From crisis to opportunity? Innovations in Australian social work field education during the COVID-19 global pandemic

ABSTRACT

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, Australian universities have had to radically rethink and reconfigure many aspects of social work education. This has been particularly pronounced for field education, as human service organizations that ordinarily host student placements have also needed to rapidly design remote modes of service delivery in the context of current social distancing requirements, and unprecedented demands for assistance. Prior to COVID-19, a growing body of literature had emerged, mounting concerns about the current Australian model of field education. During the pandemic, the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) has modified some of the standards related to field education. Such variations are entirely necessary in the context of the pandemic and create opportunities for social work educators, not only to imagine new models of field education that are more suitable for contemporary contexts but to implement and trial them in ways that have not been possible until now. This paper largely focuses on innovations in field education that are currently being developed and implemented at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), in Australia.

KEYWORDS:

• Social work education
• field education
• placement
• critical social work
• COVID-19 pandemic

Acknowledgments

With thanks to Leanne Carroll and Zhicheng (Joseph) Duan who undertook some of the library research for this paper as part of their final social work field education placement at QUT.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. The Council is a national body of Heads of accredited social work programs in Australia

2. Job keeper is a wage supplement introduced the by the Federal Government during COVID-19 to encourage employers to continue to employ workers.

3. Job seeker is an income support payment that was introduced during COVID-19 for people who are unemployed or underemployed.

4. A reduction of up to 20% of placement hours was applied on a case-by-case basis, depending of the capacity and preferences of students, supervisors and the organization.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christine Morley

Christine Morley [email protected] BSW (Hons) PhD is Professor and Head of the Social Work and Human Services Discipline in the School of Public Health and Social Work at Queensland University of Technology, and Adjunct Professor at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia. She has published extensively on critical social work education and practice including books ‘Practising Critical Reflection to Develop Emancipatory Change’ (Routledge, 2014), ‘Engaging with Social Work: A Critical Introduction,’ (with P. Ablett & S. Macfarlane, Cambridge, 2019, 2nd edition), and ‘The Routledge Handbook of Critical Pedagogies for Social Work’ (editor with P. Ablett, C. Noble & S. Cowden, Routledge, 2020).

Dr Joanne Clarke, BSW (Hons) PhD is a Lecturer in Social Work, and the Field Education Coordinator of the Social Work and Human Services Discipline in the School of Public Health and Social Work, Queensland University of Technology, Australia. She has published on critical reflection in Field Education and in the area of Women and Violence. Her current area of research interest is on family court processes in the context of domestic violence.