Field Education Research Articles

Social Interaction for Empowering and Encouraging Farmer Productivity in Kecamatan Rubaru, Sumenep

This research focuses on social interaction and farmer empowerment in Rubaru District, Sumenep, and its impact on agricultural productivity. Social interaction between farmers plays a crucial role in increasing agricultural productivity, while farmer empowerment is an important factor in increasing welfare. This study adopts the framework of symbolic interaction theory to understand the role of communication and interaction in agricultural development. Miles and Huberman’s research method was used, involving in-depth interviews, participant observation, and document content analysis with five informants. The research results show that positive social interactions between farmers contribute to increasing agricultural knowledge, skills, and innovation. Farmer empowerment involves providing knowledge, skills, and access to resources and supporting better decision-making in agriculture. The role of farmer groups and cooperatives in facilitating social interaction and empowering farmers is very important. Madurese people’s myths and cultural beliefs influence farmers’ understanding of agricultural practices. Field instructors need to have cultural sensitivity and effective communication. In conclusion, social interaction and farmer empowerment positively increase agricultural productivity in Rubaru District, Sumenep. Peer-to-peer education and strong relationships between field extension workers and farmers play an important role in knowledge transfer and behavior change, providing valuable insights for the development of farmer empowerment programs and sustainable agricultural development. Keywords: social interaction, empowerment, farmer groups, productivity

Learning and leading through COVID-19: Surprising findings from a year of disrupted field experience

When the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated the closure of Kindergarten-Grade 12 schools in Alberta, the authors, who are the Directors of Field Experience, at this local university saw this disruption as both a challenge and an opportunity (Danyluk, 2022). Over 400 preservice teachers were scheduled to begin their in-school practicum two days after the announcement of school closures. While most Bachelor of Education programs in Canada halted or postponed their field experience programs, the authors decided to move forward with an online practicum course. This chapter describes how we used collaborative professionalism (Hargreaves & O’Connor, 2018) to restructure field experience in response to the pandemic and the impact it had on student and field instructor learning. A community of practice was initiated by the Directors of Field Experience to support the instructors in the implementation of the online course and to come together as a community of learners in support of one another during this complex time. Survey and anecdotal data will be shared to illuminate the positive influence the pivot to the online field course had on students and instructors as well as the challenges we encountered as we navigated these uncharted waters as educational leaders.

Mental Health Disclosure in Social Work Education: Opportunities and Discrimination

ABSTRACT Disclosures of lived experience with mental health conditions by faculty and students in social work education programs have the potential to increase knowledge about mental health conditions, dispel myths, and possibly improve future practice with individuals living with these conditions. There is minimal research about programs’ practices regarding student disclosure or about faculty disclosure decisions. Informed by an antioppression framework, this exploratory study used an online survey of deans and directors, Bachelor of Social Work and Master of Social Work coordinators, and field education coordinators of Counsel on Social Work Education–accredited programs (N = 320). We asked: (a) under what circumstances respondents recommend to students that they disclose and not disclose their conditions to class or field instructors, and (b) for those with mental health conditions, what factors influence their workplace disclosure decisions. Findings include that some respondents prioritize student preferences and recognize multiple benefits of disclosure, but many place constraints on student disclosure, consider disclosure unprofessional, or accept myths about people with mental health conditions. Faculty make personal workplace disclosure decisions based on trust and relevance. Implications for welcoming students and faculty with mental health conditions include recognizing potential benefits of disclosure and addressing mental illness discrimination in academia and field.

What motivates social workers to become field instructors: Perspectives from Canada

The field education component of social work education is critical to the overall development of social work students’ readiness for practice. Field instructors assume great responsibility for the emotional, theoretical, administrative, and clinical development of students who enter field education at either the undergraduate or graduate levels of their social work education. This role is generally subsumed on a voluntary basis concurrent with their occupational responsibilities. The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that motivate social workers to take on the field instructor role. Canadian Field Instructors completed an online survey which included a qualitative question to elicit their perspectives on their motivation for becoming a field instructor. Responses (N=58) were grouped into four themes: mentor social work students, give back to the profession, memories of field instruction, and personal and organizational accountability. Implications for field education and social work education are offered.

