Being the University: Liaison Persons' Reflections on Placements with Off-Site Supervision

Social work as a profession, social work practitioners and organisations, as well as social work educators are under strain due to global, economic, social and political changes and workplace pressures. Field education is recognised as pivotal in preparing social work students for professional practice. As social work practitioners, organisations and social work educators are exposed to external and internal pressures, social work practice learning with off-site supervision is becoming more prevalent. This paper reports on research that explored the experiences of key stakeholders in social work practice learning with external or, in other words, off-site supervision. This paper explores the experiences of university liaison persons who provided supported field education arrangements with off-site supervision. A range of themes have emerged, including reflections about bringing the university to the placement experience, creating student centred placement opportunities, the complexity of connecting the various players and the extra support and resources needed to support placements with off-site supervision. Findings suggest that quality learning experiences are about more than modes of supervision, that placements with off-site supervision increase the workload of liaison persons and that clear models and structures need to be developed to support emerging field education models.     

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.     

Factors That Impact a Social Worker's Capacity to Supervise a Student

With sector constraints and higher education economic imperatives increasingly impacting the provision of social work field education, university programs lack an understanding of the factors that enable or prohibit field educators’ capacity to provide placements. Despite the significance of field education in the curriculum, it remains unclear what the experiences and motivations of field educators are to provide universities with student placements. This research addresses this gap through surveying 101 field educators that attended statewide Victorian field education training. Results indicated that although field educators recognised the benefits of supervising students, workload relief, additional training, and further student placement preparation by the university were emphasised as the primary factors that would enable them to respond positively to placement requests. Payments for placements did not necessarily ameliorate these issues nor guarantee the provision of more placements. The implications of these findings for universities and the field are discussed.     

Applying Computers in Social Service and Mental Health Agencies: A Guide to Selecting Equipment,Procedures and Strategies

Abstract

Students' perceptions of their field placements rarely are taken into account in the literature on field practicum and supervision. This survey of MSW students at a southern university examines factors associated with student satisfaction with field agency, field instructor, and field learning. The survey covers student and agency characteristics, learning goals and structure, supervision, and school-agency linkages. Students associated the quality of supervision and relevance of learning most highly with satisfaction in their placement experiences. Being treated as a professional in the agency, school-agency linkages, student characteristics, and amount of time engaged in specific social work activities were found not to be major factors in student satisfaction with field work.     

Placement Educators’ Experiences and Perspectives of Supervising International Social Work Students in Australia

International social work students in Australia have reported difficulties in finding quality placement opportunities and dealing with issues such as language and cultural barriers. While placement issues have been mostly investigated from a student perspective, this study explores the experiences and perspectives of placement educators towards supervising international social work students. It draws on an online survey of 83 placement educators working for an Australian university. The majority of placement educators reported that they supervised international students differently to domestic students. These differences were negatively framed as challenges involving students’ language competence, their understanding of cultural norms, and knowledge of Australian welfare systems. This framing implies that cultural and linguistic differences between international students and placement educators are viewed in terms of student deficiency rather than as a positive opportunity for mutual learning and professional development.     

Lifting the Lid: Perspectives on and Activity within Student Supervision

Practice teaching is central to social work education. Significant changes have occurred in the past 10 years affecting social work education in Scotland. This article reports on the findings of a small-scale study involving the audio recording of supervision sessions and the interviewing of students and practice teachers engaged in a 65-day assessed placement. The research reveals a high level of congruence between students and practice teachers in perspectives on the supervisory relationship, confirms the findings of other studies concerning effective supervision and provides some vivid evidence of practice teacher and student activity within supervision perceived to be conducive to student learning. A specific finding was the association between the use of ‘exploring’ by practice teachers and students engaging in practice analysis. It is concluded that the changes affecting social work education over the past 10 years, on the evidence of this small sample, overall have had a positive impact on the supervisory relationship within practice learning. One area suggested for further study is the potential link between ‘expressing opinion’ by practice teachers and students within supervision and the development of evidence-based practice.     

