What’s in an MSW? Graduate education for public child welfare workers, intention, engagement, and work environment

ABSTRACT

This study employs a mixed methods analysis of exit survey data gathered from public child welfare employees at their completion of a Title IV-E funded MSW program, distinct because it was initiated during a period of major reform and permitted students to continue employment during their studies. Findings suggest that opportunities for growth and manageable levels of stress were associated with intentions to stay and engagement with the work, reflected in respondents’ positive perceptions of their roles in the work environment and their retrospective assessments of the impact of their social work education.

KEYWORDS:

• Public child welfare
• Title IV-E
• social work education
• workforce development
• retention and engagement

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the continuing service of the public child welfare employees who completed their MSW through this program and remember their colleague and our student, Leticia Zindell.

Additional information

Funding

Data collection concerned graduates for whom MSW education was in full or in part supported by a grant from the Department of Children and Families, the State of New Jersey, from 2006 to 2010, although no grant funding supported the study.

Notes on contributors

Ericka Deglau

Ericka Deglau, PhD, LSW is director, Intensive Weekend MSW Program for Human Services Employees and Professor of Teaching, School of Social Work, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. She developed and has directed the program since its inception in 2006 and facilitated its expansion to a broader human services focus in 2010.

Ayse Akincigil

Ayse Akincigil, PhD is associate professor at the School of Social Work and Health Economist at the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research, where her research addresses the problems that lead to inadequate access to health care as well as inferior care quality for traditionally vulnerable populations. She is experienced in working with large administrative data from Medicare, Medicaid, commercial health plans, and national longitudinal surveys. Dr. Akincigil consults with the Intensive Weekend program on research and program evaluation and regularly teaches in the program.

Anasuya Ray

Anasuya Ray, PhD was doctoral research assistant with the Intensive Weekend program at Rutgers School of Social Work at the time the exit survey was administered and participated in both data collection and analysis. Since completing her PhD, Dr. Ray, who specializes on the experiences of everyday life in the context of armed conflict in Afghanistan, has served as a policy fellow with Senator Bernie Sanders and is currently special assistant to the Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the United Nations.

Jennifer Bauwens

Jennifer Bauwens, Ph.D., LCSW has worked, both nationally and internationally, with children and adult survivors of disasters, abuse, and other traumatic events. She currently consults with nonprofits to develop evaluation tools and trauma-informed curriculums and trainings, and she teaches courses on research and trauma at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, including in the Intensive Weekend program.