Supervision of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Social Work Students by Heterosexual Field Instructors

Abstract

This paper describes findings from a qualitative study of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) student-heterosexual field instructor dyads. Each dyad was assessed for its level of agreement in characterizing the student's experience in field placement. Disagreements were common, with more than half of the dyads having 2–5 areas of disagreement. The following factors seemed to impact the level of student-field instructor agreement: the field instructor supervisory style, the quality of the student-field instructor relationship, field instructor comfort with addressing LGB development and practice issues, the student's perception of the agency climate as gay-friendly, and the student's level of disclosure and stage in coming out.

Key Words:

• Supervision
• lesbian and gay social workers
• field education