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.     

What are Social Work Students’ Perceptions of the Community Practice Method?

Summary. A unique aspect of the social work profession is the combination of intervention on the personal, community, and societal levels and their interaction. The purpose of this research is to determine students’ perceptions of community practice. Qualitative research was conducted among Israeli social work students before gaining any practical experience in community practice. Findings. The results demonstrated a change in students’ perceptions of the importance of community practice to the profession, and the factors that contributed to this change. Applications. Recommendations that may contribute to changing students’ perceptions of community practice are offered to educators.     

Translating knowledge into practice: using simulation to enhance mental health competence through social work education

ABSTRACT

Simulation-based learning (SBL) is an innovative experiential teaching method where students and instructors interact with a simulated client to foster students’ holistic competence in practice. Considering the context of North America where social workers are the largest service provider in the field of mental health, it is critical for educators to enhance competencies in students during the social work program. Guided by competency- and simulation-based, adult learning frameworks, this paper illustrates the development and integration of a range of educational activities into a treatment-focused advanced mental health course in the social work curriculum. We conclude by discussing how SBL enhances students’ mental health competence and provide recommendations when developing SBL in the mental health curriculum in social work education.     

Teaching without being taught how: social work practice faculty voices

ABSTRACT

Social work practice faculty have an important role in socializing MSW students to the field and practice of social work. This study, based on interviews with 15 faculty teaching an advanced clinical practice course in the United States, examines how faculty conceptualize teaching and learning. Faculty were asked about the theories or frameworks that guided their teaching, their own journeys to teaching and the resources that support their teaching. The study found that participants drew largely on their own experiences as student learners and social work practitioners and did not have much formal training in teaching and student learning. Furthermore, while half of the participants were able to identify a learning theory that guided their teaching, the other half were not. Finally, while participants articulated the need for support regarding their own teaching, many of the schools did not have formal faculty development opportunities. The paper ends with recommendations for supporting current and new faculty regarding teaching and student learning.     

Emancipatory engagement: An urban womanist social work pedagogy

ABSTRACT

Standing on the hope of the initial social work course from 1914 at Morgan College, this article provides insight into the significant learning outcomes of contemporary students in advanced social work practice with urban African American families. This research introduces the conceptual framework of urban womanist social work pedagogy as an inclusive practice-informed knowledge produced through the rituals, traditions, values, culture, and resilience of historically disenfranchised communities. Urban womanist social work teaching methods honor truth telling from the ones who have lived there. Urban womanist social work affirms transformative-centered research, teaching, and scholarship produced through institutions such as historically black colleges and universities (HBCU’s). The students’ reflective narratives reveal a process of transformation, centered in the freedom standpoint, which includes recognizing the location and context of their individual and collective identity as African Americans in the profession of social work. Urban womanist social work pedagogy cumulatively equips our students with intergenerational knowledge that inform their assessment of critical issues in Baltimore’s African American communities.     

Preparing social work students for policy practice: an Australian example

This paper presents an innovative approach to the teaching of policy skills across the two years of an Australian Social Work degree programme. It argues that placing policy back into practice and teaching the skills involved provides social work practitioners with a better capacity to effect change. Australian Catholic University, School of Social Work is located in Australia's capital city. The policy units have a clear framework within which to understand policy development and provide students with real hands‐on policy experience combining an experiential based learning approach with traditional teaching methods. The second year subject is structured around a number of policy workshops. Each workshop deals with a current policy problem and examines a different stage of policy development. It has as a consultant to the process a social worker who works as a policy practitioner providing a role model of practice in a policy area. Feedback from students has been extremely positive reporting increased confidence in policy skills and a recognition of the importance of these skills in social work. This teaching experience reinforces the need to focus on the educational considerations in teaching a subject where conceptual, theoretical and skill components are equally important if policy practice is to effect change.     

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.     

Outcomes focused user involvement in social work education: applying knowledge to practice

Abstract

This paper discusses an innovative approach connecting service user and carer involvement (SUCI) in social work education to social work practice. The research team, comprised service users, carers, social work students and module leader, worked collaboratively democratising the research process. At the University of Dundee, a core social work module facilitates students to spend 15 h with a service user and/or carer (host) gaining a unique insight into their everyday lives. During this time, hosts and students discuss two policy practice questions, responses to these questions are generating annual qualitative data, with study findings being disseminated at local and national level. The experiential learning students acquire from spending time with their host becomes the site of knowledge creation through involvement that is applied to practice. This paper reports on the narratives emerging from the longitudinal data (2012–2015, n = 90) on the changing landscape of social care in Scotland and the dissemination of project findings. We explore the intersection where the voices of service users and carers, student learning and social work practice coalesce. A model of outcomes focused SUCI is introduced as a template for meaningful, sustainable and outcomes-focused SUCI in social work education.     