Bridging the divide: Exploring the disconnect between micro and macro practice and implications for BSW field education

The social work profession addresses wellbeing at individual levels, or the micro, as well as structural and systemic levels, the macro. By addressing the micro and macro, social workers work towards social justice for individuals and communities to create structural systemic change. Yet, there is an increasing focus on micro and clinical-focused content in social work education. This focus creates various challenges when social work students are placed in macro-focused field education placements. A study into the experiences of Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) students, field instructors, and faculty liaisons considered the experiences of participants in their involvement of macro-level field education. The study found two emerging themes: macro-level practice is undervalued and underrepresented in the BSW curriculum, and yet at the same time there exists a deep desire for more understanding and integration of macro social work in social work education and field education. Implications for social work education, regulation, and the profession are also considered.

Social work practicum students experiences, challenges, and aspirations during the COVID-19 pandemic

Field education is considered the signature pedagogy of social work education, yet there are numerous challenges including a shortage of field instructors and available placements and barriers to advancing equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), which were heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic. This articles shares the results of research designed to investigate practicum students’ experiences, challenges, and aspirations during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to answer the question: how did students’ experiences, challenges, needs, and aspirations vary due to their identity factors (e.g., gender and ethnicity), post-secondary institution (e.g., universities), and placement types (e.g., clinical/research)? To this end, a cross-sectional web-based survey was conducted to document the perspectives of BSW/MSW practicum students in Canada, with both open and close-ended questions. This article presents the survey results to two open-ended questions in three broad themes, namely mental health and wellness, students’ perception on field learning, and professional readiness. Female students across different ethnic groups reported challenges in balancing their gendered roles and responsibilities in caregiving and as a practicum student, which consequently impacted their mental health and wellness. Two major factors shaped practicum student learning, such as post-secondary institution (e.g., universities) and types of placements. Due to the pandemic, practicum students were unable to gain direct practice experience in person in their placement, which affected their perception of professional readiness. This article concludes that through an evidence-informed institutional and programmatic response and support, diverse challenges, needs, and aspirations of practicum students could be addressed to promote EDI in field education in the context of pandemics, emergencies, and disasters.

Transforming field education in social work: A special issue on field education

Welcome to this special issue of Transformative Social Work, dedicated to social work field education. As we navigate a rapidly changing world, the need for dynamic and impactful field education has never been more crucial. This special issue brings together a diverse range of perspectives and innovative approaches, highlighting how field education can be transformative in both practice and theory. In this collection of thought-provoking articles, we explore the latest research and new practices that are reshaping the way social work students, field educators, and practitioners engage with the field. Articles include discussions on Indigenous field education, developmental and green social work approaches, and field models such as macro placements, self-directed placements, and rotational hospital placements. We also feature the experiences of practicum students during the COVID-19 pandemic and examine what motivates field instructors to engage in field education. As we look to the future, the aspirations and commitments articulated by our contributors in this special issue offer a hopeful vision. The articles in this issue illuminate the adaptability of social work students, field educators, researchers, and practitioners, particularly in the face of unprecedented global disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The innovations not only address current challenges but also lay the groundwork for more dynamic and responsive field education programs. There is a collective resolve to integrate lessons learned, foster interdisciplinary collaboration, and uphold the principles of social justice that underpin our profession. By doing so, we can ensure that social work field education continues to evolve in ways that are inclusive, effective, and aligned with the needs of our diverse communities. We invite you to explore these contributions, reflect on their insights, and consider how they might inspire and inform your own practice in field education.

