Strengthening Competency in Policy Practice: An Experiential Model for Student Learning

Abstract

Competence in micro and macro practice is required by the Council on Social Work Education because it is essential for skilled practice by helping professionals. Social work educators have historically struggled to identify learning opportunities for students in policy practice that are interesting and help reinforce its relevance to direct helping. It is imperative that new methods of policy engagement be implemented in social work curricula. This article describes an innovative model, based on an experiential statewide collaborative of all undergraduate social work education programs, to develop and assess student competency in policy practice. Evaluation results indicate that students found this model more effective in teaching about the importance of policy practice than traditional policy courses and in conveying the importance of policy to their work in the field.

Responding to COVID-19 in social work field education in Australia, New Zealand and the United States

“…Students often enter social work programmes with the notion of learning how to practise on a micro-level. For example, social work educators in the United States are often met with resistance from students when teaching macro social work ( Apgar and Parada, 2018 ). At CSUMB, for example, the haste in which programmes were designed around virtual learning required the task to shift from a heavily weighted micro focus to a greater focus on integrating macro practice to ensure learning agreements could be fulfilled.…”

“…While universities moved rapidly to online teaching during lockdowns, managing field placements in contexts where services and education were reliant on remote delivery triggered concerns about quality, how students could attain required competencies and prepare for a profession based primarily on in-person interactions and, in some countries, a dominant focus on micro practice ( Apgar and Parada, 2018 ; Knowles, 2007 ). Conversely, students can learn new skills remotely using digital technologies ( Kourgiantakis and Lee, 2020 ; Perron et al, 2010 ; Phillips et al., 2018 ).…”

What happened to field practicum in social work education during COVID‐19? Evidence from Bangladesh

“…Social work educators and practitioners had to struggle but explored new strategies to deal with the crisis (Patel, 2022). For field practicum in social work, the agency is expected to supervise and evaluate day‐to‐day tasks of the intern students assigned by the supervisors (Apgar & Parada, 2018). Davis and Mirick (2021) discovered that during the early period of COVID‐19, field education in social work went through sporadic disruptions like the absence of appropriate placement and lack of supervision and hands‐on practice (Kourgiantakis & Lee, 2020; Mishra et al, 2022; Negi & Azeez, 2022).…”