Winter 2012, Volume 48, No. 1
The forthcoming issue of the Journal of Social Work Education is the Winter 2012 edition (volume 48, number 1). Titles, authors, and abstracts from the issue are listed below. Online access to JSWE articles is a CSWE member benefit (click the JSWE Online Quick Link in the bottom right corner of the CSWE home page). Nonmembers may search the database by author, title, or keyword; view abstracts; and purchase articles.
Contents
Facing Structural Inequality: Student's Orientations to Oppression and Practice With Oppressed Groups
Tina Hancock (North Carolina State University), Cheryl Waites (Wayne State University), and C. G. Kledaras (Campbell University)
This study investigated the relationship between social work students' views on oppression and their willingness to serve and advocate for oppressed populations. The sample included students from three accredited programs in a southeastern state in the United States, one large urban-based public university with BSW and MSW programs, and two small, rural, faith-based institutions with BSW programs. A typology of four categories was drawn on for the study. Findings of the study have pertinence for the social work profession as it continues to explicate its moral obligation as a service provider. The study also has implications for social work education because it suggests the further development of a curriculum model that relates to the principles of structural justice.
Gatekeeping: Why Shouldn't We Be Ambivalent?
Lynda Sowbel (Hood College)
An increase of 88% in programs from 1990 through 2004, low GRE scores, low entry-level wages, declining pass rates in licensing tests, and an increase in ethical violations reported all support the contention that there are higher enrollment rates and decreased gatekeeping selectivity in today's graduate MSW programs. This article discusses four factors that are important in distinguishing a uniform, transparent, gatekeeping stance for the profession, to begin to resolve the intrinsic dilemmas of those factors.
MSW Students' Perspective of and Experiences With Online Learning: Benefits, Challenges, Recommendations
Teresa Sarmiento Brooks, Nancy Shore, Wanda Anderson, and Danielle Kmetetz (University of New England)
MSW students who had and had not taken online courses from three accredited programs were surveyed. Students who took online courses were more often enrolled part-time and had access to a personal computer and high speed Internet. All students, regardless of their online status, reported similar benefits (e.g., convenience) and challenges (e.g., lack of face-to-face contact) with online learning. No statistical relationship was found between the students' online status and their belief of which course could be offered online, with the exception of advanced practice. Students who had taken online courses were more apt to believe advanced practice could effectively be taught online. Students recommended that programs should be candid about online requirements and expectations.
Applications of Situated Learning to Foster Communities of Practice
Cynthia Edmonds-Cady (Illinois State University) and Marya Solsuski (Michigan State University)
This article discusses two macro level community practice courses, examining how each course applies the concepts of situated learning to foster the development of communities of practice through the development and implementation of a unique model for antioppressive practice. A description of the theoretical underpinnings of this unique pedagogical approach and the implementation of each stage of the model is provided. Implications of this model for student understanding of privilege, oppression, and power, and the use of antioppressive community practice approaches through the development of specific communities of practice are discussed. The development of transformative learning that included the students, the instructor, and community members is also highlighted.
Supporting Field Instructors' Efforts to Help Students Improve Writing
Jessica Kahn and Richard Holody (Lehman College)
Field instructors have often not felt empowered to address their concerns about a critical skill in their students' professional development: students' writing. This article explains ways that field education departments and social work faculty can support field instructors to improve their students' writing. In addition, specific suggestions are provided for field instructors to use with their students. Ideas from the faculty development movement known as Writing Across the Curriculum provide tools that are easily applicable to field education.
Getting "Tillerized": Traits and Outcomes of Students in a Macro Field Placement
Paige Averett (East Carolina University), Lena Carawan (East Carolina University), and Courtney Dupree (Community Home Care and Hospice)
This qualitative study sought to reveal the traits and outcomes of students who completed a rural community organizing field placement. All stakeholders involved in the placement of students took part in a focus group and follow-up individual interviews. Findings suggest that students need to be open, flexible, self-directed, and maverick in personality. In turn, the former students felt that they had been prepared for generalist social work practice, developed their social work knowledge and their use of self, and had become more client-centered and better team players as a result of their field placements in a macro rural setting. Barriers for placing students in rural macro settings are included.
