Is “Field of Practice” a Relevant Organizing Principle for the MSW Curriculum?

Abstract

This article uses data from a national sample of over 2,500 master's degree social workers to examine the relevance of “field of practice” as an organizing principle for the advanced social work curriculum. The respondents, all of whom were employed in direct practice in five major fields, were asked about the frequency with which they performed 131 tasks. The results indicate that there are not meaningful differences in tasks performed by MSWs employed in diverse fields. This suggests that specialization by field of practice is less useful than supposed. The authors conclude that the “advanced generalist” model is more congruent with the actual tasks performed by MSW workers.