Family planning services improve health and social outcomes through education, psychosocial interventions, and medical practice. Social workers are on the frontlines of providing such services to some of the most vulnerable clients; however, social work education may not be adequately preparing students to provide these interventions. This Teaching Note introduces family planning services and their significance to social work practice. Additionally, this article shares practical examples of including the subject of family planning in BSW classrooms.
Instructors are tasked with teaching social work values to students. The Arbinger Institute, known globally for peace-building, offers a philosophical framework in their book The Anatomy of Peace: Resolving the Heart of Conflict, that can be used to model and teach a way of being that empowers students to embody social work values. A pedagogy using this book as a supplemental text in a bachelor’s level Introduction to Social Work course is offered along with initial student feedback.
A foundational understanding of self-care and wellness activities, along with real-world practice, provides undergraduate social work students with the groundwork to maintain personal wellness when practicing as professional social workers. This Teaching Note describes a photovoice self-care assignment that was incorporated into an undergraduate social work practice course. Using guided content on the implications of reduced self-care in the social work field, with readings on self-care and wellness, students practiced and, using a photovoice approach, documented self-care efforts. Common themes of student self-care activities emerged including exercise/physical activity, friends and relationships, family, and nature. Students provided feedback that indicates growth, learning, and increased motivation to engage in self-care.
This Teaching Note describes a unique approach to teaching a global social action course while providing an opportunity for students to address issues meaningfully. Students used sequenced and scaffolded assignments to ultimately develop nongovernment organization concept pitches to address global social issues on the local level. They developed subspecialty expertise to share collaboratively in working groups. As students moved through the scaffolded assignments, their concept pitches culminated in presentations to a simulated panel of philanthropists. Building understanding and skills with this technique is a creative approach to teaching social action. Scaffolding assignments and presenting to panelists further helps students develop new skills and increase their confidence. Drafting white papers, using infographics and professional creativity, and collaboratively crafting solutions integrates student passion for global issues with local practice. Sequenced and scaffolded assignments enable undergraduate social work students to see themselves empowered to take social action to affect change.
Social work education at the undergraduate level focuses on preparing social work students for generalist social work practice. Educators spend significant amounts of time ensuring that their programs meet the most current Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards set forth by the Council on Social Work Education. Undergraduate students are immersed in the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics and are taught that research must inform practice. This Teaching Note will explore one program’s journey of planning and implementing simulation labs that specifically focus on strengthening leadership skills and the value of multidisciplinary collaboration at the undergraduate level by using simple tools such as SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis and the RE-AIM (reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance) framework.
The authors investigate the importance of instructor communication behaviors in a course on business communication, arguing that alignment between instructor behaviors and the precepts of the discipline has a pronounced effect on perceived instructor credibility in this field. Student evaluations were analyzed qualitatively for their comments on instructor communication behaviors and quantitatively for the ratings students gave their instructors. This suggests a relationship between the two. The authors outline two classroom exercises to help students develop best practice in business communication, while also enhancing instructors' credibility by showing how they apply best practice in their own documents.
This article describes the use of ethnic sharing, a structured, narrative exercise designed to increase cultural competence among students in social work programs. The premise of this facilitated exercise is that self-awareness and cultural awareness create the foundation for culturally informed practice. Twenty-five BSW students from diverse backgrounds participated in this guided group learning session and experienced brief cultural immersion. A content analysis of participant feedback about the exercise indicated that students engaged in self-examination, gained cultural awareness, and demonstrated a beginning understanding of culturally informed practice. Analyzing the students' written responses according to a phenomenological perspective revealed the following themes: (a) Don't stereotype or make assumptions, (b) remain open minded and refrain from making judgments, and (c) be aware of cross-cultural similarities and differences. The utility of ethnic sharing as an experiential learning exercise for baccalaureate social work students to develop proficiency in diversity awareness is demonstrated.
Within undergraduate social work education, personal life characteristics are viewed predominantly in relation to their implications for social worker professional role identity. But personal life factors should also be considered in relation to occupational health and well-being. To better understand this relationship in social work specifically, data from interviews with social workers who reported low to medium levels of overall work and profession satisfaction were analyzed. Respondents noted that personal life factors such as interpersonal relationships and intrapersonal functioning affected their overall subjective well-being, and they highlighted several intersecting factors between their personal lives and professional roles that contribute to overall well-being. The findings have implications for social work education in regard to issues of self-care and the development of inter- and intrapersonal skills to maintain positive occupational health.
