Towards Sustainability in Australian Social Work Field Education

ABSTRACT

The educational framework of Australian social work field education has remained static over the past few decades. Emerging challenges are creating a compelling case for change. These include increasing demand for placements, declining capacity of organisations to provide placement requirements, reduction in practitioners’ incentives and capacity to support student placements and to facilitate a work integrated learning context, and an interrelated web of policies and regulations that constrain adaptation to these changes. In a critical exploration of multiple levels of regulation and policy contexts, we argue that conventional approaches to social work field education are not sustainable given significant changes to the funding arrangements for universities and within the welfare service system. To futureproof integrative learning in social work, we advocate transformation of educational culture, policies, and design toward sustainability.

IMPLICATIONS

• Supervised placements are designed to integrate practice and academic learning but their future use as the single means for achieving this integration will be unsustainable.

• Drawing on an ecological orientation enables social work educators to position sustainability as a key consideration and response to current constraints in higher education and the field.

• Focusing on sustainability across policy, practice, and regulation contexts has potential to generate transformative change that enhances our effectiveness in futureproofing the design of integrative learning in social work.

澳大利亚社会工作领域的教育框架在过去几十年陈陈相因。正在出现的挑战逼迫着变革。对实习的需求在增长，各机构提供实习条件的能力在下降，实践者支持学生实习、方便工学结合的动力及能力也在式微，政策和规范的交互网络在限制着对以上变化的适应。笔者对规范及政策语境的众多层面做了批判性探讨，指出社会工作领域的固有方式由于高校以及社会福利服务体系资金安排上的巨大变化而变得不可持续。为使社会工作中的整合学习能够面向未来，我们提倡教育文化、政策、设计等向可持续性转变。

KEYWORDS:

• Student Placement
• Sustainability
• Educational Design
• Transformation

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Ines Zuchowski http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1270-203X