Field Placement Manual (2008-2009)
PART III: PHILOSOPHY OF PRACTICE
The practice curriculum of the MSW program of the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice is a central component of students’ education. It encompasses a variety of practice frameworks and theories, social work values and ethics, skill development, and the application of theory to practice. Attention is given to critical thinking, research evidence, and knowledge from social work and related disciplines. We emphasize empowerment, self-determination, diversity, oppression, the agency as the context for practice, the use of time, planned change, and advocating for social justice. These principles, values, and concepts are introduced in the foundation year and are enhanced in the advanced year, when students elect a concentration. Our approach to practice is an outgrowth of the functional approach that has been enhanced by a philosophy of social change to combat racism and other forms of oppression. It continues to be broadened by contemporary practice perspectives.
Like other courses in the foundation year, the foundation practice courses are built on a liberal arts perspective. The practice curriculum in the foundation year encompasses a strengths perspective, ecological systems approaches, empowerment practice, and cultural competence. It looks at the change process (engagement, assessment, intervention, evaluation, termination) in relation to individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. We view our approach to foundation practice as a generalist approach. Our two foundation practice courses apply the same principles, concepts, values, and planned change process to practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. Students are placed in field agencies that are congruent with our generalist approach.
The advanced year of our practice curriculum is built on the foundation base but differentiates along the lines of clinical and macro practice concentrations. The clinical practice courses expand upon foundation learning by introducing theories and methods that are particular to working with individuals, families, and groups. The theories include psychodynamic, constructionist (including narrative and postmodern), cognitive-behavioral, and additional family (e.g., structural, intergenerational) and group (existential) practice theories. Particular attention is given to assessment and intervention from different theoretical perspectives and practice with individuals and families at risk.
The advanced year macro practice curriculum provides depth in conceptual frameworks and skills needed to intervene in communities, agencies, coalitions and large systems. The framework utilized examines problems/issues, populations and arenas of intervention in the context of the political, social and economic policies and multicultural aspects of the environment. The specific advanced intervention approaches studied include community organizing, locality development, and social planning, as well as management and administration. Students in both concentrations are placed in agencies that encompass a variety of fields of practice (child welfare, health, mental health, education, aging, juvenile justice, etc.).
Conceptual Base of Field Practice
The School of Social Policy & Practice views practice class and field practice as mutually supportive and complementary parts of an integrated professional social work education. Field practice is a central component of education for social work and provides learning opportunities related to all parts of the curriculum. The field agency provides opportunities for students to become part of an existing social program in the community, to participate in offering a community service, to experience responsible interaction with professional social workers and with professionals from other fields, and to assist the agency in providing quality services. This professional service benefits the agency in return for the valuable contribution of the field instructor and represents the agency's unique contribution to professional education.
The collaboration between the School and the agency requires continuous contact regarding curriculum information, the student's learning experiences and the student's educational progress. The School's relationship with the field and the maintenance of structures to support student learning are vital underpinnings for the students' educational process. Therefore, a major effort in the School is to develop supportive working relationships with the field through which the vitality and unique values of field practice can enrich, illuminate and complement classroom learning.
The School of Social Policy & Practice has had long and productive relationships with many health and welfare organizations in the Delaware Valley and tri-state region which have been built upon mutual investment, trust and respect. The changes in the human service system and the society at large require close collaboration in order to understand the significance of these changes for our curriculum and field experience. In accordance with this School's belief that the field experience relates to and supports all parts of the curriculum, the field assists in developing educational experiences which provide the broadest possible exposure to organization function (e.g., clinical services, case management, planning, research, and policy making). The field setting also offers students an opportunity to learn methods for evaluating their own social work practice. In the process of evaluating the impact of service on clients and systems, students gain the tools for continuing analysis, incorporation of new knowledge and skills, and the development of new knowledge. The students' agency experiences are an integral part of both field and classroom instruction.