In 1965 Wilensky and Lebeaux wrote about Americans having residual and institutional conceptions of social welfare. The former emphasizes individual self-reliance with little assistance from a social welfare system, whereas the latter emphasizes a welfare system that is fully integrated in people's lives to help them develop to their full potential. Viewed as ends on a continuum, these conceptions are helpful in teaching students about characteristics of social policy and programs, policy practice competence, how policies have changed over time, and for prodding them to think about social and economic justice as well as how they would like the social welfare system structured in the future.
The Council on Social Work Education has called for the increased use of relevant technology; however, limited research is available on social work students’ perceived skills, self- efficacy, and attitudes toward technology. This study examined 215 BSW students’ perceived confidence, skills, attitudes, and self- efficacy regarding technology use before and after taking a social work and technology course. Significant differences were found in all factors except attitude. Age was negatively correlated with perceived skills and self- efficacy. Qualitative data on how students felt about technology in their future roles as social workers identified six themes: better service provision, changes in communications, improved access and productivity, client involvement, concerns with confidentiality, and role of technology. Recommendations for future research and implications for social work education and practice are discussed.
Social work students are expected to develop competency in and be able to use macro practice concepts in communities. One common area of macro practice involves organizing communities to improve socioeconomic environments. This article compares 2 prevailing models of community organization— Alinsky's conflict and Eichler's consensus models— from a postmodernist perspective. The goal is to guide educators and students in determining the appropriate use of each model based on the conditions influencing the need to organize. A case study is included to provide an opportunity to engage in a critical thinking exercise aimed at further honing practitioners’ skills.
This article reports the findings of an electronic survey regarding the use of criminal background checks, using a convenience sample with 119 BSW and 53 MSW programs responding. Requiring applicants or students to undergo a criminal background check was reported by 25% of BSW and 34% of MSW programs. An additional 66% of BSW programs and 57% of MSW programs reported that,although not a requirement of their programs, criminal background checks were required by some of their field agencies. A procedure for the use of criminal background check information was reported in only 7% of BSW and MSW programs. Safety and welfare of future clients, student privacy, and liability if background checks are not conducted were identified as the issues of greatest importance regarding criminal background checks in social work education. Implications for social work education policy and procedure are considered.
Although field education is in itself a pedagogical approach, other pedagogies can assist in and strengthen the field-learning experience. One such pedagogy is service learning. Service learning has been described as an experiential teaching approach that engages students in addressing community needs. Additionally, the service must support learning objectives within the course, as students reflect on their experience related to course objectives and reach a broader understanding of their profession and community life. Service learning can be offered as a component of field education via a service-learning capstone project (SLCP) that is competency-based. This article will examine the extant literature on service learning within the social work curriculum. Subsequently, a pedagogical model will be presented that embeds an SLCP within a BSW field practicum. Instructions, examples of completed SLCPs, an evaluative format for an SLCP presentation, and evaluative tools to measure impact of SLCPs on students and agencies are presented.
The Council on Social Work Education's 2008 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) significantly changed how social work programs should assess student competencies and practice behaviors across the curriculum. Responding to these changes, a new assessment logic and practice model was created to assess baccalaureate social work student competencies using an information feedback model that included curricular mapping horizontally and vertically. Through this model, the program can effectively and efficiently assess student competencies, identify areas of strength and weakness, seek improvements in competency-based learning over time, and pinpoint areas of concern deep within the curriculum at both the syllabus and course content levels. Initial data suggest that as students are more exposed to a competency-based curriculum, mastery of competencies increases.
This research empirically assessed the learning outcomes of structured debates in an undergraduate social welfare policy course. The longitudinal mixed-method study represents the only one in the literature on social policy debates in undergraduate social work education. For the five cohorts of students surveyed, the Policy Debate Rating Scale assessed learning outcomes on cognitive, behavioral/affective, and comparative perspective dimensions. The results showed strong evidence of higher level learning and supports the use of active learning to promote critical thinking, public speaking, and policy practice skills among social workers. Implications for future policy practice such as the need for more instruction on dialectics, differential perspectives, and improved designs for future research are discussed.
Junior faculty face greater challenges as a result of time constraints and administrative duties, which may impact their quest for tenure and promotion. Faculty may feel overwhelmed and frustrated by their countless responsibilities, including administrative duties, while tenure and promotion guidelines and requirements appear to be increasing. Using an electronic mailing list populated primarily with social work educators, this Web-based survey explored the perceptions of social work junior faculty regarding their willingness to engage in scholarly activities and their workload demands. The purpose of this mixed method study was to explore the perceptions of untenured and recently tenured social work faculty (n=97) about scholarship expectations, their desires for producing scholarship, and their perceptions about tenure and promotion expectations. The study explored perceived barriers to producing scholarship vis-á-vis workload expectations. The results of the study and strategies for meeting scholarship demands are presented.
