Abstract
As social work’s signature pedagogy, field education socializes students into their professional roles as practitioners. However, for students and field instructors of color, racial microaggressions add another dimension to the practice experience. Utilizing findings from a qualitative study exploring the experiences of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) social work students and agency-based field instructors, this paper highlights experiences of microaggressions in field placement settings. Specifically, BIPOC students and field instructors described being tokenized in agencies, feeling invisible in placement settings, experiencing microaggressions from service users or students, and witnessing microaggressions. Experiences of microaggressions had emotional impacts, and affected participants’ sense of professional identity and confidence. Based on findings, we share recommendations for addressing racial microaggressions within social work field education in order to promote racial equity, including: grounding microaggressions in an ecological approach, unpacking the concept of professionalism, and building capacity of field instructors and agencies to respond to racism and microaggressions. Addressing microaggressions in field education is necessary to support BIPOC students in field placements, honor the work and well-being of racialized social workers who serve as field instructors, disrupt white supremacy, and move the social work field forward in regard to anti-racist practice.
Highlights
Race and Field EducationWhile there is a paucity of literature on race and field education generally, we do know that BIPOC students often encounter race-related barriers in field placement interviews, during supervision, and while building relationships with agency staff (Razack, 2001)
As social work’s signature pedagogy, field education socializes students into their professional roles as practitioners
Taking the position that whiteness, white supremacy, and racism must be made visible and disrupted within social work education, in the discussion that follows, we explore experiences of racial microaggressions in field education
Summary
While there is a paucity of literature on race and field education generally, we do know that BIPOC students often encounter race-related barriers in field placement interviews, during supervision, and while building relationships with agency staff (Razack, 2001). BIPOC social work students have shared that they struggle to have cross-cultural conversations with their field instructors around race-related issues, and experience racial tensions at their placements (Daniel, 2007). In a recent qualitative study, Weng and Gray (2020) interviewed 30 practicing service providers regarding their perceptions of microaggressions in social service settings. Participants shared that racial microaggressions were pervasive in practice and evident in the ways BIPOC clients were treated, especially when their cultural preferences and knowledges were disregarded. Additional microaggressions reported by service providers included ways service users were stereotyped and blamed for their circumstances. It is clear that race-related issues and microaggressions exist in practice contexts, and have an impact on the experiences of both students and field instructors
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