Children of Parents With Substance Use Disorders: Evaluation of a Course Module
Shelly Wiechelt and Joshua Nosa Okundaye (University of Maryland, Baltimore County)
Social workers are in a position to identify the effects of substance use disorders (SUDs) on children and families and provide appropriate interventions in broad practice contexts. Unfortunately, many social workers are not trained to consider parental SUDs and their effects on children in the assessment process. A course module for training social work students to work with children of a parent who has a SUD was developed to fill this gap. This study reports on an evaluation of this module that was conducted with 52 students in baccalaureate level human behavior in the social environment courses. Significant increases in knowledge, self-efficacy beliefs, and perceived abilities were observed, and students reported high levels of satisfaction with the module.
Debt Burdens Among MSW Graduates: A National Cross-Sectional Study
Intae Yoon (East Carolina University)
Cross-sectional data reveal alarming financial situations among 2009 MSW graduates from 25 states and their loan decisions (n=260). More than a quarter of the study participants owe at least $40,000 in educational loans from their MSW degree, and 30% borrowed at least $30,000 of their total college education debt. Expensive credit cards were used more commonly than any private educational loan to finance participants’ professional education, and a quarter of all participants have at least a $500 monthly credit card payment obligation. Thus, 31% of the participants were either very or extremely burdened by noneducational loans even before they have educational loan repayment obligations. This study suggests individual, discipline-specific, and public interventions to promote financial well-being among social work students.
The Learning Activities Questionnaire: A Tool to Enhance Teaching
Richard Ager (Tulane University)
This article describes the Learning Activities Questionnaire (LAQ) and how it can be employed to evaluate learning tasks not typically examined in course evaluation instruments such as readings and assignments. Drawing from behavioral theory in its focus on specific activities, this instrument is simple to interpret and provides clear direction for change. Based on LAQ responses and LAQ use by six professors teaching 11 classes over 5 years to 215 students, suggestions are provided for how it can enhance teaching.
The Place of Political Diversity Within the Social Work Classroom
Mitchell Rosenwald (Barry University), Diane Wiener (Binghamton University), Alexa Smith-Osborne (University of Texas at Arlington), and Christine Smith (Binghamton University)
This article examines political ideology and its implications as a newer diversity variable within social work education. Responding to internal assessments and external critiques of social work education, the dynamics of how diverse political ideologies might manifest in five core course concentrations—human behavior in the social environment, research, practice, field education, and policy—are highlighted. The authors offer a series of critical questions, a typology for addressing political ideology, and a set of educational guidelines to assist educators, administrators, and students as they grapple with attending to political diversity in a variety of social work classrooms.
Teaching Note—Self-Assessment and Dialogue as Tools for Engaging in Diversity Matters
Gwenelle Styles O'Neal (West Chester University)
As social work educators continue to examine methods and techniques to provide meaningful learning about racism and discrimination, the role of self-assessment and dialogue should also be explored. This article presents a tool for students and educators to use in considering literature discrimination and increasing awareness of multicultural resources. This tool and the related activities may be used for orientation or modified and combined with the variety of mixed media used to engage students in active learning.
Field Note—Potential of Field Education as Signature Pedagogy: The Field Director Role
Sharon Lyter (Kutztown University of Pennsylvania)
In light of the assertion that field education is the signature pedagogy of social work education, this Internet-based study explores field director demographics and questions the fulfillment of this potential, examining BSW and MSW field education through the lens of the field director position. Field directors (159) and deans/directors (150) were asked to express their opinions on the role, function, and status of the field director. Variables included salary, job security, privileges, and authority. The findings provide evidence of a modest but statistically significant difference in perceptions between field directors and deans/directors. If field is intended to carry the prominent position of signature pedagogy, the field director and factors associated with the role will influence the trajectory.