The principle of continuity of professional growth, which is essential to sound professional learning, applies to the field experience. The program is designed so that the scope, depth, and breadth of learning will increase throughout the two years. At the end of two years, students are expected to have reached a point of entry into professional practice with the competence to perform a variety of professional services and practice semi-autonomously.
Structure of Field Practice
Field practice concurrent with course work helps students integrate their learning. From the beginning of professional education, the student begins to experience the opportunity and responsibility to apply knowledge in realistic situations. The relationship between acquiring knowledge and applying it in practice can be understood by students when it is concurrent with field practice. Feedback from field to class and vice versa reinforces both learning environments. All students are expected to reflect on their current field practice by sharing written and verbal material in their courses. The goal is to help the student critically examine her/his own work and to make professional use of the critical analysis of peers.
Social work is a change-oriented profession. Therefore, coordination between the field and University is crucial in maintaining a vibrant and relevant curriculum. Input and feedback from field instructors about practice needs and service delivery are essential components of curriculum development and its revision. The School's faculty values the collaborative support of field instructors.
Content of Field Practice
Service to clients is one of the many learning opportunities in field practice, and a central one. In this activity, the student carries responsibility for offering service to clients and organizations, and entering into a basic professional relationship with all that this implies. Although the student always works within this framework with the support of the agency and with appropriate help from the field instructor, when the student actually is engaged in carrying out a particular activity, the responsibility is the student's.
An educationally sound service load is one that provides a diversity of experience, not only through a variety of situations but also through opportunity for cooperative relationships with other personnel, for contact with other social resources in the community and for collaboration with other disciplines. For example a student's primary assignment may be individual counseling, but he or she may staff an agency committee, co-facilitate an educational client group, serve as the agency's representative to a coalition formed around some social problem, and/or be involved in some aspect of the agency's family life education program. In sum, the student’s learning should encompass a broad base of experiences.
Field Instructors
Field practice is viewed as an integral part of the practice course, and therefore, the field instructor shares the teaching responsibility with the practice instructor. Agency based-field instructors hold a master's degree in social work with at least two years of post-master's experience. Field instructors are expected to be aware of the theoretical underpinnings introduced to the student in the foundation courses. Field instructors and faculty meet several times per year in a variety of workshops. In these workshops, faculty and field instructors address current issues in social work practice and field instruction as well as other pertinent topics. Students in advanced macro practice without MSW field instructors are required to take an integrative seminar with an MSW field instructor. These sessions are held every other week at the School.
Field Council
The Field Council, organized in 1974, provides field instructors with the opportunity to participate in the School's curriculum development and decision-making process. All field instructors are members of the Council. Executive Field Cabinet represents all field instructors. The chairperson of the Executive Field Cabinet is an ex-officio member of the Curriculum Committee. Ten field instructors selected to represent Foundation, Advanced Clinical, Advanced Macro, and a variety of fields of practice, make up the Executive Field Cabinet. Since the Council was organized, the members have been actively involved in various School committees and have promoted School/agency relations through general meetings of the Council. Field instructors also participate as guest lecturers in courses throughout the curriculum.
Seminar for Field Instructors (Theory and Practice of Student Supervision)
A seminar is required for all new field instructors in order to orient them to the School's educational philosophy and program and to enhance understanding of this collaborative process on behalf of student learning.
The seminar for field instructors provides the field instructor with an overview of the learning experienced by most students. Field instructors are encouraged to identify their particular needs, design both their own and their student's learning activities and to gauge the changes in their student's social and professional roles. The seminar assists field instructors in resolving problems in their teaching situations with their students, especially as students move through new experiences where it is essential to enhance student confidence and help students assume responsibility for their own learning. Students receive assistance and support from the field instructor, the student's advisor, the practice teacher and their peers in the practice class.
Another theme of the seminar is student performance evaluation. Field instructors are helped to view evaluation as a continuous and dynamic process based on students' learning needs and mutually agreed on learning objectives by field instructor and student as a basis for the end-of-semester(s) written evaluation.
