Feeling Lucky: The Serendipitous Nature of Field Education

Abstract

Field education and the supervision that occurs during this process cements learning and enhances preparedness for a career in social work. Graduate readiness for social work practice is however a contested subject in New Zealand with recent criticism focusing on the adequacy of social work education. This paper reports on findings from focus groups with twenty-seven faculty members and thirty-five students from 8 Schools of Social Work in New Zealand which explored aspects of the taught and learned curriculum. Overall, students and faculty revealed some dissatisfaction with the taught curriculum on supervision that occurs on campus prior to the placement experience. Many students reported irregularity of placement supervision and associated quality supervision with being lucky. We propose a series of recommendations to address these concerns, emphasizing that students should be able to consistently access effective placement supervision rather than consider this a matter of luck.

Faculty Respond to COVID-19: Reflections-on-Action in Field Education

“…A strong field education program is essential to attracting social work students and demonstrative of our educational commitment to develop students’ skills and reflective capacities for advanced practice in clinical social work. Barriers to creating and maintaining a robust field education program are well-known to field faculty; they include placement shortages and saturation, recruitment and training challenges for field instructors to keep them apprised of curriculum changes and new academic content, the impact of chance on the quality of a student’s learning experience, and the student as consumer rather than learner, with limited readiness for entry into field education (Ayala et al 2018 ; Farber and Reitmeier 2019 ; Gushwa and Harriman 2019 ; Hay et al 2019 ). As a result of COVID-19, these challenges are now better understood by the leadership of the school, as exemplified by their support of the contingency plan described above.…”

Overseas social work placements: Can a well-designed workflow contribute to the success of an overseas placement?

“…Of significance is recent research, based on social work student satisfaction of experiences on placements in New Zealand. In this research, Hay, Maidment, et al (2018) explain that little is known regarding this subject. What is clear is that many social work students experience a range of traumatic events while on placement (Collins, Coffey, & Morris, 2010).…”

“…The student displayed good awareness of the need to practise in an appropriate manner with respect to culture, while forming quick relationships with staff and responding well to advice and supervision discussion (Ranz & Langer, 2018). Hay, Maidment et al (2018) discuss how students often feel luck plays a huge part in their placement. This placement was deliberately planned in advance to positively enhance the student's experience, increase their skills by employing a knowledge development and flow approach, and to amplify potential benefit to the placement provider.…”

Supporting Clinical Development Through Integrative Continuing Education for Field Instructors

“…In this model, MSW students apply what they learn in the classroom to “real world” settings in the field under the close supervision of FIs (Ketner et al, 2017 ; Wayne et al, 2010 ) with opportunities to process the experience both in the classroom and with field personnel (Olson-Morrison et al, 2019 ). As students encounter new opportunities in agency settings to apply curricular content, they rely on guidance from FIs during regular supervision to support meaning-making and the development of professional competencies (Hay et al, 2019 ).…”