Teaching Note—The Dynamic Duo: Use of Standardized Clients Across the Social Work Practice and Field Curricula

ABSTRACT This reflection from one department of social work showcases the use of simulation as an integrated tool of practice-based education and assessment for social work education within generalist and specialized practice classes. We show several ways we are using simulation as both a learning and assessment tool for social work practice skills. This includes in-class simulations using paid standardized patient as clients, the use of objective standard clinical examination as an assessment tool in the standardized patient suite within the university, the use of field instructors as feedback mechanisms for standardized patient experiences, and translating and linking student skills in the classroom to real-world field experiences. Challenges, lessons learned, and opportunities for future exploration are discussed.

NIE 지도사의 신문활용교육 지도 경험에 대한 현상학적 연구

The purpose of this study was to comprehend the significance of newspaper utilization in education, as experienced by NIE instructors. To achieve this goal, the purpose of this study was to understand the meaning of the NIE instructors’ experience in teaching “Newspaper In Education”. To achieve this goal, the meaning of experience was derived using Colaizzi's analysis method among the phenomenological research methods for four NIE instructors who founded the Jeju NIE Society, a social education organization. As a result, it was classified into three categories, eight major topics, and 24 sub-topics, and the three categories were 'Meet NIE', 'In Conflict and Confusion', and 'Growing with NIE', respectively. The main conclusions based on these results are as follows. First, NIE helps form a life attitude to contribute to society by leading to more important recognition of community values. Second, if an NIE course is prepared for public education and applied to students, it will not only help develop core competencies in the 2022 revised curriculum, but also play a good role in solving video-oriented problems. Third, if you want to get out of the NIE recession, the first priority should be to develop the capabilities of instructors. This study is meaningful in that it grasped the nature and meaning of the NIE instructors experience based on the vivid experiences of field instructors.

Strategi Pengembangan Teknologi Pertanian Padi Sawah di Langkat Sumatera Utara

Langkat Regency is one of the five largest rice fields in North Sumatra. This is an excellent opportunity to become a rice barn in North Sumatra. So, agricultural technology is needed to support increasing rice productivity. The research aims to form a strategy for developing agricultural technology in Langkat. The development strategy produces SO (strengths-opportunities) strategies, WO (weaknesses-opportunities) strategies, ST (strengths-challenges) strategies, and WT (weaknesses-threats) strategies (North Sumatra. This research was conducted in 2023 with one respondent as a Langkat Regency Agriculture Service field instructor. This resource person was chosen because he was considered capable of describing internal and external problems in lowland rice farming in Langkat. This research used the SWOT tool to identify the IFAS and EFAS factors of lowland rice farming. The study results are accelerating agricultural technology to increase productivity, monitoring the performance of extension workers in reducing pest attacks, and increasing productivity, training, and providing insurance for farmers. The agricultural service collaborates with BMKG for information on extreme weather.

Bearing Witness: The Impact of Lived Experience Educators Participating in Social Work Student Supervision during Placement

Abstract Social work student supervision during field education is a mandated requirement where students review their activities and learning in the workplace with field educators (FEs). Inevitably service users will be discussed in supervision but will have little or no opportunity to represent their perspectives during sessions. In order to explore how service user perspectives might be integrated into supervision, this qualitative study examined the participation of two Lived Experience Educators in supervision sessions between six social work students and their FEs during final placement. Despite some initial trepidation, participants reported a significant and overwhelmingly positive impact based on more equalised power differentials, greater depth of reflection and the emergence of new ideas on increasing accountability to service users. These results have implications for the practice of supervision, with both students and staff, and for how people with lived experience expertise may contribute to improving service culture for the intended beneficiaries of social work services.