“It’s a whole orchestra”: what are the instrumental elements in quality field education?

ABSTRACT

Field education is widely upheld as an essential component of social work education; however, definitions of ‘quality’ field education are contested. Increasing competition for placements in Aotearoa New Zealand has placed considerable pressure on tertiary providers and organizations to provide placements considered to be ‘of quality’. Current conversations across the social work sector are emphasizing the importance of further examination of placement quality. While the development of national field education guidelines for field educators has assisted in clarifying their particular contribution to successful placements, equivalent guidelines for other stakeholders do not currently exist.

This timely study generated qualitative data through interviews with agency managers, academic staff and students. The findings present their perspectives on elements that contribute to ‘quality’ field education. Overall, the participants agreed ‘quality’ field education is underpinned by a focus on student learning alongside a desire from the organization and the field educator to support a student placement. Student readiness and suitability, a match between the student and the placement, adequate preparation and understanding of the responsibilities of each stakeholder role were noted. The development of national guidelines on the responsibilities, skills and knowledge of students, organizations and academic staff engaged in field education is recommended.     

Supervision and social work students: relationships in a team-based rotation placement model

Social work has historically privileged one-to-one supervision in field education. However, in recent decades, the relentless pressure on organisations to innovate for efficiency gain has created an impetus to explore alternative placement formats. This article reports on how students and supervisors experienced their placement relationships in the context of one such alternative—a team-based rotation placement model where students routinely engaged in group and peer supervision as well as one-to-one supervision with various supervisors. A total of 128 Masters of Social Work students and 92 student supervisors participated in rotation placements across five hospitals over a three-year period; 2011–2013. The study adopted a mixed methods approach using online surveys and post-placement interviews each year. The findings suggest that, although both supervisors and students viewed the one-to-one supervisory relationship as pivotal, they experienced this relationship differently. Supervisors were more likely to highlight the interpersonal connection within the supervisory relationship as the primary vehicle for practice learning. Students were more likely to view their supervisory relationships as the conduit to the practice experiences that aligned with their placement goals. Ultimately, the study highlights the centrality of role and positioning when exploring perceptions and experiences of teaching and learning relationships on placement.     

Community college field placement internships: supervisors’ perspectives and recommendations

ABSTRACT

Community College human services students represent the future social service workforce. The defining feature of their training is 250 h supervised field placement internship. Despite burgeoning research describing best practices for supervision of Bachelors of social work (BSW) and Masters of social work (MSW), there is no research aimed at supervision for community college students, leaving a gap in our understanding of best practices for supporting community college students’ pedagogy and sustaining partnerships with agencies. This exploratory study offers recommendations for best practices supported by our discovery of the benefits, challenges, and strategies involved with offering community college student internships in New York City human services agencies. We analyzed data from semi-structured interviews with 30 field supervisors through qualitative content analysis. Community college students and agencies both benefit substantially from the field placement, however agencies identified significant social and structural challenges specific to working with community college students that require interventions for both field supervisors and students alike. Suggested interventions aimed at improving supervisor training, procedures for focusing goals of supervision sessions, assisting students in meeting their academic and social needs, as well as supporting supervisors’ professional goals to promote best practices are proposed.     

The Integration of Personal and Professional Selves: Developing Students' Critical Awareness in Social Work Practice

How social work students incorporate personal and professional selves in the contexts of field education represents a cornerstone of effective and sustainable practice. This paper presents a qualitative component of a study that tracked 15 third-year bachelor of social work students across their first field placement to document their use of self, critical reflections and experiential learning. The project examined students' assessed ‘use of self’ assignments to understand their capacity for and development of critical awareness across this placement. Students were most articulate in being able to identify stressful situations that arose from placement in terms of what they were thinking (mind) and feeling (emotion) and to a much lesser extent to what they were sensing (body). Over time, students demonstrated a growing critical awareness to better identify and respond to their self-reported tensions. The findings provide developmental insights into how students integrate personal and professional selves and potentially shift from reflective and reflexive practices to incorporating praxis in their work. Through considering the linkages between self and practice, this paper explores student experiences whilst on placement and the associated developmental tasks of critical awareness.     

