Teaching without being taught how: social work practice faculty voices

ABSTRACT

Social work practice faculty have an important role in socializing MSW students to the field and practice of social work. This study, based on interviews with 15 faculty teaching an advanced clinical practice course in the United States, examines how faculty conceptualize teaching and learning. Faculty were asked about the theories or frameworks that guided their teaching, their own journeys to teaching and the resources that support their teaching. The study found that participants drew largely on their own experiences as student learners and social work practitioners and did not have much formal training in teaching and student learning. Furthermore, while half of the participants were able to identify a learning theory that guided their teaching, the other half were not. Finally, while participants articulated the need for support regarding their own teaching, many of the schools did not have formal faculty development opportunities. The paper ends with recommendations for supporting current and new faculty regarding teaching and student learning.

KEYWORDS:

• Scholarship of teaching and learning
• social work practice
• learning theory
• social work education; pedagogy; curriculum

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rani Varghese

Rani Varghese, MSW, Ed.D. is an Assistant Professor at the School of Social Work at Adelphi University. Dr. Varghese’s clinical experience has been in the context of college campuses supporting survivors of gender based violence Her research focuses on social work education, clinical social work, social justice practices and principles, intergroup dialogue and its intersections.