Banking on community: The use of time banking as an innovative community practice teaching strategy

ABSTRACT

This article explores the use of a classroom-based, experiential time banking project as an innovative community practice teaching strategy. It presents a preliminary, qualitative evaluation of a seven-week, time banking project among 40 students enrolled in a Master of Social Work community practice course, spanning two academic years. Findings highlight challenges (e.g., lack of time) and benefits (e.g., building a sense of community) associated with the model specifically, as well as the ways in which participation expanded understandings of and appreciation for the power and potential of community practice more generally. Recommendations for future teaching and research applications are offered.     

Collaborative Responses to the Demands of Emerging Human Needs

Abstract

The paper explores the disintegration and integration which exist between faith and religion and social work and learning. There is a brief explanation of Catholic Papal Teachings and Catholic Social Teaching as a demonstration of de facto concordance between social work and religion. The paper contains citations based on the current social principles of the Catholic Church, several recent papal exhortations and encyclicals. These readings highlight the need for good social work practice. The paper ends with some practical suggestions in ways to promote collaboration between the two fields of endeavor.     

The Experiential Community Assessment Project: Integrating Social Work Practice Skills

Although most social work students are primarily interested in micro practice, the Council on Social Work Education mandates teaching macro practice. The challenge of incorporating meaningful and relevant community assignments within practice courses is noted in the literature (Koerin, Reeves, & Rosenblum, 2000 Koerin, B. B., Reeves, J. and Rosenblum, A. 2000. Macro-learning opportunities: What is really happening out there in field?. Journal of Baccalaureate Social Work, 6(1): 109–121.  [Google Scholar]). This article discusses the Experiential Community Assessment Project (ECAP) that integrates social work practice skills through interviewing a community leader, attending a community meeting, and using publicly available data to assess at risk neighborhoods. Grounded in experiential learning theory, a series of reflection papers are used to help students process what they are learning. A capstone poster presentation is required at the end. Suggestions and recommendations are made for using or adapting this project within other social work curricula.     

A Teaching Framework for Transformative Multicultural Social Work Education

Abstract

A major challenge in multicultural social work education is fostering meaningful learning experiences for students by matching educational methods and content to students' individual learning needs and characteristics. Building upon transformative learning theory developed by Jack Mezirow, this paper proposes a teaching framework for transformative multicultural social work education that addresses students' individual learning needs and characteristics. This framework uses the dimensions of cultural knowledge and cultural sensitivity to represent four potential stances of cross-cultural learning in students. The paper provides a detail discussion regarding the learning needs and learning foci of students at each stance, and useful teaching strategies and activities that enhance students' transformative learning process so that they develop integrative knowledge about self and others in a dynamic multicultural society from multiple perspectives.     

An examination of student and provider perceptions of voluntary sector social work placements in Northern Ireland

Practice based learning in Northern Ireland is a core element of social work education and comprising 50% of the degree programme for undergraduate and postgraduate students. This article presents evidence about the perceptions of practice learning from voluntary sector/non-government organisation (NGO) placement providers and final year social work students on social work degree programmes in Northern Ireland in 2011. It draws on data from 121 respondents from189 final year students and focus group interviews with voluntary sector providers offering 16% (85) of the total placements available to students. The agencies who participated in the research study provide a total of 55 PLOs to social work students, and are therefore fairly representative in terms of voluntary sector (NGO) provision. The article locates these data in the context of practice learning pedagogy and the changes introduced by the Regional Strategy for Practice Learning Provision in Northern Ireland 2010–2015. Several themes emerged including; induction, support and guidance, practice educator/student relationship, professional identity and confidence in risk assessment and decision-making. Social work educators, placement providers and employers must be cognisant of newly qualified social workers’ needs in terms of consolidating knowledge within the formative stages of their professional development.     

What do we know the experiences and outcomes of anti-racist social work education? An empirical case study evidencing contested engagement and transformative learning

ABSTRACT

In social work education there have been very few attempts to empirically capture and measure how professional training programmes prepare students to work with ‘race’ equality and cultural diversity issues. This paper interrogates the experiences and outcomes of anti-racist social work education and evaluates the pedagogic relevance and practice utility of teaching social work students about ‘race’, racism and anti-racism. The data presented in this paper suggests that it is possible to discover the situated experiences of learning about anti-racism and measure how this teaching can affect and lead to knowledge, skills and attitudinal change. The triangulated mixed methods evidence presented in this paper combines nomothetic and idiographic approaches with quantitative data for a matched pair sample of 36 social work students and uses non-parametric statistical tests to measure at two time intervals (before and after teaching); knowledge, skills and attitudinal change. The paper explores how anti-racist social work education enables students to move from ‘magical consciousness’, where racism and racial oppression is invisible and thereby left unchallenged and maintained, to more critical and reflexive level of awareness where it is named, challenged and no longer shrouded in a culture of professional denial and silencing.     

