MSW Field Research Articles

Information Technology and Social Work—The Dark Side or Light Side?

The transition from industrial society to information society has had a significant impact upon social work. Benefits emerging have included simplified recording and assessment, electronic advocacy, interactive distance education opportunities and online group work and supervision. However, information technology can also be socially isolating and has led to new social issues including the creation of a false sense of safety, particularly among children and adolescents. Other concerns include the increased pace of work, the role of e-counselling and the emergence of a technologically inspired generation gap between new and established workers. Three focus groups, comprised of new BSW candidates, experienced part-time MSW candidates and field practice educators, were held to explore these issues. Themes generated included concerns regarding confidentiality, workload, and the compromising of basic social work practice and the therapeutic relationship. However, technology was also seen as having the potential to support geographically isolated clients and those with disabilities as well as providing another mechanism to connect with adolescents. Technology is ideology and while its advance is inevitable, social workers need to maintain a healthy scepticism while avoiding both unhealthy enthusiasm and unnecessary resistance, as technology will continue to create both challenges and opportunities for the profession.

Identifying, Assessing, and Enhancing Field Instructor Competencies

Social work education currently prepares the beginning practitioner, but it does not offer preparation for becoming a teacher of social work as a field instructor. This study sought to explore BSW and MSW field instructor competency through the views of field directors/coordinators of CSWE-accredited programs who recruit, train, and work with agency-based social work field instructors. Field directors/coordinators (N= 180) rated the integration of classroom and field learning highest as a training issue for their field instructors, and they ranked their instructors weakest in their ability to integrate classroom and field. No statistically significant differences were reported between BSW and MSW field instructors in strengths, concerns, or training issues. The exploratory survey instrument and a self-assessment variation are appended as possible assessment and measurement tools for field instructors, directors, and liaisons to improve standards and enhance outcome measures for quality improvement and accreditation purposes.

An Alternative Model of Field Instruction for BSW Students

A modification of the triad model which includes the student, a non-MSW field instructor, and an MSW field instructor, is described. This model uses both group and individual field instruction. The authors describe the functions of field instruction, the use of individual and group field instruction, and current problems in providing MSW field instruction in rural baccalaureate programs. This model combines a social work program faculty member who provided MSW off-site field instruction and a task supervisor within the field placement. The students were positive about the experience of having group as well as individual field instruction in addition to the required senior seminar.

Political Activism of Social Work Educators

ABSTRACT This paper reports on a survey of MSW classroom and field educators regarding their level of political involvement, perceived value conflicts regarding social work and politics, and opinions of future political opportunities for social workers. Data indicate employees of public organizations have a higher level of involvement than employees of non-profit organizations. Follow-up interviews explore this finding. There was evidence of continued ambivalence to the concept of partisanship. Implications for research and education are shared, including the need to teach ethics and compromise in political arenas, and the development of field practica in electoral politics, policy advocacy and government relations.

Advanced Generalist Practice

An enormous challenge faces social work educators as we prepare for the twenty-first century. Most significant is the scramble to understand and respond to contemporary challenges, notably managed health care and welfare reform. The authors present the conceptualization and implementation of an advanced generalist concentration curriculum. Teaching strategies and assignments in a MSW academic and field curriculum are used to illustrate the integration of knowledge necessary to a three-tiered model of practice at the micro, mezzo and macro levels. Finally, results of an alumni survey are presented that lend credence to our contention that graduates are well-prepared to function effectively in today's practice environment.

The Measure of Things

While you and i have lips and voices which are for kissing and to sing with who cares if some oneyed son for a bitch invents an instrument to measure Spring with? --e. e. Cummings Measurement is everywhere. Its myriad applications are encountered every day. Think about this morning. Did you awaken to a sound triggered by your time measuring device? Did you step on a weight-measuring device when you stumbled into the bathroom? Did you fill your car with a particular amount of fuel as measured by a fuel-dispensing machine? Social work too is replete with measurement. Measurement instruments inform us about a wide range of things--from a person's psychological state to her or his aptitude for a particular occupation. In fact, the pathway to clienthood almost always includes measurement-based information. Often, this information is expressed as numbers, giving it an air of objectivity and trustworthiness. Converting concepts to numbers also generates a need for expert interpretation giving test information a certain authority. These qualities have led social workers to rely on measurement instruments for credible and useful information. Yet, despite this reliance, an aura of mystery surrounds measurement that keeps social workers uncharacteristically silent about this influential source of information. My own social work education taught me about the mystery and power of measurement. My first-year MSW field placement was at a family services agency. The director, who called herself a psychiatric social worker, believed that psychological tests could be an important addition to our social work practice. She hired a psychologist, someone named Dr. Gibeau, to teach us how to administer and interpret some psychological tests, most notably the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). Developed around 1940 to measure psychopathology, the MMPI (at the time I was learning about it) consisted of about 540 true-false questions on a range of topics. Scores on the MMPI were graphed across its 10 clinical subscales and three scales. To a neophyte social worker, this scientific-looking display was impressive, but not very informative. For Dr. Gibeau, however, interpreting an MMPI profile was like reading a book. I remember watching in awe as he effortlessly spun a narrative from the squiggly line t hat stretched across the scales. He would say something like, This 19-year--old female has periodic suicidal ideation--probably a long-term problem precipitated by being on her own. She has a tendency to run away from problems or retreat into fantasy. The therapeutic task is to get her to interpret reality more accurately. While telling this story, Dr. Gibeau would point out the various scales and combinations of scales that supported his interpretation. We were believers. Using this instrument of psychological science, we could gain access to the inner recesses of our clients' psyches, revealing their fears and pathologies, even those of which they themselves were unaware. There was no fooling the test. Attempts to fake good would be detected by the validity scales, which were designed for this purpose. Yes, this powerful tool would reveal a truth of which we were previously unaware. We could not wait to begin using it. Administering the MMPI felt great. No longer was I merely one more insecure social work student anxiously trying to deal with the range of issues clients presented to me. I was an applied scientist, trained to use a sensitive psychological probe. Reflective listening and empathy were fine, but this went directly to the source. Others in the agency felt similarly and soon MMPIs were being administered regularly to clients. In fact, we hardly talked to people anymore until after they took the test. Once that was done, and we knew the real issues they were struggling with, we could begin meaningful therapeutic work. We also learned, to our surprise, that more of our clients had serious psychological problems than we previously believed. …

