Abstract
Recent attention to human spirituality, research on congregationally-related practice, and growth in employment within religiously-based organizations energize the creation of educational initiatives to prepare future professionals for competent social work practice within these settings. Internship experiences with congregations and religiously-affiliated organizations (RAOs) play a pivotal role in delivering the competencies required by the social work accreditation body. Conceptual tools are needed for understanding congregationally-related practice, for navigating potential conflict between faith and professional practice, and for delivering effective internship experiences. This article, written from the faculty’s perspective of a Christian, religiously affiliated social work degree program, offers a framework for conceptualizing social work with congregations and RAOs and a beginning discussion for sorting out dilemmas in the integration of faith and practice in these settings. Two models, individual placement and rotational model placement, for congregationally-related internship experiences are presented and evaluated. Recommendations for enriched internship learning and future research are offered.
Highlights
The social work profession and social work education are increasingly recognizing the importance of faith, religion and spirituality in our clients and students
Building on definitions and conceptualization offered by Garland and Yancey [8], we critically examine the possibilities and issues involved in the design and delivery of congregationally-related internships and report findings and implications from an evaluation of a single congregational and a rotational field model of internship placements in congregations and religiously-affiliated organizations (RAOs)
While the Council on SocialWork Education (CSWE), the accrediting body for social work education programs, identified field education as the signature pedagogy for the profession, Holden, Barker, Rosenberg, Kuppen, and Ferrell [9] found little evidence in their meta-analysis that field education is uniformly situated at the core of the curriculum
Summary
The social work profession and social work education are increasingly recognizing the importance of faith, religion and spirituality in our clients and students. The convergence of interest from the profession and from churches/congregations and religiously-affiliated organizations (RAOs) energizes recent attention to the role, impact, and appropriateness of social workers in this area of practice. Northern [7] followed with a study of social workers in congregational contexts, previously referred to as churches Both wrote from a Christian congregation contextual experience. Recognition that social workers are, practicing in these settings focuses attention on how social work education is preparing professionals for congregationally-related practice It is important for social work educators and practitioners to know how social work internship experiences inform preparation for work with congregations and RAOs. Building on definitions and conceptualization offered by Garland and Yancey [8], we critically examine the possibilities and issues involved in the design and delivery of congregationally-related internships and report findings and implications from an evaluation of a single congregational and a rotational field model of internship placements in congregations and RAOs
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