This book collates and analyses the current research, debates, opportunities and practices in social work field education into one volume and contextualises this material within the broader context of social work. Current concerns about risk and uncertainty in field education are explored from multiple stakeholder perspectives.
Social work field education is an integral component of social work education, yet its sustainability is increasingly challenged. Issue such as finding enough quality placements with accredited social workers, curriculum development, student diversity, and placement assessment of learning are being examined by researchers and practitioners alike. This represents a challenge for the social work profession generally. By drawing on traditional and alternative pedagogical perspectives on field education and constructions of risk and uncertainty evident in current discourse, the book presents innovative responses to existing challenges.
Providing a reference point for future knowledge building in sustainable field education pedagogy and practice, this book will interest university field education programs and industry field educators internationally.
Dr Ronnie Egan is Associate Professor of Field Education in Social Work at RMIT University. She has specialised in research about supervision and practice for social workers and students, published widely in these areas and has extensive and active networks in the human service sector. Her relationships with the field span her career as a practitioner and academic, and this has enabled the development of innovative ways of understanding and facilitating the nexus between universities and the community. She chairs the National Field Education Network.
Dr Nicole Hill is a lecturer in the Department of Social Work at the University of Melbourne. Her position is dually focused on coordinating the Master of Social Work and strengthening the research profile of Field Education. In October 2019 she was appointed as Chair of the National Field Education Network (NFEN) and as the Field Education representative on the Australian and New Zealand Social Work and Welfare Education and Research (ANZSWWER). She has a strong clinical history in acute and crisis health and mental health work and continues the work of her doctoral studies in the field of suicide prevention.
Dr Wendy Rollins is Senior Lecturer in social work at Victoria University, Melbourne. Wendy has extensive social work practice experience in a wide range of government and non-government settings in Victoria, Queensland and the ACT. Her teaching and research interests are in social work education, in particular, field education and in the relationship focus of social work practice that has resulted in publication. Wendy is a member of the Australian Association of Social Workers, Australian and New Zealand Social Work and Welfare Education and Research and a founding member of National Field Education Network.