Education for a sustainable future? Students’ experiences of workshops on ethical dilemmas

ABSTRACT

The goal of education for sustainable development (ESD) is to promote the values, behaviors, and lifestyles that are needed to find solutions to global economic, social, and environmental challenges. Social work and social work education have an important role to play in ESD, and poverty reduction, health, and well-being are important issues for social work as well. UNESCO, as well as the provisions of the Sweden’s Higher Education Ordinance, emphasizes the importance of higher education in meeting the future challenges to creating a sustainable society. Social work education at Örebro University has a long tradition of collaboration with service user organizations, for example by holding workshops on ethical dilemmas. This article describes these workshops and explores the students’ experiences of them. Four themes were identified: the perspective of ‘the other’ (and my own role), the importance of a nonjudgmental approach, the complexity of ethical dilemmas, and awareness of the complexity of social work. The workshops give the students a platform where they can gain practical knowledge and experience. Through the workshops, the students began to reflect on their own inner ethical compass, as well as on their own role and the challenging nature of social work.     

Improving Social Work Students' Understanding of Health and Social Justice Knowledge through the Implementation of Service Learning at a Free Community Health Clinic

Service learning is a teaching strategy that involves engaging in a mutually beneficial partnership between a community and students in the classroom. Social work education and service learning share core values of service and social justice and, when unified, can offer students unique opportunities to engage in meaningful application of knowledge and skills in a real-world setting. This article provides an exemplar describing the unique student learning outcomes that resulted from a service learning partnership between graduate-level social work students in a diversity course and a community health clinic serving Latino immigrants and Burmese refugees.     

Training research-minded social workers: experience from Estonia*

ABSTRACT

Social work education in its modern sense started to develop after Estonia regained independence from the collapsing Soviet Union. The aim of this article is to introduce good practices of teaching research-mindedness, this being one of the main principles in teaching social workers-to-be in the University of Tartu in Estonia. We have been inspired by the academic tradition of university teaching in general, the new international definition of social work and, not least, the realisation of social workers in practice of not being able to apply academic knowledge to everyday social work practices. This article revisits the term research-mindedness and examines how it has been integrated into the university level teaching process. Our purpose is to discuss the methods students of bachelor’s and master’s programmes can learn to ‘translate’ social issues into research questions, critically appraise the findings and ‘translate’ them back as new research evidence for social work practice.     

Social Work Education and Clinical Learning: Yesterday,Today, and Tomorrow

Social Work Education and Clinical Learning by Simpson, Williams, and Segall is a welcome and timely statement about the nature of clinical social work and its implications for educational curricula. The authors took on an awesome task. Educating students for clinical practice is increasingly more daunting than it has been previously and is in considerable disarray, if not a state of crisis. In addition to amplifying and expanding some of the major points the authors make, this discussion considers where we have been, where we are, and where we are going. It describes the educational landscape today, which the author views as bleak with respect to its preparation of students for clinical social work practice. In keeping with clinical social work’s inclusive definition that encompasses a broad knowledge base, diverse practice roles, and a wide range of interventions, this discussion emphasizes the importance of numerous unifying themes that help to distinguish clinical social work from other approaches or from the use of a fragmented assemblage of techniques. The paper considers the role of evidence-based practice and makes some suggestions about future emphases in clinical social work. It concludes with a call to alter the educational landscape.     

Utilization of the interprofessional education,practice, and research model in HBCU social work education

ABSTRACT

Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are often overlooked as a resource to address the need for a diverse healthcare workforce even though they are an essential component of ensuring diversity. In order to meet the needs of the current patient population, HBCUs’ social work programs must move from silo education, practice, and research pedagogy to inter-professional education (IPE), practice (IPP), and research (IPR) modalities when developing partnerships that promote the elimination of health disparities. This article discusses the contributions of a HBCU’s School of Social Work to the growth of IPE, IPP, and IPR utilizing the Ujima principle of Nguzo Saba. The projects developed were an attempt to provide meaningful and relevant education to social work students while exposing them to a collaborative inter-professional education, practice, and research experience. The three social work projects included intra-university and social community collaborations and exposing students to experiential inter-professional education, practice, and experimental learning. This is an opportunity for social work students to become involved in the evolving best practices pedagogy for inter-professional education, practice, and research which social work must embrace in order to fulfill the National Association of Social Workers imperative of preparing students to work in collaborative health care teams. The expected outcomes of these inter-professional ventures reflect a HBCU’s commitment to increasing the competency in inter-professional modalities aimed at supporting, empowering, and preparing high caliber diverse graduates who will grow the future and lead the world as a diverse healthcare workforce.