Providing field education for social work students requires intensive support from field instructors. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the effects of an educational program developed to better support social workers providing a student placement in a community-based hospital. This study examined the attitudes, beliefs, needs,…

Contract grading provides graduate-level students with greater control and autonomy within the learning process. The contract grading approach requires students to take greater responsibility for achieving course learning outcomes as well as allowing learners to adjust the style and focus of assignments to meet their own unique needs and desires.…

It is imperative that social work programs facilitate discussions pertaining to social justice in the classroom. This gives students the space to navigate barriers to changing policy and oppressive systems. However, there are multiple barriers to having critical discussions of challenges in advocating for marginalized and oppressed groups. One way…

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…

Feminist identity, which allows those who support feminist ideals to establish themselves as being interested in reducing gender-based oppression, has been connected to increased commitment to collective action. However, feminist stigma and a postfeminist perception may have created ambivalence for many when considering a feminist identity. This…

Unlike other disciplines, social work has made accreditation decisions about undergraduate and graduate programs independent of licensure examination pass rates of graduates. While education, regulation, and practice are heralded as the three pillars of social work, there have been few meaningful linkages between them. Despite recognition that…

While there is an urgency to offer graduate students' inter-professional education (IPE) in child advocacy, there are no templates for educators to utilize. Participants (n=34), inclusive of students, community stakeholders, and faculty from a northeastern university, participated in focus groups to describe what IPE should entail. Grounded theory…

Community college students are an untapped reservoir of talent and including them in social work education aligns with the values of the profession. Yet these students encounter formidable obstacles on the path from a 2-year degree to an affordable social work degree. In this article, we describe the systems thinking underlying a newly instituted…

The Policy Field Unit (PFU) is an independently designed practicum placement for School of Social Work (SSW) students at a large, urban Midwestern university. The placement provides students an opportunity to engage with the policy process as macro social work practitioners in a variety of settings. Increasing social work students' efficacy in…

This study sought to respond to the increased number of mature students in social work education and the understudied topic of their experiences. The research deployed semi- structured interviews and thematic analysis to explore the benefits, challenges, and needs of mature students (N = 19) over the age of 30 in a Canadian Bachelor of Social Work…

Certain student populations including youth formerly in foster care, first-generation college students, those with mental illness and substance abuse issues, and racial and ethnic minority students, face persistent challenges to their pursuit of college education, contributing to low graduation rates compared to their peers. This article details…

Social work educators must prioritize effective preparation of MSW students for the pivotal roles they will play in supporting clients struggling with Substance Use Disorders (SUDs). Understanding what concerns MSW students have about working in the substance use field can highlight student training needs and inform learner-centered curricula.…

The authors consider the U.S. Department of State Diplomacy Lab as a venue for research instruction of graduate social work students in advancing practice with refugees, especially in understanding their contributions to community quality of life, which served as the focus of the lab. The first author, the instructor of the course, worked with…

University students were regarded as a vulnerable population as they not only had to endure significant levels of mental health problems and financial distress, but also academic challenges in the transition to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, the tumultuous nature of the pandemic and consequent sheltering as well as other…

In this article, we argue that those in social work education should refocus how they conceptualize and teach intersectionality to produce more effective social work practitioners. We emphasize that social work should shift from educating students to evaluate diverse clients as the accumulation of individual identities operating in isolation…