Exploring Field Work Practices in Social Work Educatio
Field work is a crucial aspect of social work education, offering students firsthand experience in social welfare agencies. Through organized visits, students gain insights into agency operations, funding sources, and program administration, preparing them for future field work placements. It is essential for students to approach these visits with a learning mindset, focusing on observation and understanding rather than critique. By documenting their experiences through reports, students can enhance their learning and communication skills, expanding their professional vision.
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Presentation Transcript
Field work, as generally understood, is a way to translate knowledge through certain skills and techniques into action. Field work is probably as old as history itself. Probably a primitive learner, a caveman had also to learn how to hunt in Field work situation. Learning by doing , has been thus the source of human acquisition which finds a ready support in the ideologies of Rousseau and Pestolozzi. Concept of 'Field work' given by M.N.Shrinivas is quite comprehensive and clear which says field work is on educationally planned and professionally guided programme of interaction of a student with the real situation experienced through. welfare, institutional, multi organizations and people based system in order to help him, Perceive understand appropriate existing human conditions and work to bring about designed improvement and change in them.
Problem System Process Function, Purpose & Goals Values Professional role Methods Communication
It is the practice of many schools of social work to begin the field work programme by organizing a serried of visits to social welfare agencies in the area. This is particularly useful to those students who never had an opportunity to visit similar agencies. Such visits will give to the student s concrete instances of social welfare programmes. During these visits they study the objectives of the agency, administration of programmes, sources of finance, areas of strength and weakness etc. and get a total picture of the institutions. This will particularly be helpful because some of these students are likely to be placed for field work in these agencies and this prior study and contact is very useful.
Whether in the course of such visits or during educational tours, the students should remember that they are neither, sightseers nor over seers. They are going into the agencies by the kind courtesy of the agency personnel, to study the working of these agencies as they are, and not as they should be. They should be able to learn by listening to people and observing closely but remember that their job is not that of inspectors, critics or advisors. If suggestions are asked for, realistic and practical ones may be given. It must be remembered that many of these agencies are functioning under various kinds of limitations and the visitors may be disappointed if one expects to find ideal conditions in all of them. The questions put to the agency personnel should be simple and straightforward and only to elicit needed information. They should not be cynical in approach or critical in tone. Well written and comprehensive reports on these visits will indicate how much one has been able to learn as a result of these visits. The agency visits will enlarge the breadth of their vision while report writing will develop the facility of expression.
Many organizations feel that it is a burden for the professional engaged, as they have to spend time and energy for the learning of the students from the educational institutes. The agencies have adopted the people centered movements leaving aside the method-centered practice in social work, thereby resulting in mismatch in the process of fieldwork needs of the institute of learning.
*The process of liberalization, privatization and globalization has placed the clients, groups and communities in vulnerable situation increased unemployment, underemployment in this poverty stricken country where management of social services has to depend a lot on the government and funding agencies curtailing the grants for people centered development projects. *Some organizations take fieldwork placement of students as an invited encroachment to the field of their work and avoid or refuse such placement. *Considering the proximity and availability of professional organizations the institutes has a very few choice of fieldwork agencies for placement of students.