A National Survey of Australian Social Work Field Education Programs: Innovation with Limited Capacity

Social work field education programs globally are struggling to meet the demands of providing suitable placements for students and need to consider new and innovative placement models to both meet professional accreditation requirements and deliver high quality field education opportunities for social work students. This article reports on the qualitative responses of a national survey of Australian social work field education programs, which explored current challenges, innovative responses, and recommendations for the Australian Social Work Education and Accreditation Standards (ASWEAS) review, as well as hopes for the future of field education, and their capacity to undertake research into this area. Findings suggested that field education programs have been using incremental innovation in field education, including collaboration, partnerships, and new ways of responding to the changing student body. However, it is argued that radical structural change and additional resources will be needed for innovation to be more than merely incremental.

IMPLICATIONS

• Social work field education as a distinct pedagogy needs to be supported through evidence-based research in order to respond to current pressures.

• Collaboration in field education practice and research is valuable, but may be challenged by program competition.

• Structural innovation and accepting diversity in models could offer opportunities for social work education.

     

Framing Service Learning in Social Work: An Interdisciplinary Elective Course Embedded within a University–Community Partnership

While academic service learning has grown in popularity across disciplines and universities, the pedagogical strategies for service learning courses vary greatly, especially for courses focused on development in underserved communities. Ideally, service learning pedagogy should place equal importance on student and community benefits, build reciprocal relationships with community partners, and engage students in deep reflection about social cultural and economic issues. In designing a new service learning elective course to engage students in a rural town revitalization project, we intentionally framed the course to meet the aforementioned goals. We used a three-component service learning pedagogy model that: (1) embedded the course in an existing university–community partnership; (2) mobilized interdisciplinary teams of students for community-identified projects; and (3) promoted reflection on complex economic and social justice issues by integrating students' processing through blog, faculty–student–community discussions, and community feedback. Benefits to students and community based on two qualitative studies are discussed, as are implications for social work education and research.     

From Further Education to Higher Education: Social Work Students' Experiences of Transition to an Ancient,Research‐Led University

In 2004, as part of its initiative to widen access, a Scottish university offered places for the first time to a group of students coming from further education (FE) colleges with Higher National Certificates (HNCs) and Higher National Diplomas (HNDs). A longitudinal study has followed the experiences of transition and subsequent progression of this cohort of students. The study, entitled ‘From FE to HE’ has interviewed and surveyed 45 students at key points since 2004. This paper reports on findings from the study overall, giving particular attention to the views and experiences of the nine Social Work students within the cohort. It will be argued that whilst FE colleges provide considerable support for their students, there is no easy transition to an ancient, research‐led university such as this one. The findings of this study have implications for all those involved in social work education.     

‘Placements Online’: Student Experiences of a Website to Support Learning in Practice Settings

Social work practice and education in many parts of the world are implementing an elearning agenda. This article considers the experiences of students using a website developed to support learning in agency settings to discover if and how it can be used to create a ‘bridge’ between the learning environments of the university and practice. The website contains a range of features, including downloadable practice assessment documents, links to university based teaching units, electronic personal notification of placement allocation, and an asynchronous discussion forum.

The action research project which informs this article employed focus groups of students to ascertain their expectations and experiences of the website, in particular the asynchronous discussion forum facility, prior to and on completion of the 80 day placement, combined with analysis of the actual usage patterns and content.

Three quarters of the cohort participated in the discussion forum and findings suggest that students used and valued the discussion forum for its ability to enable the student to student and tutor to student relationships underpinning collaborative learning to be maintained during the placement, and to enable resource sharing and networking.     