The NonMSW Task Supervisor, MSW Field Instructor, and the Practicum Student

This paper adds to the literature on field instruction and supervision of social work practicum students by nonMSW professionals. It shares insights gained from a focus group discussion of professionals' experiences with practica when there was no MSW on site. Reported findings indicate student, agency, and relational characteristics contribute to the success of these placements. The focus group and the authors conclude that active involvement of all three parties -the on-site nonMSW supervisor, the off-site MSW field instructor, and the practicum student -in a triad model of field education increases the likelihood that these practica provide students with field learning experiences that are among the very best.

Quality and Comparability in Distance Field Education

This article compares MSW field instruction at one local and two distance campus locations. The authors describe four “Action Steps” to design, implement, and evaluate the program with a focus on quality and comparability across sites. Data from students following their first-year field placement in 1995-96 are presented, including their perceptions of local and home-campus program resources, program responsiveness to local agency structures and culture, and program responses to confidentiality issues, a key issue in the comparatively smaller distance sites. The article concludes with suggestions for future development of field instruction in distance education programs.

Becoming a Field Instructor

This paper, based on a qualitative study of 19 MSW field instructors immediately following their first year supervising graduate social work students, investigates their supervisory experiences and developmental processes through their own perspectives. This experience presented field instructors with unique challenges and opportunities to grow through analysis and reflection on their own practice, deeper self-awareness, working through and integrating their own student experiences, and appreciating their own competence and value. A supervision and parenting analogy and the theme of the student as selfobject, which emerged from the interviews, are described. Supervision of interns, a key experience which may deepen the development of the professional self of clinicians, should be encouraged and supported.

Field Can Be Hazardous to Your Well-being: Fact or Fiction?

Practitioners know, frequently from first hand experience, that social work can be a dangerous profession. They know that clients or their families can be hostile and violent and that frequently this hostility is directed towards the social worker. One might wonder if social work students understand this facet of the profession. Social work students have a lot of concerns upon entering field. They are anxious about their abilities and roles. Does their anxiety extend to issues of safety, and should it? This is a good question and one that students may not have thought much about. This study will report the findings of a national study of BSW and MSW field programs to determine the extent and nature of violence field students experience in placement and how programs prepare students for the risks of field practice.

What Do Field Seminars Accomplish?

This paper describes the evaluatin of a weekly school-based MSW field seminar with multiple purposes, among which was the integration of classroom and field learning. Both students and seminar instructors found the primary purpose of the seminar to be one of professional support. Knowledge integration was reported by participants to have taken place more often in structured vs. unstructured group sessions. Student suggestions have implications for such a seminar as a learning lab as well as a forum for professional growth and self-awareness.

Evaluating the Oral Examination in Virginia's Licensing of Clinical Social Workers

An oral examination has been used in Virginia's licensing of clinical social workers since 1978 in addition to a written examination. This article presents findings of an evaluation of the oral examination employing a stratified random sample of 99 social workers taking the oral examination from 1978 through 1988. A t test and logistic regression analyses were used to determine if characteristics of the social workers' experience in MSW field instruction, post-MSW employment, or competencies listed by the candidate on the licensing application could predict the outcome of the oral exam. Results of the study indicate that there were no characteristics of the candidates or their practice experiences that predicted the outcome ofpassing or failing the oral examination.

Field Instruction in the 1980s-

In 1984, the Council on Social Work Education sponsored a one year Project on Field Instruction to explore current challenges to quality in field education. Under the auspices of a Technical Assistance Group, two surveys of field education were conducted. The first was a national study of all BSW and MSW field education departments; the second, a selected sample of field agencies. Findings indicated striking agreement between field educators and agency personnel about problematic areas: the integration of academic content and field experience; conflicting demands of job and field instruction responsibilities; need for standards for the evaluation of students; training for new and experienced field instructors; communication between schools and agencies; and the qualification and needs of students. Both educators and practitioners identified standard-setting, ongoing training, and recognition of field education and field instructors as key problem-solving strategies.

The MSW Supervisory Requirement in Field Instruction:

In a retrospective review of social work students' evaluations of the quality of their field instruction supervision, it was found that MSW field instructors were not rated more highly than agency field instructors who did not possess an MSW degree. The sample consisted of 281 MSW students and 129 BSW students. The implications of these findings for social work education are discussed.

The Profession and the Means Test

The Profession and the Means Test Get access Walter C. Bentrup, MSW Walter C. Bentrup, MSW Field Representative State of Louisiana Department of Public Welfare, Monroe Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Social Work, Volume 9, Issue 2, April 1964, Pages 10–17, https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/9.2.10 Published: 01 April 1964