1st Edition

Field Instruction in Social Work Settings

By Toba Schwaber Kerson Copyright 1994
    242 Pages
    by Routledge

    242 Pages
    by Routledge

    Field Instruction in Social Work Settings explores the relationship between field instruction and the setting in which it occurs. The book asserts that certain aspects of social work, including laws, funding, political climate, organizational policies, and values, affect the relationship between student and field instructor and shape teaching and learning. The book explores dimensions of the student/field instructor relationship such as goals and expectations, development of professional identity, uses of the self, issues of diversity, authority, dependency, autonomy, value dilemmas, and the structure of supervision. It presents a framework for teaching field instruction and uses the framework to explore its relevance, meaning, and use in the following settings:

    • perinatal AIDS program
    • public child welfare
    • child advocacy agency
    • public school
    • occupational health and safety project
    • family service
    • psychiatric hospital
    • case management program for the elderly
    • day center for the elderly

      Field Instruction in Social Work Settings is the only book available relating field instruction to the specific context in which it occurs. It recognizes the social work field’s diminished budget and increased demands and points out the critical necessity of students learning to address and manage policy and organizational issues as they develop their social work skills. This book is an aid to field instructors balancing increases in enrollment and curriculum content and decreases in placements and budgets. It integrates all of these concerns with field practice and seeks to provide a model for those working in the field as instructors and students.

      Field Instruction in Social Work Settings applies classroom material to social work settings and emphasizes the value of field instruction by relating it to the branches of child welfare, mental health, and health care. It allows the reader to integrate social work policy and advocacy with field work, and it provides the reader with an appreciation of how social work and field instruction can work together directly.

    Contents Foreword
    • Preface
    •  Introduction: Field Instruction in Social Work Settings: A Framework for Teaching
    • Social Work Field Instruction in a Perinatal AIDS Setting
    • Field Instruction in a Pediatric Tertiary Care Center
    • Agency-Based Student Support Groups and the Relationship Between Field Instructor and Student: Essential Learning Modes in Public Child Welfare
    • The Field Instruction Relationship in the Context of a Small Urban Child Advocacy Agency
    • Field Instruction in a Public School
    • Area Project on Occupational Safety and Health
    • Field Instruction in Suburban Family Service Agency
    • Field Instruction in a Psychiatric Setting
    • Social Work Practice With the Elderly: A Multifaceted Placement Experience
    • Group Supervision as a Vehicle for Teaching Group Work to Students: Field Instruction in a Senior Center
    • Index
    • Reference Notes Included

    Biography

    Toba Schwaber Kerson