Beyond Field Education: Leadership of Field Directors

Abstract

This article presents a conceptual model of the field director's role outside of field education, specifically in the following 3 areas of leadership: (1) curricular, (2) programmatic, and (3) institutional. A survey was conducted to explore the field director's input targeted in these areas beyond prescribed field education tasks. The results showed that 3 structural variables (field director as faculty member, field director in tenure-track position, field director as member of a program's administrative team) were significant in influencing the amount of input by field directors and in contributing to their self-perceptions of feeling valued.

Acknowledgments

A portion of this paper was presented in October 2010 at the Council on Social Work Education's 56th Annual Program Meeting in Portland, Oregon.