Addressing competency requirements of social work students during the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia

ABSTRACT

COVID-19 resulted in massive disruption and changes in every aspect of our lives. To curb the spread of the virus, many governments limited the movement of people or imposed full ‘lockdowns’. This created significant challenges for social workers practising with people often reliant on interpersonal support such as those at risk of domestic abuse; with mental health problems or learning disabilities. Measures to reduce viral spread affected the education sector at all levels from pre-school to higher education, disrupted traditional classroom pedagogy and shifted to technologically supported e-learning to minimise disruption to the students’ education. In lockdown, online teaching has become the new norm. E-learning has its limitations for professional curricula such as social work. Like most countries, field practice represents a compulsory component of the social work curriculum in Malaysia which measures the capabilities or competency of students to enable them to become qualified social workers. When COVID-19 forced universities and agencies to halt field placements in Malaysia, the immediate challenge was to find alternative ways of assessing students. This paper aims to provide an overview of field education assessment in Malaysia during the pandemic and to pose questions for future assessment as Malaysian social work drives towards increased professional regulation.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• social work education
• social work teaching and learning
• field practice
• Malaysia

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge funding to undertake this research from Newton Mobility Grants 2017 RD1, British Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Newton Mobility Grants 2017 RD1, British Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences [NG170115].

Notes on contributors

Azlinda Azman

Azlinda Azman is Dean of the School of Social Sciences at Universiti Sains Malaysia. She has researched and published widely on social work and champions the development of the social work profession in Malaysia.

Paramjit Singh Jamir Singh

Paramjit Singh is a lecturer in social work at Universiti Sains Malaysia.

Jonathan Parker

Jonathan Parker is Professor of Society and Social Welfare at Bournemouth University, UK. He has published widely on social work and social work education internationally, is series editor of Learning Matters'Transforming Social Work Practice series and author of the best-selling Social Work Practice.

Sara Ashencaen Crabtree

Sara Ashencaen Crabtree is Professor of Social and Cultural Diversity at Bournemouth University, UK. She has extensive research experience internationally, has published widely and is author of the first European book onIslam and Social Work.