Field Education in Social Work

Abstract

Understanding the neoliberal restructuring of social services cannot be outside the implications of these processes for field education in social work. The neoliberal agenda creates contradictions in field education as the site where the service sector and the academy come together, where critical synergies can be realized or jeopardized. From the critical activist stance of ourselves, and our school, we recognize and seek to resist the neoliberal control of social work settings and the practices therein. Recognizing that many schools of social work practice an agency based model of field education, we examine the limits of this approach, suggesting a shift towards a community issue based model is necessary to maintaining a commitment to preparing and supporting critical activist practitioners.

Keywords

• activist practice
• field education
• neoliberalism