Using the concept of epistemic injustice and cultural humility for understanding why and how social work curricular might be decolonized

ABSTRACT The notion of decolonizing the curriculum is currently gaining momentum in Higher Education Institutions (HEI) across the world and in the United Kingdom (UK). Fuelled by the movements #RhodesMustFall, ‘Why is my curriculum White?’, and critical incidents such as the killing of George Floyd and the #BlackLivesMatter protests, campaigners for decolonizing the curriculum have all questioned the omission of other perspectives from dominant Eurocentric White curricula at universities around the world, including social work education. This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study that involved 20 in-depth interviews with social work academics, social work students and practice educators (field instructors) in an English HEI social work department about their perspective on decolonizing the curriculum in social work education. The concepts of epistemic injustice and cultural humility were used to examine the data. Findings suggest that social work education is not immune to the centering of a Eurocentric curriculum and White middle-class values and needs to change to embrace other epistemology. The paper concludes by arguing that the concepts of epistemic injustices and cultural humility are especially relevant for understanding why and how social work curricula might be decolonized.

When a client dies: preparing social work students for mortality-related challenges in field practicum

Social work students frequently encounter issues of death, dying, grief and loss during field practicum placements, yet often feel unprepared to cope with the emotional challenges and provide effective care. A review of current literature reveals the significant impact of client death on social work students across diverse practicum settings, as well as substantial gaps in grief and loss education within social work curricula that leave students feeling ill-equipped to handle these experiences. This article argues that there is an ethical imperative to better support students facing mortality and loss in practicum by implementing trauma-informed, multi-level interventions. Key recommendations include: normalizing conversations about death, providing regular debriefing opportunities, helping students develop self-awareness and self-care plans, infusing grief and loss content into the curriculum, and facilitating meaning-making and resilience. Recommendations are offered for field instructors, faculty liaisons, placement agencies, universities, and students’ support systems to transform distressing encounters with client death into profound opportunities for personal growth, professional development, and building the capacity to provide compassionate end-of-life care. Ultimately, this article calls for a paradigm shift within social work education and society at large toward more a more grief-literate, death-positive culture that uplifts and humanizes the experiences of dying and bereaved individuals.

From 0 to 1: Taking the First Step in English-Medium Instruction

Teaching in English (aka English as a medium of instruction [EMI]) presents a significant challenge for many university instructors. This is particularly true for those who have never taught an EMI course before, as they may feel confused, anxious, and unsure how to start. Beyond the challenge of the language itself, the pressure of conveying specialized knowledge in a non-native language and ensuring student comprehension are major sources of stress. This article was developed to share and explore the approach and experience of a field instructor teaching his first EMI course in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). In the article, the anxieties and worries that may arise prior to starting the course and strategies that may be used to overcome these are discussed. In addition, measures that teachers may use to effectively manage classes and ensure student understanding during the course and to continually enhance teaching quality are addressed. We hope this article can help those interested in or required to teach EMI courses successfully take the first step and continue to improve with confidence, enhancing their teaching abilities.

Social Work Student Experiences of Completing Internships in Canada During COVID-19: Application of a Remote Learning Plan

ABSTRACT On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic as a result of the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, a severe acute respiratory syndrome. Public health authorities throughout Canada were emphasizing early detection, physical distancing, hand washing, sheltering in place through household and self-isolation, and the closing of schools and businesses. For universities it meant the cancelation of classes and an immediate move to virtual or online learning to finish semesters, some of which were within weeks of completion, others that were just beginning. For the School of Social Work at King’s University College, London, Ontario, Canada, the restrictions and limitations imposed by the pandemic had far reaching implications that went beyond a disruption in classroom instruction and also meant terminating or suspending field practicums. Rather than having student learning succumb to the virus, the School of Social Work instituted a creative solution that involved the students developing Remote Learning Plans with the support of their Field Instructors and Faculty Consultants who would serve to minimize the disruption to the students’ learning. This study explores the student experience in moving to remote learning plans – specifically what challenges, changes, and opportunities for growth it provided.

