Social work field education programs globally are struggling to meet the demands of providing placements and need to consider innovative placement models to meet professional accreditation requirements, and delivering quality field education opportunities for social work students. This paper reports on the qualitative responses of a national survey of Australian social work field education programs, exploring current challenges, innovative responses, recommendations for the Australian Social Work Education and Accreditation Standards [ASWEAS] review, hopes for the future, as well as capacity to undertake research.The findings suggest that field education programs use incremental innovation in field education, including collaboration, partnerships and new ways of responding to the changing student body. It is suggested that structural change and resources are needed for innovation to be more than incremental.
Implication Statement• 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
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