Student isolation: the experience of distance on an international field placement

In an era of global awareness of the impact of social, political and environmental impact, the international field placement has become a feature of many social work programmes throughout Australia. A theoretical framework of international social work principles allows for a guiding platform for teaching and learning; however, the experience of the social work student is often one of cultural isolation and emotional vulnerabilities. Whilst cross-cultural learning is a core practice goal of the placement, the ability to engage with this learning is affected by the impact of distance on the student. In turn, the university responsibility for the student is heightened by the distance involved, creating an increased sense of risk for both the student and the social work educator. This article draws on a mixed-methods study, with data sourced from both questionnaires and in-depth interviews with university field education staff, former social work students, and field educators. Five lenses of distance are explored in the aim of increasing understanding of the student experience: geographical distance, cultural distance, emotional distance, pedagogical distance and technological distance. In doing so, the social work educators’ ability to monitor and support remote students is enhanced, and the capacity for the student to engage in a positive teaching and learning environment is increased.     

Students in Research Placements as Part of Professional Degrees: A Systematic Review

ABSTRACT

The current emphasis of government is on research that shows engagement and impact. At the same time, there is a focus on Work Integrated Learning [WIL] in tertiary education, however, in an increasingly neoliberal climate of resource constraints, it can be difficult to provide sufficient quality placement opportunities. Student research placements are an opportunity to support the engagement and impact agenda and fill the scarcity of placements. In order to explore the viability of, challenges of, and insights about research placements a systematic literature review covering the years 2008–2017 was undertaken. Findings highlight beneficial learning outcomes for students but reporting in the identified studies scarcely considers the outcomes for organisations, supervisors and academics, or the impact of the research. The discussion highlights the need to establish student research placements systematically and to report on the outcomes.

IMPLICATIONS

• Research placements provide beneficial learning opportunities to students.

• Research placements require established relationships and collaboration and need to be organised systematically.

• Very few studies reported on the outcomes of the research and more detailed reporting of the research impact is needed.

     

Index to Volume 34

This article presents evaluation findings on an innovative field placement agency that extends the traditional social work internship by incorporating principles of service learning and civic engagement. Qualitative and quantitative student outcome data are presented on the learning experiences of MSW students placed in traditional agency field placements with those placed in a university developed generalist field placement agency. The implications of the findings for social work field education are discussed.     

Narrative reasoning and coherent alignment in field placement

ABSTRACT

In social work, field placement is considered an essential component to prepare students for professional practice. A significant degree of disjunction between academic and practical learning also is asserted. The present study aims to explore how students develop their professional competence in field placement and relate their learning outcomes across the university setting and the field. Data from students’ learning contracts and placement reports and a focus-group interview are analysed. Concrete practical experiences and the complexity of problems in specific contexts seem to provide inputs on the development of students’ knowledge, skills and personal competence outside the university setting. Although the students were asked to account for these three dimensions separately, the findings demonstrate their ability to connect and integrate them in the narrative reasoning that characterises students’ reflections on their learning from placement. Moreover, our findings show that all three dimensions are developed in both the university setting and in field placement. Preparing students properly for placement training and calling for specific reports on learning outcomes allow access to meaningful connections that are created and developed between the university setting and field placement.     

Part-time Employment and Effects on Australian Social Work Students: A Report on a National Study

Abstract

University students, nationally as well as internationally, engage in employment to supplement income while studying. Social work students are no different in this respect. There have long been questions about whether such part-time work has an adverse impact on student academic performance. This paper explored the experiences of social work students enrolled on-campus across three Australian universities as reported through a survey and focus groups. The research found that social work students did engage in significant amounts of paid employment while studying, that there were both positives and negatives for students depending on the nature of their employment, and that compromises needed to be made in juggling competing responsibilities. Accessing and living on inadequate government benefits imposed particular stressors. The findings have implications for the ways in which social work education is structured, especially in terms of flexibility, and demonstrated that part-time work also offers opportunities for student learning.