Are you ready? Qualifying social work students’ perception of their preparedness to work competently with service users from sexual and gender minority communities

Abstract

Social workers come into contact with lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) and trans people in all areas of their practice and across all service user groups. In line with professional requirements, social work educators must ensure that students who complete qualifying programmes successfully meet the standards expected of them as registered social workers, including those around diversity.This study aims to explore the extent to which qualifying social work students feel prepared to practise competently with people from sexual and gender minority communities. Semistructured interviews were conducted with final year social work students at one university in southern England and the results were analysed using thematic analysis.Whilst these students report feeling generally prepared to practise with sexual minority communities, they report feeling unprepared to practise competently with gender minority communities. Themes that emerged in relation to students' perceived lack of preparedness included unfamiliarity, limited knowledge, fear, and an absence of opportunities to consider relevant issues during their social work training.Whilst this research relates to a small-scale study at one university, these findings may have broader implications for social work educators in terms of course planning and delivery, particularly around ensuring that students feel ready for practice with all service users.

What makes a good placement? Findings of a social work student-to-student research study

“…Positive experiences and student satisfaction on placement tend to be associated with getting regular feedback on performance, feeling empowered as a learner with some autonomy, and being able to observe constructive role models (Bogo et al, 2004). Placement research does however highlight the multi-faceted nature of preparedness, encompassing confidence in some aspects of practice and less in others (Kamali et al, 2017), the value of curriculum training (Moylan & Wood, 2017) and role of life experiences beyond the university curriculum in contributing to preparedness for social work placement (Inch, 2017). Oliver et al (2017) foregrounds the issue of social work students' confidence to speak up and engage in difficult conversations about placements.…”

Vietnamese social work practitioners’ preparedness to practise with sexual minorities: Training and self-reported confidence

“…While confident in their abilities on the whole, the majority of school health practitioners, including social workers, reported limited or no experience in discussing behavioural health concerns or addressing harassment faced by LGBTQ students (Mahdi et al, 2014). In a small-scale qualitative study with 10 social work students in Southern England, participants reported feeling generally prepared to work with sexual minority clients (Inch, 2017). However, they did not attribute this feeling of preparedness to classroom teaching but to experience in working with sexual minority clients on placement (Inch, 2017).…”

“…In a small-scale qualitative study with 10 social work students in Southern England, participants reported feeling generally prepared to work with sexual minority clients (Inch, 2017). However, they did not attribute this feeling of preparedness to classroom teaching but to experience in working with sexual minority clients on placement (Inch, 2017). In fact, the students in this study recalled very little classroom teaching on LGBT issues (Inch, 2017).…”

“…However, they did not attribute this feeling of preparedness to classroom teaching but to experience in working with sexual minority clients on placement (Inch, 2017). In fact, the students in this study recalled very little classroom teaching on LGBT issues (Inch, 2017). While there appear to be similarities across the globe in terms of social workers’ general lack of preparedness for work in this area, a key difference between Western countries and a country like Vietnam is that the latter provides a less hospitable environment for sexual minorities and therefore makes such preparation a higher imperative.…”

Research on the Dilemma and Countermeasures of the National Social Work Education in Chinese Colleges and Universities

“…The nation composition of samples We investigated 165 effective samples, in which the ethnic composition included 8 ethnic groups of Zhuang, Han, Yao, Hui, Tibetan, Yankee family, Dong, and Miao, and its basic structure was shown in the following table [4]. In the 166 valid samples, the Han occupied the majority, accounting for 66.1%; Zhuang was the second, accounting for 23.6%; and Yao ranked the third, accounting for 5.5% [5].…”