to be committed to developmental social work, within a willing practice environment hampered by knowledge, capacity and resource constraints. Social work education was found to be playing a transformative role through the teaching of a developmental social work curriculum and the creation of collaborative developmental social work learning experiences. Social work educators trained and supported agency supervisors in developmental social work, while students served as conduits, modelling developmental social work practice. What has yet to be determined in future research is the students’ perspective of this developmental educational environment.     

Social work doctoral education in the United States: examining the past,preparing for the future

The relevance of doctoral education is being questioned across a wide spectrum of disciplines, and social work is no exception. An examination of the history of social work education in the United States provides a backdrop to the current challenges in doctoral education in the field. The historical role of research and teaching in social work education, the structure of doctoral social work education in the United States including the Ph.D. vs. the DSW, and the growth of doctoral programs are all examined. Current issues explored include: the interdisciplinary nature of practice; increased institutional focus on funded research; support for underrepresented doctoral students; and the need for doctoral students to be trained in pedagogy. Suggestions on how to address these issues are provided in order to enhance social work’s mission of teaching, research and service.     

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Child Welfare Practice and Social Work Education

Social work in the field of child welfare is complex and full of challenges. In British Columbia Canada, the Ministry of Children and Family Development, which is the main employer of social workers, entered a partnership with universities to educate baccalaureate social work students in a child welfare specialization. This paper examines an instructional approach to child welfare education at the University of Northern British Columbia. The geography of the university region as well as the need to maintain a critical standpoint presented challenges in the delivery of a child welfare specialization course. The development of an online child welfare practice course assisted the university in meeting the challenges. This paper describes the practice context for social workers in British Columbia as well as the design of the online course offered to social work students at the University of Northern British Columbia.     

Hope over fear: social work education towards 2025

ABSTRACT

Prediction of possible futures is fraught with dangers. Neither the global economic crisis which erupted in 2008 nor the political earthquake which shook Scotland over the issue of independence during 2014 was foreseen by many commentators, if indeed any. Given these experiences, predicting where social work education might be in 2025 is a potentially hazardous enterprise. Nevertheless, the recent resurgence of interest in utopian thinking reflects a widely felt desire to go beyond ‘capitalist realism’ and to envisage different possibilities – a desire also reflected in political developments in Greece and Spain. This development is primarily in reaction to the dominance of another form of utopian (or dystopian) thinking: neo-liberalism, with its message that ‘there is no alternative’. In this paper, I will argue that that search for alternatives has important implications for social work and social work education. Following a discussion of the ways in which neo-liberalism has shaped the profession over two decades, the paper will identify current challenges to neo-liberal social work and social work education and more widely, to the politics of austerity. Drawing on examples from different countries, I will argue that this ‘new radicalism’ points the way to a more politically engaged social work education.     

Building community-engaged practicum units through anchor institutions: The case of Southside Initiative

ABSTRACT

This article provides the assessment results from a community-engaged field education unit for social work students situated within a neighborhood setting in the South-Central region of the United States. A community-university partnership between several community institutions and a school of social work created the Southside Initiative (SSI) as a means to build capacity within the Oaks neighborhood. This neighborhood lacked professional social workers but was rich in other types of assets. The lessons learned from this initiative provide preliminary understanding about the benefits, complexity, and challenges of building and sustaining community-rooted practicum placements in neighborhood settings.     

FIELD EDUCATION AS THE SIGNATURE PEDAGOGY OF SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION

In its EPAS, CSWE (2008) identifies field education as the signature pedagogy (Shulman, 2005b) of social work education. This article analyzes the field education– signature pedagogy fit. It finds congruence in selected organizational arrangements that are pervasive and routine, and disparities with respect to expectations about public student performance, peer accountability, the view of adaptive anxiety, and accountable talk. This article asserts that practicum effectiveness could be enhanced by a broader application of Shulman's criteria through a greater emphasis on group structures for learning/teaching in the field.