Field instructors and professional identity: factors predicting job satisfaction

ABSTRACT This cross-sectional study tested a model in which professional identity explains the factors affecting social work field instructors’ job satisfaction. The sample included 405 Israeli instructors with a wide range of professional and organizational backgrounds. Data were gathered using an online questionnaire and were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results demonstrated the direct effects of organizational and academic support on instructors’ job satisfaction. At the same time, their professional identity acted as a mediator in the association between motivation, work importance, and their satisfaction with student’s quality in practice and field training, and their job satisfaction. These findings reassert and broaden understandings regarding the crucial role of institutional and structural factors, including organizational and academic support, in directly affecting job satisfaction among social work field instructors. Moreover, the findings support the idea that instructors’ professional identity contributes to their job satisfaction and specifically, help explain how motivation, work importance and student’s professional quality affect this relationship.

The integration of service user perspectives in social work student supervision

ABSTRACT Social work students’ experience of supervision during practice learning or field education has a significant influence on their development. The value of service user participation in social work education, practice and research is increasingly acknowledged, however there is little consideration of its role in the supervision of students. Similarly, while service users are obvious stakeholders in practice education, this is seldom recognized. This Australian qualitative study examined if service user perspectives are integrated in social work student supervision. Field educators (FEs) and students were asked about the contribution of service user perspectives within supervision, how such perspectives might be integrated and the factors that inhibit or enhance their occurrence. Four main influences were identified: the purpose of supervision; the strategies used to integrate service user perspectives; the organizational context; and barriers and enhancers to integrating service user perspectives in supervision. The study concluded that the position of social work in relation to meaningful service user participation needs attention and that there is a gap between social work education and practice.

Field Education in the Shadow of COVID-19: A Scoping Review in Memory of Marion Bogo

ABSTRACT Professor Marion Bogo contributed substantial work in theorizing and conducting research to strengthen the landscape of social work field education. As a tribute, this article updates her 2022 scoping review synthesizing the literature on social work field instruction (i.e., published between 2017 and 2019). We synthesized the current empirical literature as it relates to COVID-19 and field education adjustments and innovations. Using Arksey and O’Malley’s scoping review framework, we mapped 14 articles published during the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., published between 2020 and 2021). The state and nature of the empirical literature are outlined, and promising adjustments, adaptations, and innovations for social work field instruction during and postpandemic are discussed.

New Directions in Social Work Field Education in Canada: Promising, Wise, and Innovative Practices

ABSTRACT Field education provides students with the opportunity to supplement classroom learning with the hands-on practice needed to be successful after graduation. However, in recent years, field education has encountered several challenges including a changing societal environment, placement scarcity in the face of increased enrollment, and strict guidelines for the provision of adequate supervision. In response to these challenges, semi-structured qualitative interviews with 35 social work field education coordinators, directors, faculty liaisons, field instructors and field supervisors were conducted throughout the prairie region of Canada between July and December of 2020. These interviews were aimed at determining innovative, promising, and wise practices that would address the various challenges in the provision of field education while also providing a pathway forward to the transformation of more sustainable social work field education practices. Findings indicate that there is a need for additional supervision strategies and increased flexibility within field placements, as well as a greater focus on the need for decolonization within the social work field education sphere. The emergence of COVID-19 was also discussed as both an exasperating factor within the current field education system while simultaneously creating an opportunity to reevaluate and restructure current field education practices.

A thematic analysis of social workers’ practices with sexual and gender minority clients

Introduction Sexual and gender minority (SGM) people use therapists at high rates, emphasizing the importance of understanding of clinical practice behaviors and drivers of practice behaviors with these clients. Method Data were collected from social workers approved as Field Instructors at a Mid-Atlantic university (N = 198) via web-based surveys. Result Data themes are Beliefs About Practice with SGM Clients; Beliefs About SGM Clients’ Stressors, Shame, and Safety; Reported External Barriers to Practice with SGM Clients; and Reported Personal Barriers to Practice with SGM Clients. Conclusion Themes highlight the importance of personal beliefs and provide details on barriers to effective practices.