(Re) Capturing the Wisdom of Our Tradition: The Importance of Reynolds and Towle in Contemporary Social Work Education

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

“…As Farber and Reitmeier ( 2019 ) tell us, the complexities of field education require faculty within schools of social work to take charge of the pedagogy in field, and the COVID-19 crisis has highlighted this responsibility. The loss of such an important curriculum area during the initial COVID-19 crisis and in subsequent months reinforced the centrality of the field experience for MSW students.…”

“…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.…”

“…In fact, Gelman and Baum ( 2010 ) found that American students reported significantly higher levels of anxiety in comparison with their Israeli counterparts. The COVID-19 experience and sudden disruption to field education caused an increase in stress during an already significant period of transformational change for students (Farber and Reitmeier 2019 ).…”

Field Education as the Signature Pedagogy of Social Work

“…Earls Larrison and Korr (2013) argued that field education is not signature pedagogy, citing that the practicum is not distinct to social work education and is only part of the fundamental framework for instruction. Others have contended that the fixation on molding social work education to fit a predetermined definition of professionalism endangers the fundamental role that the field education experience has in adequately preparing students for professional practice (Bruno, 1944;Farber & Reitmeier, 2018).…”

“…The debate on the status of social work compared to other practice-based professions has endured since the first social work training schools emerged in the early 1900's (Bruno, 1944;Flexner, 2001;Gitterman, 2014;Reisch, 2019;Wayne et al, 2010). Similarly deliberated is the primacy of field education in comparison to classroom instruction in preparing a student for professional social work practice (Bruno, 1944;Farber & Reitmeier, 2018;Garthwait, 2017;Gordon, 1962;Holden et al, 2010). The purpose of social work education extends beyond solely delivering education to students.…”